FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 54 - How Can We Change the World- Part 20

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Hello ladies. We are continuing our series on “How Do We Change the World.” We’re still on No. 15, which is, WORKING WILLINGLY AS WE SERVE THE LORD. It’s always doing something a little bit beyond the normal. We have 25 different points about the way we are to work. We are relating this of course to our homes because we’re wives and mothers. Some of us are young mothers, some middling, some older mothers. We all have to have the same attitudes toward work.

God is the one who instituted work. He shows us how he wants us to do it. I have found 25 different adjectives of how we are to work in our homes. We’re up to number sixteen.

No. 16. RELYING ON GOD

We can’t do it in our own strength, and I know that you’ve found that out. Our own strength runs out, but praise the Lord, we can enter into His strength because His strength is renewed day by day. Every day He gives us new strength. I love that Scripture back in Deuteronomy 33:25 which says: “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” In other words, for each new day you will get your strength. God doesn’t give enough for tomorrow. He gives you enough for today. So if you’re getting through today, praise the Lord! Don’t worry about tomorrow. Because tomorrow, God will give you strength again for that day.

In John 15:5 it says: “Without me ye can do nothing.”

In Philippians 4:13, you all know this Scripture: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And so, we can rely on His strength for each new day and that’s how you get through. That was how I got through in the early days of my mothering when I had three little babies under seventeen months, then I had four under four, and more later. But in those early days, with so many little ones all around me, I didn’t ever do anything extra in those days. I just got through just looking after and making sure they were fed and nurtured, and we ate.

God strengthened me for each new day even though there were times when my tiredness was overwhelming, but God always got me through and He will get you through too as you trust in Him, as you rely on Him.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Isaiah 26:3-4 which says: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:” God’s strength never runs out, dear precious mothers. It’s everlasting. This is the strength which you enter into, the strength on which you rely, this is the strength which gets you through each new day. His everlasting strength. Amen.

Well the next point, number seventeen, is to work thankfully.

No. 17. WORK THANKFULLY

Colossians 3:17 says: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” And so we do everything with a spirit of thankfulness. Now that’s a new attitude to get into, isn’t it? Because sometimes we go around doing things with a grumbling attitude, groaning and complaining, “Poor me, and I don’t know why I have to do the same old thing as yesterday. I never have time to do what I want to do. I’ve just got to do this to keep this home running, keep these children alive.”

But no, that’s not the attitude. Let’s do everything with thankfulness, dear ladies, thankfulness. So, as we have a thankful spirit, that’s going to ripple onto our children and they will begin to have a thankful spirit about doing their chores, about everything in life. I believe it’s so important to have this thankful attitude.

Sometime back I was reading in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Now I’ve often told you about the word, abundant. That word, in the New Testament, it means “to super abound, to be excessive, abundant, exceed, over and above, more than is necessary,” and we find this very word in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand plus—hat was five thousand men, plus whoever else was there.

And you remember how Jesus got them all to sit down? Isn’t that interesting? You know that every single point in the Bible is important. There is not one little word that we gloss over. The other morning in our worship service we sang the words, “I don’t want to miss one word You speak.” It comes from a beautiful worship song. I can’t remember any of the other lines. That line just got to me. And I just keep praying that line. “Oh God, I don’t want to miss one word you speak.” I want to hear what God is saying to me. And when I read the Word, I don’t want to gloss over it, I don’t want to just, oh well I’ve got to read my Bible. No! I want to read EVERY WORD, so that every word speaks to me. I don’t want to miss one word. And so even in the stories in the Bible there are words, there are messages, there are principles in every story.

When Jesus asks the disciples “What have you got?” and they say: “Five loaves and two fishes” and then before Jesus broke the bread and gave them the food, the Bible tells us that He . . .  He didn’t just tell them . . .  the Bible says that He COMMANDED the disciples to COMMAND the people to sit down. They had to sit down in groups. And Jesus didn’t feed them, just oh well, here’s the food everybody and they’re all just mingling around, you know, doing whatever they want to do. No. Jesus got them all . . . ALL . . . ALL, that’s the word that’s used, ALL. there wasn’t one standing up. There wasn’t one just doing what they thought they’d like to do. Everyone was seated. They were being prepared to receive the food. When they were seated, then Jesus broke the bread and gave them to the disciples and they just kept feeding the people and feeding them and the food just multiplied, and everyone was fed.

Now this is the principle, ladies, for our homes. I believe that it is important to SIT FOR OUR MEALS. To sit as we eat. And of course the Bible is always correct because now there are scientific studies done which show that if you eat on the run, you eat standing up, you eat while you’re working, and you don’t really think about your food and half the time you hardly know you’ve eaten, that you don’t get the nutrition, you don’t get the goodness out of that food, unless you are seated. And the more that you sit and fellowship and talk together as you eat, the more nourishment you’re going to get from your food.

There is a principle in the Word of God about sitting to eat. We can pick it up in the Old Testament too, but I won’t go into that today. I want to remind you, lovely mothers, to make sure your children come and sit for the meal. Don’t, “Okay, children. Here it is! Just come and get it” and they walk around eating, or they just go to their room and take it and just sit in front of their social media. No, no, no. That’s not how we eat. Eating is for fellowship at the same time. It’s for nutrition of course. We’re going to get so much more if we sit.

Make sure your children sit at the table. That’s why we have a table. God designed tables. God had a table in his heavenly kingdom before we ever had them on earth. When Jesus was talking to His disciples He said: “I want you to come and sit with me at my table, in my kingdom.” (Check out Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:29; and 22:29, 30). He talked to His disciples about the table that is in His heavenly kingdom. God loves tables.

The picture He gives of a family that is blessed of the Lord is in Psalm 128:3 (TLB): “Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they SIT AROUND THE DINNER TABLE as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees.” Where are they? Just running around, getting up and down from the table? No, sitting around the table. Now I know it takes time to establish your children into the habit of sitting, because little ones, they want to get up and they want to do this, and they want to do that.

No, you gradually train them to sit at the table and to stay seated while you not only eat food for your body, but you eat food for your soul and your spirit, and we have the reading of the word. Like in Holland, the people there, they call family worship or family devotions “Finishing up the meal” because they won’t leave the table, that’s the godly families, they don’t leave the table before they have finished. That is, you eat food for your body, but then you must eat food for your soul and your spirit before you get up.

We little by little train our children to sit, to sit to eat. I have people often living in our home and I can see that, okay, they’re used to maybe just walking around eating their lunch and they’ll get lunch and start sort of wandering around or just standing up. I’ll say, “Hey, there’s a chair there. Come on, let’s sit together. Because you are going to get so much more out of your food if you will sit to eat.” Anyway, that’s not my story for today. But Jesus got them seated before He gave them to eat.

Then we know that after they’d all eaten and they were all FILLED, because that’s the word the Bible used. They were filled. They weren’t half empty, feeling like they needed more. No, they were filled. But then Jesus told them to go and pick up all that was left over, Oh, I like that too. Jesus didn’t like wasted food. No, He didn’t just let them, well it was obvious, they even left food. There was more than they needed, because that’s what Jesus does. He’s always MORE THAN IS NEEDED. And He gave them more than they needed. It wasn’t to be left around. It wasn’t to be just left over. Jesus told them: “Go and pick up that which is leftover.” They picked up twelve basketfuls.

And what does the Bible say? They FILLED UP TWELVE BASKETS FULL THAT REMAINED OVER AND ABOVE.” That’s the word in my King James Bible in John 6:13. And that word over and above is perisseuo, that same word that we’re always talking about that means “abundant, superabundant, more than is necessary, exceeding, over and above.” And here it is, “over and above.” It was more than they needed. That word is also used in Colossians 2:7 where it tells us that we are to “ABOUND in thanksgiving.” The same word as “over and above.” Some translations say: “Overflowing in gratitude.” Same word. It means “not just the normal.”

Isn’t that what we’re talking about, ladies? We’re not ever going to be the normal status quo. No, we’re over and above! We go beyond. And here it is again, the same word. Same word that’s used for thankfulness. Abound. Over and above in thankfulness. When Jesus told them to pick up the leftovers, over and above. Twelve basketfuls!

Now, the little challenge I have for you, darling ladies, is this: how big is your thankfulness? How much is it over and above the ordinary? Because that’s the meaning. Over and above. Ok, they picked up twelve basketfuls over and above.

How many basketfuls, over and above, do you have in the spirit and attitude of thankfulness each day? Are you kind of just barely there? Oh well, okay, well you know. Actually you’re not very thankful all day. But come on ladies, we can’t be normal like the normal person who’s usually grumbling and complaining and we’re not only just to be thankful, but to be over and above. Now actually, being over and above is a little bit psycho. Now are you one of those you don’t want to be psycho? You don’t want to be thought you’re a bit different. Come on, this is Bible language. We’ll never change the world being ordinary. Come on, if you really want your home to be filled with joy, thankfulness, children that are filled with happiness and joy, a husband that’s filled with joy, a home that just overflows, everybody that comes in feels that spirit of joy, well, you can’t be ordinary. You’ve got to go over and above!

How many basketfuls are you going over and above? How many times do you thank your husband for just going out each day and providing for you and working hard for you so you can be home with your children? Do you remember to thank him? When he does some little thing for you, do you thank him? We take so much for granted, don’t we? We take one another for granted. Let’s not do that. Come on, let’s be the “over and above” people. Let’s get a few basketfuls, you know, gathering up a few more basketfuls. And so, become someone who’s always thanking, remembering to thank your husband for the little things he does for you.

Thank your children when they do your chores. Now, we have to, we expect them to do their chores and do them cheerfully. But when they do, don’t take it for granted, thank them.

“Thank you so much for doing that.”

“Thank you for doing the dishes, I so appreciate it.”

“Thank you for your lovely joyful spirit.”

“Thank you for helping your brother with doing that job.”

Thank you, thank you, we’re just thanking all the time. We get into the habit of thanking. We thank anybody who does anything for us. We thank our children. We thank our husband. It becomes a way of life to be constantly thanking, or as the Bible says, it doesn’t just say constantly thanking, it says ABOUNDING, being OVER AND ABOVE in thanking.

I remember once when a missionary family came to stay with us and they were getting to know all our family, they got to know the Johnsons. Just go through the trees a couple of minutes and there they are. That’s Evangeline and her family. Their children have been trained to be thankful and when they are saying “thank you,” they don’t just say “Oh, thank you.” They always say, “Thank you sooooooooo much!” In fact, that is a typical phrase from a Johnson. “Thank you soooooooooo much!” and they will say that just for the very ordinary things of life. When it comes to birthday time or Christmas time and its present time and each one is giving a present each one will give the other a hug and say, “Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much!”

Anyway, this family really cottoned onto it. It was a real challenge to them. They thought, “Wow, we’ve got to do this in our family.” And so they all began to become more thankful than they ever were before. It was rather interesting. When they were leaving our place and they all had their heads and their hands out the window waving goodbye and they all put their heads out and yelled, “Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much!” They were kind of moving up their basketfuls into maybe seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, have you ever got to that much?

Anyway, I do believe that we need to become a more thankful people, don’t you? Even when we’re working. “Well, praise the Lord! We’ve got all these dishes to wash. My, look at all the food that we filled on these plates, hallelujah, thank you, Lord!”

Well, the other day, I posted, one of my posts on Facebook, because every day I send out a message to encourage wives and mothers. I hope you get it. I’m not a fan of having Facebook to waste your life, but I do use it to bless others and I hope I can bless you. If you want to be encouraged and blessed each day you can go to my Above Rubies Facebook.

I think I told you about it on another podcast, but I was talking in one post about how important it is to start the day with a cheery word and a cheery attitude. I think it is so important as our children come to the kitchen each morning from their bedrooms to get them into the habit of saying, “Good morning, Mummy” or whoever is in the kitchen. And, of course, we will have that same attitude and “Good morning, Bubby! Oh I love you and welcome to another wonderful day we’re going to have together.” And it’s so important to just have this cheery spirit. Especially as we start the day.

I was writing in this post about a family I was talking to and they were telling about their teenager who comes out in the mornings with a very sour face and just mumbles and doesn’t really, you know, want to be very happy. The father was very concerned, and I was saying, “No, you can’t let that go on. You need to encourage her to give a cheery “good morning.” It’s not because, because I know the daughter, she’s a very beautiful girl and very social and she gets on with all of her friends. She’s the most social being, it’s not that she has any problems at all. She has a very lovely life and is very well cared for. It’s just a habit that teenagers can get into.

Well, we shouldn’t ever let them get into it because we should establish the habit when our children are little, but why I am telling you this is because I was very surprised. Because I always get a lot of feedback and lots of mothers were blessed by this encouragement post on Facebook, but there were a couple of ladies who answered negatively. I was surprised at how many ladies liked their negativity.

It actually does concern me. I really want to speak into it while I’m on this podcast and while we’re talking about being thankful and about having a “TWELVE BASKETSFUL thankfulness mentality” and a joyful mentality. Let me just share some of my thoughts. One lady said, “Rather than my sharing about fake cheerfulness . . . ” (Well, I wasn’t sharing about fake cheerfulness. I was sharing about a good habit that we should establish in our homes. Now it is true, that there will be times when maybe one of our children are not feeling well or they are going through a difficult time) and this little reply went on to say, “It is more important to raise children that are in touch with their souls and emotions enough to help others because they’ve healed themselves. I think we should put down this a perfectionism.”

But no, I don’t really agree with that. Ok, there’s two sides here. Yes, if a child has a problem, physically or even emotionally, now, as a mother we’re going to discern that. This is a different thing than establishing a habit of everyone beginning the day cheerfully with a thankful and joyful spirit. If our children are in this habit and they come out in the morning, we will notice if there is something really wrong. You can tell the difference, goodness me. You don’t have to be a mother for very long. Well, I have been mothering for how many years, fifty-five years. You know when there is a real problem. You have discernment to know if your child is sick or if your child is going through something that is very difficult and challenging. You know the difference between that and just a sour, morbid face. Just because really, they can’t be bothered. Teenagers can get into this. Yet they can go out with their friends and they’re happy as a bird.

We can’t allow them to show that kind of emotion at home. Getting in touch with your soul and your emotions . . . can you give me a Scripture where it tells us to do that? Have you actually read a Scripture where it says, “Now I want you to be in touch with your soul and your emotions”?

No. I actually have not found a Scripture in the Word of God that says that. In fact Jesus said, and these are the words of Jesus, He said, “If any man will come after me let him deny himself.” Deny? Deny what? “Deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And that word “deny” means “to refuse oneself, to give up oneself.” That means, there are times when we have to give up the negative. We have to give up our self-pity. We have to deny it. Because, let’s face it, dear ladies, the easiest thing in the world is to get into negativity. To get into a self-pity party. To get into a mood. If we let our feelings and our thoughts go, they usually go to negativity. They go to thoughts of ourselves. They go to “poor me” and how things are affecting me. It’s all about me. Most people who are thinking about their soul and emotions and are in touch with their soul and their emotions, really all they’re thinking about is me. It’s a me mentality.

I don’t believe that we should foster that at all because it‘s not Bible and it is not for their ultimate blessing. Now of course we’ll discern if there is a real problem and then we will minister to them and of course we will be ministering to them not to stay in that, how to get out of it. We’re teaching our children how to live in victory. Most of the world does not live in victory! Most mothers are not living in victory and in triumph over their problems, over their challenges, over the difficulties they face. They’re under them because they’re so called in touch with their feelings and emotions.

Look, the worst way to live is according to your feelings. Feelings come, feelings go, feelings are not really true. They usually tend to the negative. We need to deny those negative feelings because they don’t bless us, and they don’t bless anyone around us at all. In fact if we go, let me go back to that passage in Matthew, Matthew 16:21-24. If we go back a little before the words that I read, and it says here:

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” I used to read those words and think, “Oh, they are so strong. How could Jesus turn to Peter and tell him to get behind Him?”

Oh that was so powerful. Goodness me, but I had to think about it more and realize that Jesus was seeing beyond the flesh. Peter had such a good heart. Why did Peter say those words? Because He did not want Jesus to go through suffering. He did not want Jesus to be killed. “No Jesus, that can’t happen to you!” But Jesus knew the will of God. Jesus knew the Father’s will. Jesus knew that He had to go the way of suffering. He knew that that temptation was not coming from Peter himself, but it was a temptation to Him from Satan himself. He had to rebuke that negative thing that was against the word of God. He had to speak so strongly, not so much to Peter, but that spirit in him.

Actually, this passage helps us to understand, often many mother-daughter relationships. Especially, I’m talking about married daughters, maybe, you know, you’re finding it difficult too, when you have a child that you’re scared to tell your mother. She doesn’t want you to have another baby. It’s so sad that many older parents today have been so brainwashed by society that they don’t understand themselves the blessing of many children and they think, “Oh my, one or two is enough for my daughter. If she has any more, she might, you know, oh goodness, she won’t be able to do this or that. Maybe she’ll have more sleepless nights. I just want what’s best for her. I just want this lovely life for her. I don’t want her to have any more children.”

Maybe that’s what your mother or mother-in-law is saying to you. Dear mother, they are saying these words in ignorance. They don’t really know what they’re saying. They’re not savoring the words of God. They are savoring the things of men. They don’t really understand God’s perfect will. God’s perfect will is not always the way that’s the easiest way. It’s the way of truth. It’s the way that God has planned. It may take more hardship. It may take more suffering, but it’s the way that God has for us. It’s the way of glory. Because the way of suffering is the way of glory.

Anyway, I just want to encourage you if you do have, you know, a mother who’s so anti your having children. You have to understand that it’s just because she doesn’t understand God’s ultimate plans. But you can keep on knowing you are in the will of God.

It goes on to say, what we’re talking about is denying ourselves. Denying our fleshly attitudes. You know all of us can feel lousy. It’s so easy to just feel depressed and oh, I know myself, I could be the most down in the dumps depressed person if I gave into my thoughts and my feelings. But no, the word of the Lord tells us that we are to “gird up the loins of our minds” (1 Peter 1;13). We are to take into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We’re living by God’s truth and not by our feelings. And so therefore, ladies, it is important to teach our children, yes, it’s not a fake cheerfulness. No. When we teach our children to come out in the morning and to say, “Good morning, Mummy and Daddy!” and to have a smile on their face, that’s not fake. That’s teaching them what is right.

What you do with your facial attitudes and your body, it changes the way you are inside. You put a smile on your face. You speak positively and cheerfully. It changes you on the inside. Ok, you may not have felt like doing it, but you do it by faith because it’s the right thing to do. Christ who dwells within you doesn’t go around with a sour face. He doesn’t go around down in the dumps. No! He is filled with joy. He is joy. He is peace. He is thankfulness. He is all that we need, and He lives within us and we’re either going to live according to our flesh and give into the negative, horrible, fleshly feelings and thoughts or we’re going to live according to the truth of the word of God. We’re going to teach our children that from the very beginning.

I do believe, you know, it is true. There is something that I learned, going along in my life. Most people only have a certain amount of emotion that they can cope with. If we turn all that emotion onto ourselves, it is a negative lifestyle. It’s not only negative to us, but negative to our husband, our children, and everyone around us. I do believe that we have to give room in our souls and in our hearts for others. Have you got that, ladies? So many times we can be prone for just keeping it all for ourselves. All my thoughts and all my feelings are for myself. No! If you live that way, you’re going to live a miserable life.

No, we’ve got to give room for others. I often ask, “Lord God, help me to have room in my heart and soul for the needs of others.” I remember one time I was walking over the threshold of my home carrying my groceries. I had just been out to the supermarket and the Lord spoke to me. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how God speaks in very mundane circumstances? And these words came so powerfully, I’ve never forgotten them. “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you are always thinking about yourself?”

You see, we’ve to give room in our hearts for others. We give room in our hearts for our husband, our children, others around us who have needs. Let’s have big hearts for others. Not those who, “we’re in touch with our souls and emotions or our feelings and our negative thoughts.” No. We’re going to train our children not to live that way. But to live for God, live for others. What did Jesus say again? Yes, let’s go read it in another passage because it’s in all the gospels. That was in Matthew. OK, let’s read it in Mark, Mark 8:34, 35: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

We don’t find our lives by just trying to look after little me. We find our lives by pouring our lives out for others. We teach our children this lifestyle. This lifestyle of cheerfulness and joyfulness and thankfulness. We seek, by the grace of God, to be those that have a “TWELVE BASKETSFUL mentality” of thankfulness and joyfulness. How many baskets do you have, dear ladies? Remember it’s the same word, perisseuo, OVER AND ABOVE, twelve basketfuls. Same word that’s used for that food that was picked up. It’s the same word for overflowing, abounding, over and above in thankfulness.

Prayer:

“Lord God, we thank You so much for your word because Your Word brings us to how You want us to live. It takes us from the negative. It takes us from depression. It takes us from our feelings. And You bring us up, Lord to another plane, a higher plane. Lord, we don’t want to live in this low plane in our feelings, we want to live, Lord above. We want to live and overcome above our circumstances and our challenges and our difficulties and everything we face. So we ask that You help us, and You’ll bring us into this lifestyle personally and teaching our families and our children. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

P.S. The song I mentioned above is “I’m Listening “ by Chris McClarney.

I don’t want to miss one word You speak,

Cause everything You say is life to me,

I don’t want to miss one word You speak,

Quiet my heart, I’m listening.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 53 - How Can We Change the World- Part 19

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, we are gradually getting through all the different attitudes that God tells us about working in our homes. We are up to number 13, and there's two that go together here, lovingly and laboringly.

No. 13. WE ARE TO WORK LOVINGLY AND LABORINGLY

Now, they seem opposite, don't they? Let's look at some Scriptures.

Galatians 5:13: “By love, serve one another.” We see how these two words go together. If  we love, we will serve. That's part of love. When we serve, if we do it with the right attitude, we are showing our love. Love and laboring are twins; they go together. I love looking out for twins in the Bible. There's lots of twins that go together; God couples them together.

1 Thessalonians 1:3: “Your love has meant hard work.” There we see these twins again together, love and hard work. Sometimes, you feel as though you're working so hard in your home and all it is, is work, work, work, serve, serve, serve, and often, you do the same thing you did yesterday, you have to do it again today. Everything gets in such a mess and clean, clean, clean again. Well, darling ladies, as you serve, as you work hard in your home, you're revealing your love to your family, to your children and even to God. He sees your hard work, and He sees it as love.

Don't do it with a grudging spirit. Do it with a joyful spirit, do it with a spirit that says, “I'm so blessed to serve,” and you will find that it will make all the difference.

Hebrews 6:10 says: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.” Notice that phrase, “labor of love.” Have you noticed before that they are coupled together? Labor and love, it goes together.

Don't despise hard work. It's part of loving your husband; it's part of loving your family. The wonderful thing is it also brings reward. Let's keep reading. “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward His name in that you have ministered to the saints and you do minister.” That word “minister” just means to serve, serve the saints. Now, Paul is writing, or the writer of Hebrews is writing and saying, God's been noticing. He's not going to forget your work, your labor of love because you've been serving the saints, and you're still serving the saints. He says you have showed it toward God's name.

When we do this, we are doing it as unto the Lord. When you're working hard in your family, in your home, to keep your home right, to keep your home running smoothly, to manage your home, it takes a lot to manage a home, especially as your home grows. You start with a little baby but then another one comes along, and then maybe another one, and often you have more and more children, and more and more things happening. Because the more children, the more things happening, and the more things going on in the home, and there's more and more to manage. To run a home efficiently and smoothly it takes management and hard work. We're not just doing it because we have to, we are doing it as unto the name of the Lord. God says that He doesn't forget. He's not going to forget it. Darling ladies, He does not forget your work in your home. 1 Thessalonians 1:3. I have quoted that verse; I gave you the J. B. Phillip's translation. Here is another translation: “Your labor of love, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” One translation talks about “the slavery of love.” It all goes together. Lovely ladies, please don't despise hard work. It's all part of your loving, the labor of love.

I noticed a most wonderful Scripture the other morning as I was reading, and it's in the book of Ruth. Actually, I was doing a study on marriage and all the different Hebrew meanings of the word “cleave.” Some time I will talk you through that study because it is so powerful, and there are ten different words to describe that word “cleave” in the Hebrew.

One of the words that is used, that is translated in the King James Bible is where Boaz said to Ruth, “Abide here, my daughter.” Most other translations say: “Stay here close, keep close, stay here.” Let me read you this whole Scripture. “Then Boaz said to Ruth, 'Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one but stay here close by my maids.'” When I read that Scripture, I got a wonderful understanding. Of course, it was spoken to Ruth. This is the wonderful thing about the Scriptures, all the stories about the people, yes, they relate, they're about that person or they are about Israel. They are practically talking about something that happened, but the Word of God is alive, and everything that is written is written for our example. It tells us that in 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11. Every word relates to us personally, and I believe that this is a prophetic Scripture for mothers in the home.

Listen to it again, lovely ladies. Listen as God speaks to you, for this is His Word, and it's His Word speaking to you personally. “Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one.” You see, lovely ladies, God wants you to glean in your field, in the home that He has given you. He has blessed you with a home. Maybe it's just a little tiny home, or a big home, it doesn't matter. It's your home where you can make a place for God. It's your home where you can make a lovely place for your husband. It's your home where you make it a beautiful place for your children, to raise your children, to nurture your children, to teach your children. God wants you to work in your home and to glean in your home. In fact, you will glean a harvest, but He doesn't want you to go to another field. No, and he continues, “But stay here close, stay close in your own home. Glean in your own field.”

As you do that my lovely mothers, you will be blessed, and God will bless you just as Ruth was blessed. She obeyed that command of Boaz, and she stayed in that field. She worked hard in that field, and she stayed there. Maybe other fields looked more tempting, maybe there was more to glean over there in those other fields. Maybe they had a lot more for her to pick up to take home to Naomi. But no, he said, stay here in this field, so we have to learn to be content.

Don't look at some other field. Sometimes you look out and think, “Oh goodness me, I should be out there in the workforce; I've got these lovely gifts, and I should be using them.” Lovely ladies, this is where God has you at this present time. This is His will, and this is where He wants you to learn and to work, so embrace it. Don't go to another field, don't leave the one God has given you. When you leave the one God has given you, you move out from His blessings. You stay in the one God has given you, you maybe don't think you are getting a lot out of it at this time, but you will; the reward is coming. God is not unrighteous to see your work and labor of love. God beholds. God watches. God rewards. He rewards our labor of love. He rewards us as we stay in this field, in the place, in the domain, in the home God has given to us. God has given it to you so don't go looking somewhere else. Amen? I was so blessed as I read that. Lovely ladies, enjoy your loving and laboring. Amen?

Let's go to the next one.

No. 14. WE ARE TO WORK MIGHTILY

Have you noticed it never tells us just to work? There's always an adjective. This one is Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” I'm sure that you have given your children this memory verse to learn. I gave it to my children when they were very young. I was always reminding them, “Whatever you do, do it mightily, do it with all your heart.” Perhaps if you haven't given this memory verse to your children yet, you could give it to them this week. It's a good one for them to have it in their hearts. Then, when they are doing a chore, and they're just meandering around and doing it so slowly, “Come on children, remember, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Let me see those muscles! Show them to me.”

Come on, teach your children how to work hard. It saddens my heart to see children growing up who don't know how to work. Work is part of life. God gave the institution of work before the fall because it's a part of man's life; it's a part of who He is. He wants us to do it with all our might, and when our children see us working with all our might instead of doing things slowly and grumblingly, they see us doing them joyfully and with all our might, they are going to get that same understanding. When your children are doing the dishes, teach them to do it right.

I have watched people do the dishes, and I have to actually walk away. They take so long, and they wash one dish and put it into the rinsing water and then put it on the rack. I can't believe the slowness. I like to get stuck in and get those dishes done in just a few minutes. We should teach our children how to get stuck in. Yes, get stuck in. That's a good phrase. I believe that's so important to teach our children.

NO. 15. NEVER GIVING UP UNTIL YOU FINISH

That's a  good part of working, isn't it? It's so easy to begin a job and then we flake out.

Zechariah 4:9 says: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it.” That was talking about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem when they came back from Babylon, but it talks here about starting and finishing.

Jesus also finished his work. In John 4: 34 Jesus said: “My meat, my food is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.” His prayer in John 17:4, Jesus said: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” This is also a very important part of working. I know it's easy to start something with a hiss and roar and then as time goes on, we kind of lose the enthusiasm. I know this even with my doing Above Rubies. It's a magazine, which I trust you all get. If you don't get the magazine, Above Rubies, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I'd be happy to mail you some copies. I've been doing this magazine now for over 41 years.

I remember when I started. I had such a burden. In fact, it was one of the greatest burdens that came upon me in my whole life. I couldn't not do it. I had to do it. It was something that just came upon me. I knew that I had to get out this magazine that would keep coming to encourage women, encourage them in their marriages, in their motherhood and in their home life. I look back, and I think, wow, how come God chose me? I wasn't the right person; I didn't even know how to do it. I hadn't any experience in journalism. I didn't know how to put a magazine together. Who was I? I wasn't any great mother, but God put it in me. I obeyed. Of course, as it came upon me, I had great vision. I never thought of the future, I just got started, started with a hiss and roar.

Actually, I only started with printing 1500 copies. Even that seemed enormous at the time. I remember my husband saying to me, “Don't come back on me financially; we've got enough bills.” Because I felt to make it by donation, so I went ahead in faith and printed this first magazine. I had no clue what would happen to it. I couldn't even imagine, but I sent it out to a few people. I was speaking at a Ladies’ Convention, and I shared it and went back home to my children. I began to get letters from the top of New Zealand to the bottom. People writing in, “Thank you, I got your magazine, thank you for strengthening me in my convictions as a wife and mother.” They sent a donation. I was able to pay the printers. Hallelujah. Well, the next issue, the second one, I printed 5,000 copies. The next issue, the third issue, I printed 25,000 copies. In three years, in little New Zealand, I was printing 100, 000 copies. They were going out across the land. It was unbelievable. God was touching hearts and bringing mothers back to the home. It was a God thing. It wasn't easy, and it grew, and then we moved to Australia and established it there, and then another ten years after we moved to the States and we've been here now for 28 years now.

I have kept plodding on. They often say that when you get a vision, it's one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. The only reason Above Rubies keeps coming to you today is that I keep plodding on. I have never ever given up for all these over 41 years. It actually takes most of life, apart from all my family life. I do it as a labor of love. We've been talking about the “labor of love” which are twins, and Above Rubies is a “labor of love.” My husband and I have never taken any finance from Above Rubies. All that comes in for the magazine, for the books, for everything, goes to print the next issue of Above Rubies, which costs over 60,000 dollars to print and send out. That's why you're still waiting for the next issue, and I'm still waiting for the money to come in. Pray for a miracle. When the money comes in, I will print the next issue.

With anything, we have to keep working at it until the end. I plan to keep going. It's the same, of course, with the greatest institutions in life which are marriage and motherhood. God wants us to keep going to the end. I love Ecclesiastes 7:8 which says: “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning there of.” Ladies, it's not so much how we start, although it's good to have a good start, but it's how we end. Even if you haven't had a good start, you can still have a great end. Did you know that?

I want to encourage you today. Maybe you didn't get a good start in your marriage; that doesn't matter. With the help of God, the One who designed marriage, as you and your husband submit to His ways and to one another and begin to love and serve one another instead of yourselves, God is able to do beautiful things in your marriage because He designed it. He wants you to be blessed. He wants it to be so beautiful. Even if you had a rocky start, you can keep going so that it becomes better all the time. You talk to couples who have been married for years and years and years, like us. My husband and I have been married for 56 years. When you get to this stage, what is the testimony? My testimony is that marriage gets better and better every year. Our marriage today is much more beautiful than when we started. I could hardly even compare it. Don't despair. You have many years left. If you are willing and open to God to work, He can do glorious and beautiful things, and He can make your marriage greater and greater. You begin as a failure and end as a victor.

You can do that also in motherhood. Yes, maybe even in motherhood you didn't have a very good beginning. You started out and you didn't know what you were doing. I think many mothers, unless they've been raised in a big family and they've had babies coming on and they are used to babies around them. It's such a blessing for children to grow up in a big family. Because older children have babies around them, they learn to mother, the sons learn to father. They're ready for marriage. They're ready to face the whole thing of marriage and motherhood and fatherhood, but there are so many who grow up in a two-child family and right through their middling and teen years, they've never even had anything to do with a baby. I mean, there's not a baby in the house. None of their friends have babies, and they get married, and they've been trained and conditioned and brainwashed in feminism and humanism and their career is more important than motherhood.

They get married, and they conceive, and a baby is coming. Help! They don't know what to do. They're overwhelmed. They have no experience; they have no one to help them. When this baby comes, they love this baby because every parent loves their baby, but they still don't love motherhood, so they have this confusion going on in their head and goodness me, it's pretty hopeless. I mean, I even started off with all that confusion because I didn't understand about motherhood what I understand today, and God had to teach me along the way. I thought I was meant to be out there doing many other things, changing the world, not cooped up in this little house with a baby and then suddenly three children under 17 months because I had twins, and then I had four under four, and here I was with all these screaming babies around me.

God had to show me that I was in His perfect will, and I was doing the most powerful thing that He had intended me to do. I didn't start off knowing it all. In fact, I was clueless about so much. I had to learn as I went along. I think you have to too. You didn't start off well but darling ladies, even if you started as a failure (I've failed in so many ways), you can end a victor as you press on in God, and you learn His ways and you seek to do it His way. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning there of.” Don't worry if you messed it up in the beginning. Don't worry if you were a failure. Press on. Press on to the victor's crown. Press on to the end. You will make it. Amen?

Not only did Jesus finish His work, but Paul did too. Let's read about Paul. In Acts 20:24 it says: “But none of these things move me.” What were those things? All the things that he was facing and had faced and was going to face, prison and afflictions, so many things: “Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.”

What is the ministry you've received of the Lord Jesus? It's your motherhood. If God has given you children, that's it. If He's given you children, this is the ministry He has given you to do. He doesn't give them to you to give to somebody else to look after. He gives them to you, not only to care for and nurture but to train and to prepare for life and to prepare for their marriages one day. You've got this wonderful ministry, and you're going to do it. You're going to finish it. In 2 Timothy 4:7, he says: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

We are going to look at three different F's in this Scripture. The first one:

1)    Paul FOUGHT the good fight.

We are certainly in a fight for our families in our nation today, aren't we? Family is God's idea and the enemy is out to destroy it. Because motherhood is God's ultimate plan for women, the devil hates it, and he wants to destroy it. In this hour of history, we face a fierce fight. Feminism, humanism, the media, and public education have brainwashed the majority of women to think that motherhood is insignificant and not worthy of their time.

But because we know this is deception, we will not be tempted.

We will not be wooed.

We will stand against the tide.

We will not give in.

We will fight the good fight.

We will stand up for motherhood.

We will stand on the side of life. We not only have to fight for our own motherhood today, in the midst of a deceived society, but we have to fight for life in society.

We've got to fight for the family.

We've got to stand up for the family, for motherhood, for marriage, for a marriage between a male and female.

We will stand against same sex marriage.

We will stand against abortion because we stand for life.

Nehemiah 4:14 says when they were building on the wall, Nehemiah came back from Babylon to help them build up the wall and to rebuild the gates of Jerusalem, and they had enemies around them trying to stop them build. When we build for God, the enemy always gets upset.

You are a builder, mother, in your home.

You're building a family.

You’re building a marriage.

You’re building a godly generation.

You’re building into the eternal realm.

You're a builder, and the enemy doesn't like it because he wants women who will not be builders but those who will be foolish and who will let their families weaken and fragment.

We are those who stand strong.

We cement our family ties; we make them strong.

We build the family, but we will have enemies. They'll all be around us and Nehemiah said to those building on the wall: “Be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible and fight. Fight for your brethren, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, fight for your wives and your houses.”

Yes, lovely ladies, we have to fight today for our future generations. We have to fight for our children growing up in our homes for when they get married and have children because we are in such a fight in this nation because there is a huge section now of this nation who want to take this nation down a course of socialism. How they can even think of such a thing. It's only because they are brainwashed by our professors and liberal colleges today and our liberal high schools. They are being brainwashed and victimized and propagandized to believe all these lies, and these young people are growing up thinking that socialism is something good.

We only have to look at history, we only have to look at current events of what is happening in Venezuela. That's socialism. We have to fight this. We must stand and fight. We must stand for truth. No matter what. Don't crawl into your shell. Always stand up and speak boldly for truth. We fight the good fight.

2)    Paul FINISHED the race

Paul finished the race. He said that. That was his confession. “I have finished the race.” He would not give up until he finished. Mothers, we are also in a race. Well, we're not racing, but we are plodding on. We are in this race till the end.

I love to talk about the Four Watches of Motherhood, the first, second, third and fourth watch. Maybe some time I'll get to tell you all about them. Sadly, there are many mothers who walk out on the fourth watch. That's when their children have grown and now there are no children left in the home, and they think, “Wow, I've finished motherhood. This is my time that I can go off and go on cruises and do whatever I like.” In fact, earlier this year, Colin and I went on a cruise. We were so blessed. Our daughter Pearly and her husband, Charlie paid for a cruise for us for a Christmas present. We did enjoy this lovely cruise, but we were so amazed to see a different lifestyle as we spoke to many couples, and many of them were older couples, and we would say to them, “Is this your first cruise, like it was for us? They would say “No, this is our 52^nd cruise or something like that.” Just about every ne had been on so many cruises. This was their lifestyle, to go from one cruise to the other because all their children were all grown and had left the nest, but that's not actually biblical. I'm sure it's lovely to go on a cruise every now and then, but God has given a mandate to older women to teach and encourage the younger women. We don't give up motherhood just because our children have grown.

In fact, if we have been raising a family, we will already be beginning to have grandchildren. There should never even be an empty nest. The way God has planned it is that we have children, if God happens to bless us this way, until we reach menopause. If you have a child and you're trusting the Lord and by the time you get to about 45 or so and no more children are coming along, you may have a daughter in her twenties who is getting married and having a baby. You have a grandchild, so you have grandchildren coming around, and you have all these other mothers who need your encouragement and help. This nation is lacking; it is void of older mothers teaching the young mothers. We've got to finish our race to the end.

3)    Paul was FAITHFUL to the end

The third F: Paul was faithful to the end. He remained faithful. He fought the good fight, number one, he finished the race, number two, and three, he was faithful to the end. Three F's in one Scripture, but time has come to the end again, so we will pray.

 

“Dear Father, we pray that You will help us to be those who don't give up halfway through or even three quarters of the way through or even nearing the finishing tape. Help us to be those who last the journey, who keep plodding on. Give us that tenacity, give us that enduring spirit, give us that plodding spirit to keep on, knowing we are walking in Your will.

Lord God, I pray for precious wives and mothers who've had difficult starts, Lord who've had a difficult time in their early years of marriage, in their starting motherhood. Dear Father, I thank You that You never leave us where we are. Give them hope today, to know, Lord, that You will lead them on. You want to take them to all Your blessings. You want them to end the race a victor. Oh God, I pray that You will, Lord, cause everyone who started in failure to end in victory. Those, Lord, who maybe feel overwhelmed, but Lord, you will help them to end overcomers. Lord, I ask this in the name of Jesus’ Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 52 - How Can We Change the World- Part 18

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies, Well today is Memorial Day, and it also happens to be my birthday. Anyway, because it was my birthday and it was Memorial Day, some of my family cajoled me to come kayaking.

So I’ve just come back from the creek. We went for a beautiful kayak down the creek with Sam and Serene, my son, Rock, and Erin and Mark Harrison. (Erin is the one I do the weekly talk show with. Some of you may have listened to, or actually watched that). We had such a beautiful time! The others are actually still out there on the creek, but I had to get back because we had to record so you can get this message in the morning.

So here we are today with you, and I’ve also got my lovely little granddaughter sitting next to me. Her name is Georgia Sky. Do you want to say hello to the ladies, Georgia?

Georgia Campbell: Yes! Hello. Oh hi! This is me, Georgia.

NC: Now, Georgia, before you run away, would you like to say a little word to mummies? You are a little girl, but I think you could say a little word to mummies to bless them. What would you like to say to mummies looking after their children?

GC: DON’T LEAVE YOUR FAMILY!

NC: Yes, that’s very important, isn’t it? So, you think the most important thing is for mummies to be home with their children? Yes, she’s nodding her head.  Well, Georgia, maybe you could say a little poem to the ladies before you go. Do you remember “I had a Little Pony”?

GC: Yes!

NC: Okay, you say it!

GC: I had a little pony,

His name was Dapple Grey,

I lent him to a lady,

To ride a mile away.
She whipped him, she slashed him,
She rode him through the mire;
I would not lend my pony now,
For all the lady's hire.

NC: Good girl!

GC: Good-bye, mothers!

NC: Okay, that was little Georgia who is 6 years old.

Well, we didn’t finish what we were talking about last time and we are up to point number 12, working joyfully in our homes.

We’ve just got started on it and we’ve found that the Hebrew word for “joyful” in Psalm 113:9: “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.”

We’ve found that that word is sameach in the Hebrew, and it’s exactly the same word that is used in Proverbs 15:13: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.”

And Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”

This same word, sameach, is used to describe parties, feasting, and festivals. There’s another place where it’s used, and I was most interested to read this. It’s in 1 Kings chapter one and we read about this in verses 39 and 40 (HCSB) and it says: “Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound.”

Did you hear that? The Word of God actually says that they were rejoicing so loudly, so powerfully that the earth split open. That’s unbelievable!

Well, is it really true? Well, I thought I should check it out and look up what is says in the Hebrew. And yes, the Hebrew word is baqa and it literally means “split open.” Yes, SPLIT OPEN. It’s the word that’s usually used to describe and earthquake. Now, I don’t know whether they were using an exaggeration but, it shows the intensity of their joy. This is the exact same word that is used for the joy of motherhood.

Are you—getting this, ladies? Joy that is so joyful, so full of happiness and rejoicing that it can split the earth open! Have you even got a little bit of that joy? I mean, I think that some mothers don’t even have any joy at all.

In fact, I hear most mothers complaining, groaning, and grumbling, and my, if you look at their face—help! Their faces look so forlorn, frowning, so boring. I have to admit, it actually makes me sad when I look at a mother and she’s got this boring or frowning face on, and I think, “Oh, her poor children! They have to look at this face.”

Because, you know, our children do become what they look at. They become like the countenance on our face. I believe we should have a joyful face.

But how do we do it? I know some of you are saying. “Well, I just don’t feel joyful. In fact, how do you expect me to be joyful when all I do is wipe snotty noses, cook meals all day, and run after children. I’m not doing anything I want to do!”

But dear precious ladies, I want to remind you: You are doing the greatest career in the nation. You are forming precious souls who will affect this world and you are preparing them for eternity. Your work is an eternal work. You are in the very perfect will of God.

I want you to remember that: you’re in His will, and if God has so graciously given you a little baby, given you children, little ones, middling ones, big ones, He gave you these children, you didn’t suddenly get them from nowhere, God gave them to you! And when God has given them to you, this is the career He’s given to you— to nurture and train them. You are in His will. You are doing a mighty work.

I don’t think there is anything more joyful than to be in the will of God, to do what you were born for. You, as a mother, who were created to give birth from your womb, to nurse babies from your breast, to have that anointing of nurturing in you to love, nurture, and train your children. It’s in you. This is the career God gives you. So what are you doing? Are you complaining about it? No, embrace it!

Now when you embrace it, something happens. Then you begin to walk in the joy. We have to learn how to walk in the joy, ladies. You have to learn how to do it and it starts with your confession.  Your confession is so powerful. Your confession determines how you feel. Your confession determines your actions. Your confession will determine your attitude. Your confession will determine the atmosphere of your home.

I guess even I fall short of realizing the power of our confession. Even Jesus shows us this. He says, This is how we are saved, and this is how we are converted. It says in Romans 10:9, 10 that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved. It’s not enough to believe in your heart. You have to confess with your mouth and when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are saved, and something happens inside you. Spiritual things happen and you are born again.

Spiritual things happen when you confess the truth. This is how we begin our Christian life, and this is how we continue.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” it says in Colossians 2:6. So we continue believing and confessing.

This is how we walk our motherhood—by confessing. You see, the devil plays on our minds. He’s always trying to put on our mind these negative thoughts, these self-pitying, downgrading, grumbling, “poor me” thoughts. Oh goodness me, we can all succumb to them if we allow the enemy his way. But we have to get into the habit of not allowing him his way at all. We have to resist and rebuke these thoughts in the name of Jesus.

The greatest way to do it is to confess the truth because when you confess the truth it negates these negative thoughts because your confession is more powerful than your thoughts. Your confession is what can make your thoughts what they should be.

So you don’t allow your negative thought life to come up and overwhelm you. Instead, you take hold of yourself by faith and in the name of Jesus you confess the truth and as you confess the truth it will have power over your thoughts and bring them into alignment. This is victorious living. And this is how we learn to live in joy.

When you wake up each morning, even if you may have even had a lousy night, children woke you, or the baby was awake the whole night, and you can just give in to the whole dilemma, “Poor me, how am I going to get through this day, I’ve hardly had any sleep. How am I going to do it?”

Don’t worry.

Why am I saying that? Because, I can remember doing that as a young mother until God began to show me how to live. We have to pull ourselves up. We have to gird up the loins of our mind and begin our confession.

When you wake in the morning, begin the day: “Father, I thank You that You are with me. I thank You that You are Joy. You are my joy and I am filled with joy. I thank You that I am a joyful mother.”

And then just confess: “I love being a mother! I’m the most joyful mother in my city! I’m going to be the most joyful mother in my city today! I just love being here in my home! I love mothering my children!”

You might not feel like saying that, and you may say, “Well how can I say that when I don’t even feel like it?” No, don’t you listen to your feelings. Don’t listen to those negative thoughts. You speak out the truth. You speak out the Word of the Lord. God says He makes us a joyful mother.

So you can confess, “I am a joyful mother! I love mothering my children!” And as you speak these words it will begin to change your thought life, change your attitude, and then, of course, it changes the atmosphere of your home, and it changes your children and their behavior.

Instead of going out to the breakfast table and you’re wiping your eyes and you haven’t even got dressed, you’re still in your dressing gown, and you’re barely coping—you go out and you’re speaking positively: “Good morning, children! How are you? Oh, I love you children! I love being your mother! We’re going to have the most exciting day together!”

This is how you speak. You speak these words of faith. You speak this confession. It will change you and it will change your day, and you will become a joyful mother of children. This is what God intends you to be—a joyful mother.

Yes, I do think it is so important how we start the day.

If we have little ones, middling ones, bigger ones— yes, older mothers, are you listening? We have to watch this with our older children, with our teens. I was with a couple recently and they have a teenager, a very lovely girl. I love her, a beautiful girl. I think she’s about 16. But the father said to me, “Oh, I am concerned. I am wondering if there is something wrong because when she comes out in the morning, she doesn’t even want to say, ‘Good morning.’ She just hardly speaks.”

The mother piped up and said, “Well, she’s most probably just tired.”

I said, “Just a minute. Oh no, you can’t allow that excuse.”

You can’t allow your children to come out of their bedrooms into the kitchen, where everybody is, with a negative, downcast attitude, when they can’t even open their mouth and say, “Good morning everyone!”

I believe that when we get up and each one comes in the kitchen that they should all begin by saying a cheery good morning. “Good morning!” in a cheery, wonderful, joyful way, and a “Good morning” to each person. That is the least that we can do. And if your children are not doing it, you better start training them. In fact, you should be training them when they are just little toddlers, so they get into that habit. It is a habit of their lives.

But, if they’re getting out of it when they are teens, you’re going to make sure they get back into the habit. Because, dear ladies, our home life is the greatest training for their future lives, for their success in life, for their future marriage.

We can’t let any bad attitudes go. We have to deal with them, because we are responsible to prepare them for their marriage. If teens who are not far off from marriage and they are getting older, they should be preparing to have attitudes that they will carry on into their marriage. If they can’t even open their mouths and say “Good morning” to anybody, what will they do when they’re married?

If they don’t feel very happy, they’re just going to be all groaning. Goodness! That is the least we can do to our spouse, to give a cheery “Good morning!” and “I love you!”

That should be a part of life! It starts the day right. It starts the atmosphere of the home right. We should be doing it as a wife. Of course we’re going to be doing it as a mother, to every child as they get up say, “Good morning, Susie! Good morning, Jack! Oh, how wonderful just to see you again! Let me give you a big hug! Did you have a good sleep? Aren’t we going to have a wonderful day together?”

How you start the day is so powerful. Some of you might be saying, “Oh, that’s just all over the top.”

No it’s not. Unless you want to be a boring mother, who will not affect any lives, except affect your family negatively. We are on the theme of “How do We Change the World?” It’s joyful mothers, not mothers, JOYFUL mothers who will change the world. We are training children who will come out of our homes to change the world. And children who don’t even know how to say, “Good morning” and just come with this frowning face, that’s not preparing children to change the world for Jesus.

Come on now, it’s not ordinary people who change the world.

We’ve been talking about these adjectives which go beyond the average, go beyond the normal. They are aboundingly and over the top and more than is necessary. This is how we have to be. This is normal. The other is abnormal.

Also, when we go out into society, how are you showing yourself? Do people see you as a joyful mother? I think this is so important. Every time you go out into the supermarket, or go out somewhere, remember, go out as a joyful mother.

Let me tell you— the world, the feminists, the humanists, the progressives— they have nothing to say against the joyful mother. What can they say? When they see a mother who is so filled with joy, embracing children, and loving it— they have no argument! You destroy their arguments!

So when you get out and all your children are getting out of your van and someone looks at you and says, “Wow, are all these children yours?” What do you do? Do you just kind of crawl into your little shell? Of do you lift up your head, put a smile on your face and say, “Yes! Yes, and we love children, don’t you?”

Put it back on them. What are they going to say? “No, I don’t.” They would be embarrassed to say that. Well why did they ask you such a stupid question? Of course you love children because God loves children!

Or you may like to say, “Yes, these children are the joy of our hearts! I am so blessed to be their mother!” with a big smile on your face.

Sometimes people will say, “Oh, you’ve got your hands full.” Well, put a big smile on your face and say, “Yes, of course my hands are full! They’re full of blessings, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Or if somebody says, “Are you going to have any more?’ you could just give them one back and say, “Well, it is conceivable!”

Always be ready with a cheerful answer because, dear mothers, it is joyful mothers who will change the world. And God has made you to be a joyful mother. This is the adjective He put with motherhood. Amen?

Oh, I just pray that we are going to have all these wonderful joyful mothers.

I just read the other day; I wonder if you noticed it? It was a recent research, called, “The Ties that Bind: is Faith a Global Force for Good or Ill in the Family?” It was conducted in 11 different countries by the World Values Survey and the Family Gender Survey. Then the New York Times published it and they got such a backlash from the feminists because they found that— wait for it— 73% of wives who hold conservative gender values and attend religious services regularly with their husbands have high quality marriages.

They found that highly religious couples have high quality relationships together and more sexual satisfaction together, compared to less mixed religious couples and secular couples.

There’s a graph that also showed that religious couples have more children than couples who rarely or never attend worship services, and parents with four or more children were happier and had more satisfaction in their lives.

Those were the statistics from 11 different countries. Well the liberalists didn’t like that at all, and they all were going on so crazily. But, of course, it’s true— when we do things God’s way, we’re going to have His blessings.

One of His blessings is happiness. Yes! God is the One who ordained marriage. He ordained a one-flesh marriage where we’re glued together. That’s what the Word means when it says, “joined together.” The word is glued. Glued. You’re glued together. You’re made one.

That’s why it says in Matthew 19:6: “For they are no longer two, but one.”

It’s interesting, the other day, my young grandson was talking to me, and he said, “Nana, you know how they call married couples, ‘couples’?”

“Yes,” I said.

Well he said, “A couple means two, doesn’t it?”

I said, “Yes, that’s right.”

But he said, “Well, aren’t they meant to be one when they get married?”

I said, “Why, yes, of course, Harry, you are right. In fact, you are more correct than saying a couple because God says that when He makes a marriage (and it’s God who does it . . . ‘What God has put together.’”

Did you notice that? What GOD has put together. It’s not man putting it together, God put’s it together. When God puts a husband and wife together and they are married in the eyes of God, something happens. Something spiritual happens. I believe that in the spiritual realm, God glues that couple together. Yes, we are to have a one-flesh marriage, physically.

But there’s something even more powerful. We’re glued together in soul and spirit. There’s a spiritual gluing together and that’s why it says in the Scriptures, in Matthew 19:6: “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

Well, that’s King James language. Other translations say: “No man must split apart” or

Now, I thought about this when I was reading this very Scripture this morning. I thought, “Wow, that’s an amazing picture because it’s not that they’re just going to sort of gradually fall apart. No! The picture that God gives is that no man must pull them apart. See, they’re glued.  And when something is glued together, you’ve really got to pull it apart, or tear it apart, or split it apart to make them come apart. That’s the power of the spiritual thing that happens when we are married in the eyes of God.

That’s why it is so sad to see so many couples today just living together. They’re not married in the eyes of God; therefore they’re living in adultery and fornication. They’re not married, they don’t have God’s blessing. If anyone is in this situation, I would encourage you, get married in the eyes of God because there’s something powerful that happens.

Of course, God planned this, and because He planned it, He plans us to live in joy and happiness.

We know that there are so many marriages that are not happy. Oh goodness me, they’re falling apart everywhere and being pulled apart everywhere! But when we do it God’s way— oh!

We’re living in a society of so much selfishness. In fact, we’re raising children today who are not being prepared for marriage because we’re raising them selfishly. We’re raising them with an entitlement mentality.

Children go to town and they see something, “Mummy, I want that! Can I have that?” and they start throwing a tantrum. Just to keep the peace the mother will buy that for them. That is the pits! What are you doing? When we do that with our children, oh my, we’re just getting them in to the habit that whenever they see something, they should have it.

I became aware of a little girl, who, every time her daddy came home from work, she expected a little prize or gift. If she didn’t get it, she would be so upset and pout and get into a state.

I said to her, “Oh, we don’t ever do that. Did you know  your greatest gift when your daddy comes home is your Daddy! He’s your best gift! He doesn’t have to bring you anything because he brings himself. You can be so, so happy that your daddy has come, because sometimes some daddies don’t come home and you are so, so blessed.”

And this darling little girl, she got the message, and she changed, and she was just so happy that her daddy came. Of course her daddy can bring her a special prize every now and then. But it shouldn’t be something that is expected.

We just have to watch the way we train our children that they don’t get into an entitlement mentality. That they don’t think that the world revolves around them, and that we don’t allow them to become selfish because they take those traits into their marriage so that the spouse, maybe both spouses, wants their own way. And if they don’t get their own way, well then, that’s it, we’re finished.

No. Marriage, like everything in life, like motherhood, even anything you want to do successfully, you’ve got to lay down your life. You’ve got to sacrifice. It’s what life is all about. It’s not me, me, me.

I think, oftentimes many mothers who are out in their careers, they’re leaving their children in daycares and they hardly see their children at all during the day. Often, they can just subconsciously have that guilt and they make up for it to their children with things. Giving them things— letting them have this, letting them have their way. But that is the worst they can do because these kind of things, they get into the habit of expecting them and it carries on into their marriage.

We have to watch that in training our children. Because God’s way for marriage, when we do it His way, when we lay down our lives to serve our husband, to do it with joy, we begin to reap the joy and the happiness that God intends for us.

Why is it in these statistics that the majority of wives who have conservative values and go to worship service regularly are the ones with the most blessed marriages? It is because they are obviously learning God’s ways of laying down their lives, and that this is the way we live, and to serve is to ultimately be blessed your self.

And so as we learn God’s ways we come into the joy, of course motherhood, yes, we’ve been talking about the joyful mother. When we embrace motherhood that’s when we embrace the joy of motherhood.

Let’s go to Deuteronomy. That’s an amazing Scripture. In Deuteronomy 6 it talks about the home and how we are to diligently hear God’s words, embrace them, get them into our heart and not only get them into our heart, but into our mouths. Then we’re to diligently teach them to our children in the context of the home—when we’re sitting down, when we’re walking about, when we’re lying down, just in every aspect of life.  We read that in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

But did you know that it repeats it again in Deuteronomy chapter 11?

 In verses 21-23 it talks about diligently teaching your children throughout the day and in the course of life “that your days may be multiplied and the days of your children, AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON THE EARTH” (verse 21).

Isn’t that amazing? Don’t you love that? When we do it His way, when we embrace God’s Word for ourselves, and we want to put it into practice in our lives, and we just want to pour it into our children’s lives, we want to fill them with His principles and every aspect of life. And we begin to bring Heaven into our home, God says: “This is the blessing: your home, the days of your life, will be as the days of Heaven upon the earth.”

That’s the description of home life. That’s the description of what God intends it to be.

It carries on: “For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the  Lord  your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the  Lord  drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves” (Deuteronomy 11:22-23).

You see all the wonderful blessings that come to us, but I think the greatest blessing is that beautiful, beautiful description, “As the days of heaven upon the earth.”

Lovely mothers, this is what we seek to do in our homes— to make our homes just like a little bit of Heaven on earth.

Now we can do that. God can help us do this as we have this vision in our hearts.

Jeremiah 6:6 says: ” Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. “

Isn’t that beautiful?

If you want the good way, what do you do? You seek after the old paths. Those are the original paths what God gave in the very beginning. The revelation God gave of marriage and motherhood. He gave it in the beginning, and it has never changed. We are now living in 2019 and it hasn’t changed. God’s Word has not changed. It’s the old path, but it’s the good way.

And when we walk that way, we’ll find rest. Rest. Not just lying down on the sofa. No, you haven’t got time to do that when you have all your little ones around you. No, you’re working hard, you feel overwhelmed sometimes, but even in the midst of all the chaos and everything that’s happening you can have rest deep down in your soul.

Yes, this is not a rest when you can put your feet up, although we love it when we can maybe get a little moment to do that. Oh that’s just a special blessing. But this is rest in your soul. Just the same as Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me . . .and ye shall find rest unto your souls . . ..”

That’s a deeper rest. That’s right down in your soul. Even when everything else is like a tempest on top all around you, you’ve got that rest in your soul because you have taken His yoke, you’re learning His ways.

But time is up. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, We thank You that You are the Giver of good things. You give us the good way. You’ve shown us the good way. It’s the way that brings rest to our souls, joy into our hearts and, Lord, brings a little taste of Heaven on earth.

“Lord God, help us all to embrace Your ways. Lord God, to seek after them, and as we seek after them, Lord, we seek to just make them part of our home. We pray that You will help us to truly live as the days of Heaven upon earth.

“Bless every precious mother and daughter today. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, so wonderful to be with you again today. I'm looking out the window; it's a beautiful spring day here in Tennessee. The leaves are such a rich green. I love the awakening of spring, don't you? I love it when the Bradford pears first appear in all their white glory. Then the daffodils come out, and then the beautiful pink blossoms, and then we have the red buds here in Tennessee. I love them. Then we have the dogwoods. We have lots of dogwoods around our property, and they're so beautiful. Now, all the blossoms have gone and now we have this beautiful fullness of the green trees.

Of course, it’s gardening time as well. I'm a bit behind in my gardening this year. I seem to have so many things going in the spring, and I didn't get my garden in at the right time. I'm working on it this month, the month of May. I hope to have it all in this week. I already planted 107 tomato plants, and I planted my peppers and planted lots of other things, but I still have got some beds I haven't finished yet, so I've got to finish them.

I have 13 raised beds, big long raised beds, so I have a big garden and every season I look out at my garden that's waiting to be done and I think, how am I going to do it? Such a big job. Not just planting, that's easy. It's getting the beds ready and getting all the stuff into the soil we need to get in because, really, your vegetables are only as good as your soil. Gradually, we've got it going, and we are getting it in again, and I am always so glad that I make the effort because then we can go out and harvest every day. It's so wonderful.

Anyway, back to talking about your home and about motherhood because that's what this podcast is all about. It's about encouraging you as a wife and as a mother. This encouragement is so needed in this hour in which we are living. I was talking to the folks who were around our breakfast table this morning because we always have extra people with us, and I was sharing with them what it was like when I was growing up as a child in a little town in New Zealand.

Down the street where I lived, I can remember going off to school each day with my friends. We would all walk to school. A few of the children would bike to school but most of us walked. We walked over a mile. We all walked to school and often we would walk back for lunch (although often we would take a cut lunch) and then we would walk home again.

Most of the folks down our street were secular people; they weren't Christians. I think we were the only real committed Christians in our street, but all the families had the same values. Even though they were secular, they still had these Christian values that were still there in our culture. All the mothers were at home. They were there making their homes a wonderful place. They were there for their children when they got home from school. They were there to have a meal on the table as their husbands came home from all their various careers and jobs that they did in the township.

It was a beautiful, lovely way to live, but I look back and see how different it is now, how quickly our culture has eroded. It would be difficult to go into any town today and go down a street and find every mother in the home, every mother enjoying being in the home, happy with her children, happy to be in the home, happy to cook and home-make, and it was the normal thing.

A woman, a mother, a wife in the home would not even think of anything else but having a meal ready for her husband when he walked in the door. That was the number one thing. You did that, and you never thought anything of it; that was part of life. Now today it's such a different story.

Maybe you live in a street and perhaps you are the only one in your whole street that is home looking after your children. I can remember that when we moved to Australia from New Zealand. I remember the street we lived in, well we lived in two or three different streets, in different homes at that time but in all the streets that I lived in, I don't remember any other Christian homes. I don't remember any other homes where the mother was at home. They would all get up each day, get into their business clothes and off they'd go. The cars would drive out with the mothers and the children, dropping them off here and there and the husbands, and all the homes were empty, except mine which was filled with children and filled with people, and filled with those who we would ask into our home. It was a hub—a hub where everything was happening, and it was such an exciting place.

Most of the ladies must have wondered, “What's that lady doing in her home?” They didn't understand what I was doing. They didn't even know the power of what I was doing. They were dropping off their children at day cares and school. My children were in my home. I was raising them and preparing them for their destiny, and I was fulfilling the greatest career that any woman could have.

I want to encourage you again today. I would like to read you something that I read in a book I was reading recently, and it shows you the agenda of what is happening in our society and what you are facing today as a wife and a mother. This happened 50 years ago. This person writes:

“It was 1969 and she took me to a meeting at her friend’s place.

“At a consciousness raising (an idea imported from Mao’s China), twelve women gathered at a large table. They opened with a type of Litany from the Catholic Church. But this time it was Marxism, the church of the Left.”

In a moment, I'm going to read to you how they started off that meeting. Very interesting that twelve women gathered around that table and from that table, you will see how they have changed the world, how they have made it what it is today.

Then I think back further, I think back to the disciples. Actually, most of the disciples were rather young when Jesus called them. Maybe I'll do a podcast on that one day and tell you all the reasons why I believe that most of them were even teenagers when Jesus called them to be his students and his disciples. After the resurrection, it tells us in Acts that these young men were the people who turned the world upside down, such was their impact.

Here we see twelve women who also impacted the world in a negative way.

“The meeting started. . . .

“Why are we here today?” the chairwoman asked. “To make revolution,” they answered.

“What kind of revolution?” she replied. “The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted.

“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?” she demanded.

“By destroying the American family!” they answered.

“How do we destroy the family?” she came back.

“By destroying the American Patriarch,” they cried exuberantly.

“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she probed.

“By taking away his power!” “How do we do that?”

“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted. “How can we destroy monogamy?”

“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, abortion and homosexuality!” they resounded.

The book says: “Such antics might seem insignificant except for the fact that these women achieved all of their goals.”

Now, we are facing a society where the patriarch is demeaned, where they have sought to destroy the American family, starting with the patriarch, starting with the man. It is an interesting thing that whenever I have been asked to do an interview on TV or with some Talk Show, especially secular, there is one of the questions they never fail to ask and that is, “What about patriarchy?” They have this concept of the man who is lording over his family, and they're all little servants who bow to his every word, and this is the concept that they have promoted.

Of course, we still have so many great men, men of courage and strength, but there are so many today who are not. They are wimps. They have been put down by the feminist agenda. There are so many men today who just go along with it. They are scared to stand against it; they go along with it. They go along with these women standing up for their rights and it’s ridiculous. They are no longer men. Goodness me. God didn't create two males or two females. He created a male and a female. He wants men to be men and to stand up and be who they are, the loving protectors and providers of their homes. Patriarchy is a beautiful thing in God. In God, it's a safety to the nation and a protection to society.

Many demean motherhood and take the mother out of the home. Two things that they cannot stand, one is motherhood, the other is virginity. They seek to rob every young person of their beautiful, God-given pure virginity and then they want to rob women of motherhood, which is the greatest career God has given to her because dear precious mother, you were created in the image of God to reveal His nurturing heart. This is who you are as a woman. God created you to love being in your home. Now, if somehow you don't feel really happy, you love your children but you feel pulled in all these different directions and you're not really happy in your home, well, let me tell you something, let me tell you the bottom line. You are deceived. You have been victimized by our feminist, socialist, humanist agenda that wants to woo you out of the home and out of the role that God intends for you.

Because you have all this pressure on you, and all this victimization, and all this propaganda, your mind is filled with that and you think, “I'm just wasting away here in my home.” No, that's not the truth. We have to know the truth, and I'm here to encourage you in the truth because the truth sets you free. When you really get down to bed rocks and get rid of all this agenda and all this stuff that's being poured into you, and you get down to who you really are, you find there's nothing you love more than being in your home, nothing you love more than being a mother with these precious children around you. THIS IS THE TRUE LIFE!

Now, I'd better get on to where we are up to. We are still talking about “How do we change the world?” This is an amazing subject. As I've been talking with you for a few weeks, we have been finding that even at home, even as a mother, we have the power to change the world. The point that we are still talking about, point number 15, is in our homes we are going to SERVE THE LORD WILLINGLY. Not just, “Here I am in my home, as a mother in my home, having to work in my home. I better just do it. It's a duty.”

No, not doing it as a duty but doing it as a delight. Not just doing it because we have to get the job done because no one else will do it for us but doing it willingly. We've been looking at all the different ways that God wants us, how He wants us to work in our homes. The last one WAS No. 10. IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD.  

Today, number 11, it says that when we work, how do we work? Your husband, wherever he's working, has to have the same attitude. We are working in our homes, so these are the attitudes that we are to have. Each one of these attitudes that I'm giving you are all in the Word of God and showing us the attitudes that He wants us to have toward working. How many do we have? 25 different attitudes that are mentioned in the Bible on how God wants us to work. It's so good to see them. The Word of God is so wonderful, ladies. It doesn't leave anything out. It's all there for us. It shows us how God wants us to work. He gives all the adjectives; they are all there. It's good for us to know them, isn't it? We are up to . . .

No. 11. IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS

Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatsoever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” This Scripture relates to every part of our lives. No matter where we are, what we do, or what we are saying. It relates to our husbands. It relates to us in our homes because we've got to relate it to where we are.

When I read the Word of God, I read it as though God is speaking to me personally. He's speaking to me as who I am and who He has called me to be. He has called me, commissioned me, to be a mother, so I read it as a mother. I read it personally. He says to me, “Nancy, whatever you do, whatever words you speak, whatever action you do, I want you to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

This is for all of us. I have to confess dear ladies, oh goodness me, I'm not always perfect at doing this. I'm sure there are many things I don't do in the name of the Lord Jesus. That's why I need reminding and that's why I need to remind you. We all need reminding, don't we? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get into that habit?” We get up each morning and pray, “Lord Jesus, please help me today to say every word in Your name. That every word I say to my children, every word I say to my husband, I can say in the name of Jesus. I can put the name of Jesus to it.” Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that bring such a difference to our homes? Every action, everything we do and the way we do it in our homes, even when we are cooking meals and scrubbing floors and cleaning up messes after children and after cats and after this and after that, everybody who doesn't clean up after themselves. We do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, and it changes everything.

No. 12. JOYFULLY

God wants us to work joyfully. He wants us to do everything that we do, whatever it is—great things, little things, mundane things, happy things but to do all of them joyfully. Deuteronomy 28, you can read the passage again in verses 45-47 but this is the passage in the Bible, the Deuteronomy 28 passage which talks about all the blessings that will come upon us if we are obedient to the Lord and His commandments. I love those first few Scriptures in Deuteronomy 28 but then it goes on to all the curses if we are disobedient to God's ways.

Sadly, there are a lot more curses than there are blessings. I don't like reading them so much. It says here: “All these curses shall come upon you because you do not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart.” We are meant to serve the Lord joyfully. We're meant to work joyfully. Ladies, when we can get a hold of this, it not only changes our attitude, but it changes the attitude of our children. Do you find it hard to get your children to work? Do they groan and complain and it's terrible trying to get them to be happy doing their chores? Well, my lovely darling ladies, have they been watching your attitude? Because if they see its joy for you to work,  that you do it with joyfulness, and you're not complaining about it all, they are going to catch on to that too.

Let's have a look at a few more Scriptures here. I love Psalm 113:9 where it says: “He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”

It's interesting that the adjective, the most prominent adjective that is related to motherhood is JOY. God says here that He wants to make a mother a joyful mother. This word joyful is an amazing word. It's the Hebrew word, simcha, and it means “to be full of glee, to be merry-hearted.”

It's exactly the same word that is used in Proverbs 16:13: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.” Isn't that good, ladies? If we are merry and joyful in our hearts, it will be seen on our faces.

We show off who we are, don't we? There's a Scripture in Isaiah 3:9 that says: “The show of their countenance hath witness against them.” Our face shows what we are on the inside. If our eyes are bright and our mouth is smiling, and we have a happy disposition on our face, well, everyone knows that we have merry heart. Yet, I see so many women, so many others, where their faces are, I don't even like looking at them, not because they are not beautiful but because they look so boring and so frowning and so down in the mouth. You get depression looking at them. I don't know how their children survive if they look at this mother all day long, and she's got this sour face on her, and it's all down in the mouth and frowning, I mean, help, did you know our children actually grow into our likeness?”

I love that Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3:18 where it talks about how “We, beholding the Lord, we are changed into that same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.” As we spend time in the presence of the Lord, as we spend time in His Word, as we look to Him throughout the day instead of sighing and looking at all our problems and what we've got to do, we get into that habit of looking to Jesus, we will grow into His likeness. His glory will be upon us, and we will grow from glory to glory.

It's the same with our little children. They look at us, and if they see that we have a happy face, they see us smiling, they are going to get that same kind of face. If they see us frowning, well, you're going to have frowning, complaining children too.

Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” It's health. “But a broken spirit drieth the bones.” A merry heart with a happy face, with a smile on your face, brings health not only to you but to your children. I believe, mothers, we bring health to our homes, we bring health to our children. Have you noticed that in some families there is such a lot of sickness? I think that if we have a negative attitude and we are always talking about sickness, always talking negative things, and we're down in the mouth, and we've got a frown, and were always sighing, these are negative things and they bring it into the atmosphere in our home. They affect our children. The Bible is true. Let's get it, ladies. We read it and we just gloss over it but what does it say? “A merry heart does good like a medicine.”

The best medicine for your children is for your children to see you with a happy face, joyful, smiling, doing all the things you have to do with joy. They are seeing it. This affects not only their souls and spirits but their bodies. I believe you can have health in your children as you have happiness in your home. You may think I'm a bit weird, but as we raised our children, we never even had a doctor. We never had a family doctor the whole time we raised our children. Now, I do admit we often went to the emergency section at the hospital because children would break a bone or cut their leg, and they would do this and they would do that, and I'd have to go and get them stitches and get them this kind of thing. That's just a part of children growing up and boys especially. For goodness sake, they are always doing something to themselves; they were so adventurous.

Of course, there were times when the children were sick, yes, but we didn't go running often to the doctor. We were always able to minister to them. Another thing, the other day, someone was here, and they said, “Do you have a thermometer? I need one for my child.” I said, “Sorry, I don't have one.” Forgive me, ladies, because I've never owned a thermometer. Can you believe it? How did we survive?

Well, I raised all my six children and then we adopted four more, and I never had a thermometer. Oh yes, I know there were times when our children had temperatures, and I could just about tell. I could tell when they were normal. I could tell when they were about 100. I could tell when there were times that they got up to 103 or more, and wow, we had to look after them. You learn how to bring that temperature down. You can feel it. Sometimes, we get so use to having to use other things that we forget how to actually discern and feel ourselves. Y

ou know, it's like our society today, isn't it? I used to know all my families’ phone numbers. There are so many of them, and I always remembered them, all the numbers of my family and children and grandchildren and friends. Do you know? Now, I don't even know if I know a number? That's about all because I use my iPhone and say, “Call so and so, call so and so.” Isn't it disgusting? So lazy that my brain is no longer remembering numbers.

Now we use GPS, although I have to confess, my husband, he is so old school. He'll be 80 next year, and he never trusts the GPS. I'll have it going, and it says, go here. “I don't believe that.” He thinks he knows best. You know, he would always get out the map and check it all out, but now, we don't even know how to read maps because we just listen to GPS.

I think it's a bit like caring for our children. We've lost the art of being aware and understanding whether this is serious or no, that's fine, that's normal; we can cope with that. I believe we need to be able to do that as mothers. Anyway, I haven't finished about this joyful mother yet, and it's time to stop. We will get onto it next session.

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. There's nothing You leave out of Your Word. You show us everything in the way You wants us to live, and we thank You for this. I pray for every lovely mother listening today, grandmothers, teens, children. I pray Your blessing on each one of them. I pray, Father, that You will fill them with Your joy.

I pray, O God, that You will expose all the lies and deceptions that have come to them through our society and the education system and our media, everything that's around us, even in the church. Lord, we get this brainwashing but Lord, we do not want to be brainwashed by society. We want to be brainwashed by Your Word. That Your Word will fill us, Your Word will change us, Your Word will become flesh and blood in us. This is how we will live. I ask this for everyone listening today in the name of Jesus, Amen.”