LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 215: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 26

Allison Hartman is with me again, and we continue speaking about living in rest as a mother. That doesn't mean we are living easy, peaceful lives.  Allison and her husband Daniel run a photography business, plus Allison has new ideas and projects coming out of her brain every day.

Our home is continually overflowing with people. What does it really mean to live in rest? Allison also shares about her vision and purpose to raise productive children who know how to work hard! Her family are certainly a testimony. It is amazing what they accomplish.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today we’re going to carry on with another point about the land of motherhood.

No. 16. IT’S A LAND OF REST

This is going to be something beautiful to speak about. It’s another adventure in this land, as we walk through it to find all that there is in it.

And, I have Allison Hartman with me again today! Before we get on to it, there’s one or two things I’d like to ask you, Allison. Last week, remember? It was actually just a little while ago, but we send it out each week. I was asking you about, how do you take your children from your ceiling for it to be their floor?

I was thinking about MacKenna, your oldest daughter. In motherhood, and how when you started in motherhood, you were a lot like most of us. We didn’t know what we were doing. But because God began to show you, by the time MacKenna was ready to be married, she was going into motherhood with a far different understanding. Tell us about all that experience. How did you start? And then, how did MacKenna start?

Allison: I don’t think I even realized. I think if all mothers of larger families, if we listed our blessings and benefits of having a large family, I don’t even think that that would have been on my list. I don’t think I realized it until just recently. We talked last time about desiring our children’s floor to be our ceiling, meaning we want our children to start where we left off, instead of starting from scratch.

Talking about motherhood, when you have raised, MacKenna’s our oldest of eleven children. She just recently had her own baby. You’re right, it is so incredible to see how far advanced she was in the world of mothering. There weren’t many things that caught her off guard. Maybe a little bit with the nursing, breastfeeding. She had a little bit of trouble there because that is something that is truly, you have to experience yourself.

But other than that, she has gotten on so well with being a new mother, because she’s truly such a natural at it, because she’s done it. She has changed thousands of diapers. She has dealt with hundreds of discipline issues. We're a little bit different from some families, where our older children, we have given them a lot of authority. When we’re busy with our business, we’re self-employed. We give our children that permission to be our substitute when we’re not there. We give them a ton of responsibility.

RAISING ADULTS

So, when MacKenna got married, she completely could run a household, completely! Probably better than me! As a mother, she was so much more prepared. When I got married, I can truly say I had never made a pot of rice! I’d never done a load of laundry! I didn’t do a load of laundry until I was in college. I got married right after college.

The things that MacKenna and Eden and Hallie, our oldest three girls, they are all, even our 16, 14, 11, 8-year-old, are probably more ready for motherhood and fatherhood than Daniel and I were when we were 23 and 29. I mean, far better. Because we are not, I’ve always said I’m not raising children. I’m raising adults. I’m raising mothers and fathers. My job is, when they are 16, they’re ready to completely run a household and know how to do that, in and out. Trust that they can make a meal from beginning to end, they can . . .

Nancy: They’re the most wonderful cooks. So amazing. In fact, when did you last cook a meal?

Allison: Oh, oh, I don’t know! [laughter] I can’t even say, I don’t know. It’s probably been five years? I don’t cook! I don’t cook. My girls don’t want me in the kitchen because they’re such better cooks than I am. We have this fancy coffeemaker, and I don’t know how to use it. If they leave me, I just sit in my bed and cry.

Not completely, but the thing is, they have raised their younger siblings to take their place, because they are gone so much. Now Hallie’s getting married, and MacKenna’s married, so they have trained their replacements. Hallie has trained Anna Lee, who’s eight, so she can make me a complete, amazing cup of coffee that’s just like Hallie’s. The eight and eleven-year-old girls can make a complete meal, from beginning, all the way to cleaning up and having the house spotless, if they needed to. A lot of times they don’t have to do it by themselves completely because the older ones are still at home.

But that’s my goal, not that you want to be, because I’m not lazy. I work so much, but I do different things, and that is not my strength. I don’t enjoy cooking. I wasn’t taught. My mom was a great cook, but her thing was always, get out of the kitchen, get out of the kitchen. She never taught us how to cook.

Nancy: So, how did your girls become such creative wonderful cooks? Was it because of necessity? [laughter]

Allison: They were absolutely starving! No, they really did pick a lot of it up on their own. We started doing Trim Healthy Mama, probably, I don’t know, ten years ago. Every Sunday, we would get the recipe book out, and we would say, OK, let’s make something together. Of course, that meant they did it. I just watched. [laughter]

They would make it and it was incredible. Then they would make it again, and make something else, and make something else. Now they can literally cook just about anything. They can throw stuff together and not even follow a recipe.

Nancy: And they can cook for a great big party. Doesn’t matter how many people.

Allison: Oh, yes. We have people over. Sometimes we’ll have 200 people over, and Eden will cook for everybody. It doesn’t even stress her out! I get stressed out. They are so calm.

Nancy: Yes. But anyway, ladies, we’re talking today, and Allison will share with us too, about motherhood being a land of rest. Here we are, we were just laughing before we started this podcast, because when the Hartmans come, you never know what’s going to happen. Here we are, just all peaceful, and all of a sudden, OK! Daniel says, “We’re going to paint downstairs! Everything’s going to be moved.” Then the girls go to paint the kitchen cupboards, so the whole kitchen is turned around. We’re going to talk about, it is a land of rest. [laughter]

Allison: Well, you might need another guest. [laughter]

Nancy: No, the amazing thing is that rest is not inactivity.

Allison: Sleeping in your bed.

Nancy: No, rest is not inactivity. Jesus said, “My Father works, and I work.” God created us to work. He gave the principle of work before sin came into the world. It’s a funny thing. When I was a young girl, I used to think that work came after sin came into the world. We had to work because sin came in. But no, that is not true.

Allison: Oh, wow.

Nancy: God gave the principle of work before ever sin came in. When He put the man in the garden, He told him to work in it, and to guard it. Work was given as a principle at the very beginning, as soon as He created man. Work is necessary for our well-being. It’s necessary for a good night’s sleep. It’s necessary for creativity. Creativity comes out of work. You’re doing something. People are doing this, and “Oh, I can think of a better way of doing this.” They create something, or a better way. Everything comes out of work.

When the Bible also talks about living in rest, it’s not just, OK, I’m having a vacation for the rest of my life. No! It is a rest in our souls. We can be so busy. One man of God, he used to sign his letters . . .  we say, “Yours sincerely,” “Yours faithfully.” He would sign his letters “Restfully busy.”

Allison: Wow! I love that!

Nancy: Isn’t that lovely? “Restfully busy.” We can be busy. We can have everything happening around us. We can have chaos, and we can still have rest in our souls. That’s the rest that we are talking about.

Allison: I think that there is, as everything is, culture has tainted what God has planned. They have this thing where they’re putting into women, “You need time for self-care. You need time of rest.” When they say that, that means to do what? Veg. Do you know what that word, that phrase in America, we say, “You just veg on the couch.”

Nancy: I don’t even know that word.

Allison: You don’t even know that. You don’t even have that. So, to “veg on the couch” means you sit on the couch, you put your feet up, and you have a remote control in your hand. You sit, and you watch TV. You do nothing but sleep. That’s rest. That is what today’s culture, when they say, “You should rest, you should put your feet up, you should watch some TV, watch some movies. Do nothing. Sit and eat, and enjoy yourself.” That’s supposed to be it.

That is something that we don’t do well at our house. We are constantly busy. My goal is to be raising children that have such a wonderful work ethic. They’re never going to have to worry about how they’re going to afford to buy food for their family. You do see a lot of work ethic issues with children, especially some of them, because maybe they’ve been homeschooled, and they haven’t been diligent about deadlines, or doing what you’re supposed to.

Nancy: Can I say something there? I am such a great believer in homeschooling.

Allison: Oh, I am too.

Nancy: The thing is, I was a high school teacher, back in the days before I was married. But I cannot compare the school system then to what it is now. Parents have to be aware of what is happening in our schools now. The whole agenda is transgender. They want to bring it right from the very beginning. They’re seeking to bring this in and promote it.

They promote Islam. They promote alternative lifestyles. All this is promoted in our schools, our colleges, our places where they are determined to turn out socialist young people. It is ultra-socialism. We’ve got to bring our children out of this absolutely diabolical system that it’s become.

But there is a disadvantage, in that I notice there are many homeschoolers, who, as you mentioned, that word, they do not know how to keep to time and schedules and how to keep working. This is not everybody, but it can happen. They can do a little bit of schooling, and then they say, “Oh, well,” and lie down and read a book. Or “I’ll just do this,” or “I’ll do that.” They’re not really motivated in a strong work ethic. Now, of course, there’ll be many homes where they are, of course.

Allison: I’ve been amazed. I’ve had people come and stay with us for a weekend around family. I can’t even imagine. My children, they wouldn’t even try. But some of these families, their children, during the day, are on their phones, or watching TV. That, to me, is like another world.

My children know that they’re allowed to do school. They’re allowed to do Bible bee, or they’re allowed to do a project, or a house chore. Those are the only three things that are allowed. Or they can eat. They can get some food. But a lot of times I’ll say, “Eat while you’re working.” That’s something we need to do better. We need to take time to sit and rest and eat.

Nancy: That’s when you do. Now, it’s interesting, because God established the work ethic. He also does want us to live in a state of rest in our inner being, even in the midst of great busyness, and everything happening. But He also gives practical ways.

He gives the day of rest each week, which I cannot say I’ve been faithful in that all my life. I’ve been more of a workaholic. But I realized you can’t do better than God. God knows what is best. He knows what is right. We are meant to have one day of rest, although most people today have a whole weekend. God says, “Thou shalt work six days, and the seventh thou shalt rest.”

But also, He wants us to rest at mealtimes. Those are times when we’ve got to eat, but they’re meant to be times of rest, where we sit and we eat. But we take time to fellowship, and to discourse with one another.

I notice there’s a Scripture. I didn’t bring it with me, but I’m just remembering it now. Jesus had been praying for the people and healing the sick. They were all surrounded by people. Just imagine, if you were surrounded by people from morning to night, you’d be getting pretty, whoo! Would you be feeling very restful?

But Jesus said to His disciples, “Now come. We’ve got to eat. So let us go and find a place where we can sit and rest our souls.” Everything in the Word is there for our learning. It’s there as a principle. It’s there as a lifestyle. God puts His lifestyle there. (Scripture at end).

Allison: That’s something we talked about, learning from each other. Every time I’m here, I always enjoy watching you. You value mealtimes and that’s something I really have learned. My husband grew up with a single mom. So, mealtime was not fun. She would make maybe a pot of something, and it would stay out. You would serve yourself and then you went and sat in your room.

We have really valued, based on learning from your experience, and what you’ve taught us. We really do value and honor mealtimes, especially evening, because we are always busy during the day. But we really do. We’re not morning people. But we do, at dinnertime, we’re very faithful to that.

Nancy: That’s interesting, isn’t it? The day is for work. OK, but we take time to eat, especially the evening meal. It’s interesting. I’m thinking of it now. Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

When we look up that word “sup” in the Greek, it is the exact word for the chief evening meal of the day. That’s the chief meal of the day, when the family comes together, or whoever’s coming. The workday has ended, so we’re coming together to fellowship, and eat, and chat together.

That’s what God talks about when He comes into our lives. He says, “I want to come in and sup with you.” It’s the word “supper.” To sit at a meal and fellowship. He wants to fellowship with us. He even uses that description for when He comes into our lives to fellowship with us. That evening meal is a very important time of the day. “

Let’s look at a few Scriptures, and we’ll talk about them as we go. Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I often think of that as the first rest, because we go on to a second rest here.

The first rest is when we come to Jesus. We come with all our sins and mess of our lives. We ask His forgiveness, and we are forgiven and cleansed through the blood of Jesus. We’re born again. We find that rest of sins forgiven and guilt gone. How amazing!

But then it goes on to say that Jesus said: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” I think there’s even a greater rest than forgiveness even, because there’s a rest we have in our souls. We have that as we learn of Him. We learn of His ways and we learn His truths. As we come into them, it brings more and more rest into our souls, doesn’t it?

I think there’s a rest. This rest in motherhood, we’re talking about this land of motherhood as the land of rest. Well, you may be thinking, lovely young mum, “Help! I don’t feel restful at all! I’ve got children screaming. Oh, goodness me, I’m just overwhelmed with it all!”

JESUS IS YOUR REST

But, dear mothers, OK. Even when it’s all going haywire, and everything’s happening, you can have rest in your soul because Christ is your rest. It’s not your circumstances that are your rest. It’s your rest in your soul. Christ, who comes to dwell within you, is your rest.

We learn. We don’t learn that all at once. We learn it more, that, “Yes, I can have rest, Christ is my rest. I’m not trusting on having all my circumstances perfect.” Because if you wait for perfect circumstances, you’ll never have rest! But in the midst of imperfect circumstances, we can have rest, because Christ, who is our rest, dwells within us.

Allison: Can I share a practical tip about rest? As you described, we’re definitely not a restful-type people from the outside. But one tip that I have found, being a mother of eleven children, and now having all the way from a nursing baby to a 23-year-old. Many of you know this. Training your children is so important.

But even our oldest, at three, I taught her how to do simple things, like make my bed. I love my bed being made. But that takes time. Me making my bed takes away from me doing something else that maybe she can’t do. So, at three, I taught her how to make my bed exactly the way I wanted it made. Then I would praise her. She would make it and I would praise her. Then the next day, she would get up and say, “No, no, no, no, don’t go in your room! I want to make your bed!”

Now I have her, at 23, and all these in between, my children pretty much take over and do everything that needs to be done and help. I don’t necessarily do a whole lot of the stuff in the house, like the daily chores, because I’ve trained them to do them. That in itself can give a mother rest.

You may not have a 20-year-old, and a 19-year-old, and a 17-year-old living at home that you can say, “Do this.” But that doesn’t mean you can’t start, even when they’re three. Let them put away. Let them fold the towels. There’s no reason that a three to five-year old should not be doing all the towel folding in the house.

Now, what you’re going to have to do is maybe not worry if they’re done perfectly. I don’t care. I’m not a micro-manager. I’m not a control freak. If they fold that towel and it’s semi-folded and in my drawer, I’m happy. But what that does, is while they’re folding those towels, they’re learning how to be a mother. They’re learning how to be an adult. But then I can get to do something else. To me, it’s a great practical tip of how to have actual, a little bit more free time when you’re not doing all that.

Nancy: There are these practical things too. And of course, you mention nursing. Oh, that’s the most beautiful thing that we receive in motherhood. When we’re nursing a baby, you know we have oxytocin, which is such a beautiful, calming hormone. It’s even called “the bliss hormone.”

While you’re nursing a baby, you have these, God gives you these glorious, calming hormones. It can be such a, wow, when you’ve got little ones around you, and everything’s happening. One’s crying, and one needs you for this, and another needs you for that. In the midst of it all, your baby cries. Oh, wow, you hardly know what you’re doing. But you put the baby to the breast, and all that wonderful, calming hormone just fills you. Isn’t God good?

Yes, it’s another wonderful part of the land of motherhood, where a young mother, or an older mother who’s still nursing her baby, still having children. That’s the wonderful blessing of having children! Many mothers stop at two, or maybe three. Then they stop this wonderful blessing that God gives to motherhood, this wonderful, calming hormone of oxytocin. You can keep having it if you keep having children! You’ve still got it now! It’s so great, isn’t it?

THE REST AND THE REFRESHING

Oh, and here’s another one that’s very interesting, too. Let me go to Isaiah 28:9-12: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”

I see that in the whole context of teaching our children. Here the Word of God says, how are you going to teach them? Well, it’s “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little.” It’s that beautiful life-teaching in the home. You’re teaching life, and you’re not sitting your children down for three hours and saying, “OK, this is what’s happening.” No, it’s little by little. And in doing that, it’s very restful. What does the Bible say? This is the way. This is the refreshing.

It’s the same thing as Deuteronomy 6, that we’re to teach our children when we’re sitting down, walking by the way, which means driving in the car, or wherever we are. We’re teaching, and this is the rest. This is the refreshing. It’s not this great big thing, “I’ve suddenly got to become like a public-school teacher.”

No. The interesting thing, too, it says here, “But they would not hear.” Many people think, “Well, I’m going to homeschool, but I’ve got to do this great big thing.” But no, it doesn’t have to be like that. We can do it in rest. It’s interesting that often when the Bible speaks about rest, there’s a resistance. In this passage, there is a resistance.

I had a mother come to me one time, and she said, “Nancy, I’m totally overwhelmed! I just can’t keep up with life.” I said, “OK, tell me what you’re doing.” She said, “Well, Monday I have to take my children to violin lessons, Tuesday we’ve got to go to this lesson, Wednesday I’m doing this,” and she was just carting her children everywhere, all around, to all these lessons!

I said, “You’re making me tired just listening to you! How do you do it?” She said, “Oh, but I’ve got to do that.” I said, “OK, your choice. You can carry on doing that. But if you want rest, you don’t have to do that. The Bible says your children will learn just “line upon line, here a little, there, a little, precept upon precept.” You don’t have to do what everybody else is doing!” Have you found that out too?

Allison: Oh, that’s so good. That’s so good. You know, we’re an athletic family. We love sports. But I tell you, that the times, and we did do sports, but we always did it as a family. In looking back, the amount of time that you spend running, and keeping your appointments, and, “Oh, I’ve got to be here!”

It’s too much. You’re right. That is exactly I think why families are so “stressed out” all the time. But that’s also why they lose their children’s hearts. They lose them in those older years because they’re running so much. They don’t really get to spend time sitting down, talking with you. They’re being influenced by all these outside things. It’s so dangerous.

Nancy: Yes. And sports, organized sports are usually at that later part of the day. Therefore, the mom is running them around, and doesn’t get home in time to prepare the meal. They don’t get time to sit down together as a family. Therefore, they’re not going to read the Word together. They’re not going to pray together. They’re just going to be out there with some sport. OK, families have got to work out what they are going to do. You’ve got into volleyball, didn’t you? But you did it as a family.

Allison: We did. We did.

Nancy: And you have to watch that, OK, the sport that one child is having is not overtaking the whole family. Most of our grandchildren have never been in any organized sports out here.

Allison: But they’re all so athletic!

Nancy: Oh, yes! And, of course, they play out here on the lawn. They play soccer, they play football. Of course, they play volleyball on the volleyball court. They’re constantly having that, playing sports, and with people. But it can take over your life.

Allison: Some people might be thinking that they don’t have cousins, and they don’t have what y’all have here. But that’s been the beauty of this Above Rubies retreat that we’ve done. We have met so many other amazing families through this. Just a weekend here, and a weekend there.

We’ve traveled. You can find your people. You can create, but I think we have to be very intentional when we do get together with other families. That we find those like-minded families, and we fill those . . . Because every child wants to do what everyone else is doing. But that doesn’t mean it has to look like everyone else.

It could maybe look like you’re taking your family and you’re going to Florida, and you’re spending time with our family. We’re playing volleyball as families, and we’re going to the beach. They want that activity, and they want that interaction. But don’t feel like it has to look like everyone else, where you have to put them in a youth group, or you have to put them in a school.

We go to a family-integrated church where there is no youth group, and oh, I love it! After church, all the boys play football for probably an hour. It is wonderful! You can find a family-integrated church where everyone is doing things together. You’re filling that need, and you’re not having to do these practices five nights a week. That will wear anyone out.

Nancy: It does! Oh, yes! You cannot be a family. We’ve got to find that rest in family life. There is rest in that. When you be. The greatest, I think one of the most enjoyable things is that when you can sit down with family and talk and fellowship together. That’s usually around the mealtime. That’s a wonderful restful thing.

Allison: But rest isn’t necessarily just laying down. I was just thinking about my children right now. They’re doing a project. You can have a great, fun, restful time by doing the project together. Let’s redeem something. Let’s buy a camper and remodel it, and then go camping! Thinking of ways to do things as a family. Or helping someone out. Going over and redecorating someone’s house together.

We just recently, last week, had a family from Orlando. We’re not the neatest, most organized family. She saw that. She brought her children to my house, and they stayed for a few days. They worked as a family, and got my house all organized. It was so neat!  They didn’t rest according to what the world would say. But we had a blast with them, working. But then we would, at mealtime, we took them out to dinner. We made dinner at home. It was a wonderful time, but we were able to get a lot done.

Nancy: Yes, absolutely! Now, I just think back. I would find, when my children were young, they would play. When they’re little, they love to have a time playing. It wasn’t just playing with a few little toys! No, toys were so boring! But they would have this project.

I would allow them to turn my whole house around. They would get all the chairs, and they would make it into a train. They were just little wee things. They could hardly push the chairs, but they did it! They could push sofas around! That’s what they wanted to do! They would arrange this whole thing. I don’t know what it was. It was going to be a train going somewhere. They’d spend hours doing it, and then they’d be so tired. What they were preparing it for, they never played. It was the actual project of getting it done.

That was preparing them for life. It was their play, but it was real life. It shows that the greatest fun you can have is actually making something happen.

Allison: Then they’re so proud of themselves. Like what they’ve done here at your house. They don’t brag on themselves, but you can tell they’re like, “We did that!”

Nancy: While we’re talking here, they are working!

Allison: I know! We’re just sitting here talking, doing nothing, and they’re down there working!

Nancy: I know! I said to you, “OK, the last time we had this painted, we got in some professional people. It took them a whole week to do the downstairs.” I said, “You simply cannot do this in two days!”

You said, “Yes, we can!” Well, now, you started this afternoon, and apparently, it’s just about, amazingly finished already! Help!

Allison: Yep, but many, many hands make light work. They’ll get a bunch in there and help them.

Nancy: Yes. Oh dear, well, time goes so quickly, doesn’t it? So, dear lovely ladies, young mums, you’re just in the midst of your little ones all around you. You haven’t yet got older ones to help. But be faithful to train them, because you will find that you’ll reap the blessings. Middling and older mums, do be encouraged. Be encouraged to give your children a vision, and work, yes, and projects! Oh yes, you will be so blessed. May God give you vision, give you wisdom, and show you His ways.

“Lord, we pray for each mother listening today, each young person listening today, that You’ll give them great wisdom and understanding. Lord, we know that every family is unique. Every one is different. Not one of us going to run our homes the same way, and we don’t have to. But Lord, we pray that You’ll show us how You want us to manage our homes, how You want us to train our children.

We thank You, Lord, that You are with us in this great, amazing, incredible career that You have given us as we train children to be the next generation, and to impact the whole nation. That’s what we’re doing as mothers. We thank You, Lord, for this great, powerful, influential role that You have given to us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

QUOTE:

“If you wait for perfect circumstances, you’ll never have rest!

But you can have rest in the midst of imperfect circumstances for Christ who dwells within you is your rest.”

SCRIPTURE ABOUT EATING IN REST:

Mark 6:31: “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were m any coming and going, and they had no LEISURE so much as to eat.”

 

HERE ARE THE DATES!

THREE FAMILY RETRATS FOR LAGUNA BEACH, FLORIDA IN 2023!

Families come from all over the States to these retreats. Some are coming from overseas!

January 4 – 11 - The winter retreat!

If you live in the cold in a northern state, take this opportunity to come down to the warmth and sunshine of Florida and receive wonderful blessings as a family at the same time!

Above Rubies Gulf Coast January Family Retreat 2023

Registration fee: $200

Housing is VERY limited, assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers

This coming January, from the 4th-11^th

Speakers: Nancy and Colin Campbell

Teaching, worship, prayer, small groups, great fellowship, family activities, volley ball and basketball competitions, fun games on the beach. The schedule and meal info will be released soon. 

If you would like to join us for our first ever WINTER family retreat, make sure to register asap!! We only have about 25 housing units available for this retreat, and they will be first-come first-served to those that register and pay through the link below! 

*If you are not satisfied with the housing that is available by the time we get to your name on the list, we will refund your registration at your request at that time. Otherwise, the $200 registration fee is non-refundable. The great news is that we will get the winter rates for campus housing, and the prices are incredibly affordable!!!! 

Gather your friends, old and new, and join us for this exciting week of fellowship together! We can’t wait to be with you!

If you have any questions about this new retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/dJcXHQCbwJw1UTmw9

April 19 – 26 – The popular annual retreat!

Above Rubies Gulf Coast Spring Family Retreat 2023

Registration fee: $200 (non-refundable)

Meals $60/person ages 3+

Housing is assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers, but payment for your housing will go directly to Laguna. 

This is our biggest retreat serving over 100 families during our week of fellowship, sessions with Nancy and Colin Campbell, breakout sessions with gifted speakers and teachers, family activities, and incredible worship! Come as a friend but leave as family! If you aren’t already registered, sign up now! We still have room!

If you have any questions about this family retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/iERkREjdmgkA6D1V7

August 9 – 16 – The Reunion

Above Rubies Gulf Coast Family Reunion 2023

Registration fee: $100 (non-refundable)

No meals are offered at the reunion, but potlucks tend to happen a few times! 

Housing is assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers, but payment will go directly to Laguna. 

Have you attended one of our family retreats before? If so, we’d like to invite you to a reunion on the beach! Join your favorite families for a week of fun and fellowship! Nancy and Colin will join us for a few sessions, and we will host a handful of family activities, but this week is much more laid back than the typical retreats. 

If you have any questions about this family retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/oMhpTs7a6GyEz8bg7

 

 

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 214: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 25

“OUR CEILING SHOULD BE OUR CHILDREN’S FLOOR”

Today I have Allison Hartman from Pensacola, Florida with me. The Hartman’s are staying with us for the week of 4^th July. They are the family who organize the Above Rubies Family retreat in Panama Beach, Florida each year. Allison talks about the next one coming up in April 2023. She also talks about starting a Farmer’s Market in their community which is turning out a great blessing for them and the whole community. And we begin a new adventure in the land of motherhood. It’s a land of living in rest. Well, what is that like with the Hartman’s and others packed into our home, taking on a project of painting our huge downstairs social room and our kitchen cupboards all in two days before they fly out to Arizona! Can we live in rest when everything is in a shambles?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today I have with me Allison Hartman, all the way from Pensacola, Florida. Allison has been on the podcast with me many times. Whenever they come to stay, we usually try to do a podcast together.

They have been staying with us for the Fourth of July. As we are doing this podcast, we actually celebrated the Fourth yesterday, and had the most glorious, wonderful, amazing day. Whenever we celebrate anything, I often think, “Wow, does anybody else in the world celebrate like us?” We really go to town.

Yesterday, as usual, our tradition is, we have a double banger. We start with our luncheon. This time we had it over at the wedding barn. This is the new barn that Sam, Serene’s husband, has been building. It’s getting better by the day. Most wonderful building. We were able to have, for the first time, our Fourth of July luncheon in beautiful comforting air con.

As usual, we started with the Prayer of Allegiance and singing the national anthem. Allison and her husband Daniel both spoke a little about freedom, which is all about our liberty. We wanted to celebrate that. Then we ate!

Allison: That’s right.

Nancy: What do you want to say, Allison? Did you enjoy yesterday?

Allison: It’s such a fun, fun time. I love seeing how there are so many different people come. It’s amazing. You guys can really pull off a big party quickly. So many different people from different backgrounds. It was fun. It was a great time.

Nancy: Yes. Then we, in the evening, we came back to our place here and had our traditional Fourth of July barbeque. I was trying to think, how many people came? Was there a couple of hundred or more?

Allison: Probably so, yeah. The place was packed.

Nancy: It was packed. Then we had these massive fireworks. I think it was the best we’ve had in years.

Allison: Oh, I know, I know.

Nancy: Goodness me! We might as well have gone down to downtown Nashville! It was so unbelievable.

Allison: Fabulous. Yes, yes.

Nancy: So, we had a great night. Everybody fellowshipping, all the young people playing volleyball. They played volleyball from after the luncheon till about 11 o’clock last night!

Allison: It never stopped. Never.

Nancy: How they kept going, I don’t know.

Allison: There were probably 30 or 40 down there. The whole time they had, I think they had four to eight teams going. As two came off, two would jump on.

Nancy: Yes, they’ve got it worked out. Usually there are so many young people, I count about 30 down there in the evening. They don’t have people watching. No, they’ve got this worked out that they’re back and forward. They all get involved, the whole time.

Allison: And they’re good! They’re good! It’s not just playing hit the ball. It’s serious competition.

Nancy: It’s serious! In fact, I think back to when we first put the volleyball court in. It was the best thing we ever did. They were pretty hopeless! [laughter]

Allison: Oh, I would agree with you!

Nancy: Because you guys were better! But then they had to practice to be able to beat the Floridians.

Allison: Well, you guys have the height! Everybody here has the height, but they didn’t have the skill. We had the skill, but not the height. Now they have both and we still can hold our own. But yeah, Florida versus Tennessee is quite a . . .

Nancy: Something else, isn’t it? Anyway, Allison and Daniel and all the families who are here are also going to be going on in a couple of days to join Serene and Sam, who left this morning to, where are you going?

Allison: The Grand Canyon.

Nancy: Ooh, how great! Tell us about your plans.

Allison: Oh, goodness! Well, we decided that our tradition, every time one of our older children graduates from high school, we’ll do a senior trip. So, we’re doing this as our Hallie’s senior trip. Serene and Sam thought, “Well, we’ll let it be Cedar’s senior trip.” They went ahead and took an RV.

We’re going to fly because we had sky miles. We were able to fly for free, all of us. That was fun. We’ll meet down in Phoenix. We have two weeks to explore. Sam’s got a couple things laid out, but for the most part, we’re just going to go and find out what happens when we get there. Kind of like we did in Israel. We had no plans, but it was always quite an adventure. We may end up in a Walmart parking lot with our RVs. Whatever we do, it’ll be fun, because we love that family.

Nancy: Well, two years ago, you all took off together, over to Israel that time. Maybe Sam will also want to take you out to his property out in New Mexico.

Allison: Yeah, that’s in the plans. That’s on his list of things to do, is to go to New Mexico. I don’t even know. He has it all planned out, but nowhere to stay yet. [laughter]

Nancy: That sounds so great! You should tell the ladies about your latest adventure! Whenever Allison is around, something is going to be happening. She can’t stop thinking of new things. Her latest is a Farmer’s Market! Tell us about that!

Allison: We live in Pensacola. During our slower season with our photography business, the only slow season we really have is during the summer. So, if I’m going to get anything accomplished, other than our normal work, it’s going to have to be during the summer.

I started thinking about a month and a half ago that I would love to have a place where my children could sell their stuff. We’re obviously a very entrepreneurial family. We own a photography studio. But my children are always selling things. My son grows moringa trees. Our girls, our little girls, eight and eleven, have been making sourdough bread, sourdough starter, and kefir. Our eight-year-old double-ferments kefir and wanted to sell it.

I thought we needed a place where they could really sell it, and there’d be a good amount of people there. We have a storefront, but I couldn’t figure out how to get people there. Sometimes I would have them set up a little table, like a lemonade stand style, and advertise it on Facebook. But we might only have two or three or four or five families come by and buy a few things.

I thought we need to have a place. So, we put it out there to the public, and said, “Would anybody be interested in joining us and doing a Farmer’s Market?” Well, the news station found out about it. The newspaper found out about it. They gave us a ton of free advertising. We went ahead and launched it.

Four weeks ago. we started a Farmer’s Market in our town. There are, right now we have 220 approved vendors on the list, anywhere from produce, to plants, to jewelry, woodworking, animals, dog treats. You name it. Coffee shop, there’s a coffee shop. There are bakery items. Yeah, we started a little farmer’s market. Now we’ve got about 50 – 60 vendors coming each week.

We’ve done it four weekends in a row. Each weekend we’ve had about 2,000 people come to shop it. It’s really a neat way to meet other people in your community. Also, if we did have food shortages, this is a perfect connection with other farmers and people that are growing their own things.

Nancy: Yes, yes. And your rule is, that they can only do it if they grow it or make it.

Allison: Yeah, you have to have it, it has to be grown, created, built completely, or at least mostly, by you. It can’t be things you buy and resell. But I encourage anyone out there, if you’re in even a small town, that doesn’t have a really thriving, and I mean at least 40 to 50 vendor market, start one! Because this is going to be a way where we can really connect with other people in our community and be able to buy and sell goods without worrying about food shortages, or whatever else is to come.

The Bible says to divide your substance to seven parts, even to eight, because you don’t know what evil could come upon us first. We’re seeing just a little bit, when it happened with covid, food shortages, things that you couldn’t get. Toilet paper, who would have ever thought? I think it’s wise for us to have, not only storing things up for ourselves, but have connections with people. Hey, I know where I can get coffee. I know where I can get honey. I know where I can get milk, eggs, things that we’re all going to need.

Nancy: Yes, and I think your husband Daniel sees it as maybe in the future, an opportunity to even barter with one another.

Allison: Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s the way things were back then. There’s a reason they call them “the good old days.” There were things that people did back in the day that it was very wise. Us buying everything on credit cards, people going into debt for things, spending way too much on retail.

You know, you have a chicken, and you have honey, and you get together and you make a swap. That’s the way we need to get back to. One tangible way to do it is to get involved with a Farmer’s Market or start one yourself.

Nancy: Tell us some of the things that your children are doing there.

Allison: Our older children who are married, and then our two older girls (who stay here often with you) they’ve started a coffee shop out of an old vintage Airstream camper. It’s super-cute. It was our camper that we used but we decided it would be a lot more helpful to have it as a coffee shop. They gutted the inside and put in a nice big wooden countertop so customers can walk right up to the window and order their coffee.

Our one son does the moringa trees. He grows them from seed, and he sells them for $15 a tree. Our first market he made $800 selling trees. My little six-year-old makes homemade lemonade out of lemons from our trees and stevia. Our daughter sells kefir. She’s eight.

Nancy: Emily makes that kefir herself.

Allison: She makes it herself. The grains we got from you guys. We keep fermenting it and double fermenting it.

Nancy: Don’t they sell the grains too?

Allison: They sell the grains for $10 for just one tablespoon of grains. The thing is, with supply and demand, if you can’t get something, then your supply is low. Your demand is high, which means you can ask pretty much whatever you want. These things they’re selling online for $14, $15, $20. For $10, if you can’t get it, that’s a great deal.

So, we’ve got kefir, sourdough, plants, coffee, vanilla extract. We made our own homemade vanilla extract. But then, like I said, we have vendors who are selling all sorts of things.

Nancy: Apart from all the vendors you have, you, as a family, how much do you make on just a few hours on Saturdays?

Allison: The first day we did it, our family made $2500 in three hours. Right now, we’re charging vendors a $10 vendor’s fee for a 10-foot area. Right now, all that money is going towards buying things like garbage cans and advertising. We’d like to buy a sound system so that we can make announcements. But eventually, once we have all of our supplies, we’ll be able to use that money. Also, I can pay one of our children to run the Farmer’s Market. That would be a little side business.

Nancy: Wonderful! Then you shared it yesterday, and I think some of our folks are already getting. . .

Allison: Yeah, if you’re in the Primm Springs-Nashville area. . .

Nancy: Well, Centerville.

Allison: Centerville. They’re going to start one, it sounds like very, very possibly soon. They want to do the same ideas.

Nancy: That’s all exciting! And yes, you’ve got to tell us, update us on the Above Rubies retreat down in Panama, Florida!

Allison: Yes, yes, yes, yes! This annual retreat we’ve been doing in Panama City Beach, Florida, right on the Gulf, I don’t even know how many years we’ve been doing it. But this past retreat in April, I think we had 850 people come. It was wonderful! Just a great retreat. Wonderful.

Almost every family that came wants to come back. Of course, they all want to bring a friend, so we’ll eventually have to bust out of there, or build a new building. That was fun. We got to talk to the owner, you and me. That was fun. They’re definitely thinking of ways to make a bigger area for us.

Nancy: So, therefore, can people still register?

Allison: Yes. It’s actually, right now, if you came to the last one, we’re giving all those families a few more weeks to re-register for 2023. Then we will open it up for any new family. Probably in the next week or so we’ll have it open for any new family.

This is definitely one of the most popular retreats, because we’re right on the beach, there’s so much to do for children and young people. It’s just amazing. I think we had over 100 families come. Almost every one of those is going to go home, tell a friend, and invite someone else.

Nancy: It’s so wonderful. The families coming, with all their children, some with just a few little ones, but many with grown children, which makes so many young people. The young people, they’re beginning to make life-long friends.

Of course, what we love, is we hope that maybe some of them will find the one that God has for them. The best place in the world for young people to find their future husband or wife is amongst beautiful families and kindred spirits, young people who love the Lord with all their hearts.

Allison: There’s so many like-minded families all over. But within their own towns, a lot of these families are saying, “I have no one like this. I don’t know anyone like this.” We all come together twice a year, but what’s happening . . . Any other time we’ve done a camp, right after the retreat, you might keep in touch with one or two families. But that’s about it. Then you see each other the next year. But that’s not what’s happening.

During the conference, we always have a group chat. We’ll share announcements and messages, and “Hey, change of plans. We’re meeting here,” or “We’re starting dinner now,” whatever. But what’s happened with this particular retreat, the Gulf Coast Above Rubies Family Camp, is that all these families have become such good friends. Their children are now getting in relationships. They are all visiting each other all over the state. It seems like every week someone’s visiting another family at their house in different parts of the world. This group chat that was meant just for announcements is now a continuing daily conversation with all these like-minded families.

Nancy: Someone’s having something happen. “What should I do about this? Got any ideas?” And people are sharing. It’s so incredible! Helping one another.

Allison: It’s amazing. Most of these families don’t have similar-minded families at their own house. Or family members. So, it’s like you have these immediate group of people that have created themselves a new family that’s maybe not blood related. But it’s so much stronger.

So, yeah, I talked to a family today that asked, “Hey, could I come to y’all’s house, even though you’re going to be out of town? We want to look for a house, maybe, in your city.” It’s really neat.

The next official retreat is April 20-23. In about a week, it will be open to the public where people can book. Right now, it’s just for those that came last year, but if you are interested, and you heard about it, or you’re just now hearing about it, reach out to me. I’m Allison Hartman. I can put my phone number on the podcast, and you can call me, you can text me. We also have a Facebook page called Gulf Coast Above Rubies Family Camp. I can send you the link to register. But we also have a reunion. Do you want me to talk about that?

Nancy: Yes, yes. But I should say, if they really are interested, they need to contact you pretty well straightaway, because it’s going to fill up so quickly.

Allison: Yeah, the April retreat, this location that we go to is wonderful. But there’s only so much housing. Let’s just pretend all 100 families that came to the April retreat, they all go home. They tell someone, a family member, a friend. Then those people come and most of them have seven, eight, nine children. Some not. Some have less, some have more. But then they come. We were totally maxed out this past time. So, if all the families brought someone else, we would not be able to house them all. If you’re even interested a little bit, you need to not procrastinate, and book right away.

Nancy: And then, now you have a reunion too, don’t you? They’re coming up next month.

Allison: Yes, in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be in August, August 10-17. What happened is, the year that covid happened, we weren’t allowed to meet in April. They allowed us to meet that August. Well, because we had already booked that date, they said, “Do you want to lose April?”

We said, “No, we want to keep April.” They said, “OK, we’ll give you April, but do you want to keep August?” We thought, “Well, some people might want to get together twice a year. So, now we do our official big conference in April. But then in August, about a third of the families will all come back to the same location.

We have a reunion. We don’t have everything scheduled. We won’t have designated speaking times. But some families like it even better. We did lots of cookouts together. We did a date night. We did a talent show. We did a game night. We did a worship night. We had a ladies’ tea. It’s such a fun, laid-back way to get together with 30, 40 families that are, I would say, very like-minded, from all over.

Nancy: So, you can still book in for that at the last minute, if you want to. Just a beautiful vacation with wonderful people. So great!

You know, we were talking the other day, Allison, about our children, and what purpose do we have for them, as we’re training them and raising them. You said something, how your vision is that you want your children not to start where you started, but to start where you are now. Tell us about how that’s working out in your family life.

Allison: That’s exactly our, me and my husband’s vision. A couple of years ago, we heard a man, a guest preacher at our church, who came. He made a statement that you should want your children’s floor to be your ceiling. We both looked at each other and thought, “That’s what we want!” We want our children to start where we left off.

In order to do that, there’s a fine line between enabling, and encouraging and supporting, and being like a trampoline for your children. You see some parents that think that they need to do that, by buying them things, or giving them that boost to get where they need to be. I think really, that’s a disadvantage to your children. If you’re buying them everything, and then “setting them up for success,” you really didn’t set them up for success. You set them up for failure.

Nancy: Absolutely!

Allison: Because that’s not real life. People in life just aren’t going to give them things. What we’re trying to do, let’s say, for example, Ethan, our 16-year-old, is bound to be an entrepreneur. He wants to be a businessman. But what does a 16-year-old not have? Well, he doesn’t have a car. He doesn’t have a phone, because we don’t believe in iPhones. We don’t do social media at all for our teenagers, young adults.

Our older married daughter has a phone, and our 20-year-old has a phone. But he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have contacts, meaning customers. He wants to sell moringa trees internationally, all over. At least nationally. So, what can I do to help him be successful with that?

Well, I help him brand it. I help him come up with logos. I created a big banner, and I ordered it for him. I advertised it for him. We created a Farmer’s Marker for him. We’re doing different things to help him be successful, but yet, he’s doing it all himself. We’re just helping him.

When Daniel and I are “done raising children,” they’re going to be so successful where they’re at, once they begin their marriage. Like our oldest daughter, who’s married, she’s teaching swim lessons. She does the Infant Swim Rescue. Instead of going off to college, which is what most people her age would have done, we encouraged her to look into this Infant Swim Rescue.

So, she, at 19, started teaching children to swim and rescue themselves. Now, she’s doing it in our backyard, which I guess you could say, that’s kind of enabling her. But not really. We already have the pool. We might as well let her use it. She’s able to come, which is wonderful, because we get to see our grandbaby every day. We’re helping her. She’s making great money. She teaches swim, makes a hundred dollars an hour.

Our son-in-law works for our photography business. He also is starting this coffeeshop. He also has a wood-working business. For that, we helped advertise it on Facebook. We just try to do different things to get their name out, encourage people to buy their stuff.

Again, we’re spring boarding them, using the talents that we already have. I’m a huge marketer. Anyone that has an idea, I’ll help them get the idea out. Of course, my children, I love them to death, so I want to help them. I want to encourage them.

Nancy: Yes, I think back to our children, when we were raising them. We didn’t give them anything, everything they needed. They had to work for it. I believe that children have to learn to work for what they get, because, as you say, when they go out in that world, they’re not going to get it given to them. They’ve got to work for it.

Of course, they all had their different abilities and personalities. But our oldest son was an entrepreneur, more than anyone else in our family. Right from a young age, if he wanted something, well, we didn’t say, “OK, here it is.” No, he had to work. He would go to the dump, and he would find stuff. He would go around the houses selling it. He would do anything. Anything he wanted, he got. But he didn’t get it through it being given to him. He found a way of getting it.

Today he’s such a very successful entrepreneur. He has so many businesses, and he sells them, and gets more businesses, and so on. But he learned that at a young age.

Allison: Here’s another advantage. How many people out there listening have young people, teenager-age, that are constantly getting in trouble? Doing things, wasting time, hanging out with friends that really aren’t that good.

When you are helping them create a business, they are so busy. They don’t have time to be on their phones, playing video games, doing things that are mindless. They’re constantly busy, and they’ll get excited. It’s so cute.

At the market that we started, our little ones will sell something. Then they’ll sit and count their money. And then they’ll look at all the other vendors to think what can they spend their money on? They’re so young.

Our little six-year-old, the first day of the market, he made $100 selling lemonade. I think he spent $100 because he would take his money and run across and buy a duck or buy whatever he could buy. Thankfully, the duck people were sold out so he couldn’t buy a duck!

It keeps them so busy. They’re so proud of themselves. But it really keeps them out of trouble.

Nancy: And it makes them so productive. I look at your children and I am totally and absolutely amazed. We haven’t really explained in this podcast, but our grandson Cedar, who is Sam and Serene’s son, is engaged to Halley, Allison’s beautiful daughter. Also, another one of Serene’s sons, Vision, is courting Eden, another one of her daughters. It’s rather beautiful.

Oh, goodness me, I have really never seen young people like these. In fact, the whole family, every time the Hartmans come to our place, they don’t just sit around on the sofa and visit. Wow! Everything starts happening! They simply cannot come without doing a project.

One time, when they came up, Daniel looked at our deck and thought, “Oh, goodness me, this is getting run-down. It needs redoing.” He redid our whole deck! It was amazing.

Another time they came, he looked at our shed. Is that what you call them here? Our shed, tool shed, junk shed, you know how you put everything in the shed. Oh, goodness me, you could hardly walk into it. Daniel gets in there, and he completely revolutionizes the whole thing!

Was it earlier this year, I think, when the girls came up? Cedar and Vision, our grandsons, and Halley and Eden, these beautiful young girls, got stuck in. They ripped out our carpet. They put down all the wood floors.

I have to admit, Allison’s girls are beautiful. You look at them and think that they’re just little princesses who would sit on sofas. Wow! Do they know how to work! They were down there, putting down this floor. They also painted all the walls of the living room.

Then they came back a couple of weeks ago, and they painted the bedroom walls! They cannot come to this house, or go anywhere, without doing something. Now, help! Now, they’re here for two days before they fly out. They decided, “OK, I think we’ll paint downstairs.” That’s where we have church, and our social room, and all our big family gatherings. Now we’re in the midst of complete renovation downstairs! And the girls are also deciding to paint the cupboards in the kitchen! It's just unbelievable.

But, you see, Allison and Daniel have trained them how to work and how to get stuck-in. They never just sit around. They’ve got to do a project.

Allison: Honestly, you’re such a blessing to us, so it’s how could we ever repay you? But this is something I think we, as the body, not everyone has talents. Nobody has the same talents, so where you have poured your time into so many mothers and families, but you don’t necessarily take the time to think about your own stuff.

It would be a blessing if someone did that to my house, so this is their way of pouring back into you guys. They do love seeing a project, from start to finish, and see stuff get done. I’m more of a delegator. I get things started and then they’ll do all the hard work.

Nancy: She trained them to do the work! But the amazing thing is, they do everything so perfectly and amazingly and they know how to do it. Everything they tackle. In fact, I remember, was it the last retreat, or one of them anyway, where the food that you had ordered didn’t come. The truck couldn’t make it. So, there you were, with over 800 people to feed and no food. But you just sent Eden to Sam’s Club to order all the food. What 19-year-old girl . . .

Allison: $6,000 worth of food.

Nancy: Yes! How many 19-year-old girls can take that responsibility and go and do it? It’s just amazing. You’ve been pretty great parents.

We’ve been chatting about everything that’s happening here. But I think we’ll do another podcast together. We may get onto my next point about the land of motherhood because we’re still doing that. You can find out next podcast what it will be. Love you!

Let me pray for you:

“Father, we thank You again for these times where we can chat together about family, and the things we do in each other’s families. Lord, I pray that You will inspire the precious mothers today. Lord, give them vision for their children. Save them from being parents who enable their children, giving them whatever they want. Lord, that’s not good parenting.

Lord, we have to be parents who prepare our children for life, prepare them to face the challenges, prepare them how to work, prepare them how to know how to cope, and live, and work in this life. We ask for Your wisdom, Lord God. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

 

HERE ARE THE DATES!

THREE FAMILY RETRATS FOR LAGUNA BEACH, FLORIDA IN 2023!

Families come from all over the States to these retreats. Some are coming from overseas!

January 4 – 11 - The winter retreat!

If you live in the cold in a northern state, take this opportunity to come down to the warmth and sunshine of Florida and receive wonderful blessings as a family at the same time!

Above Rubies Gulf Coast January Family Retreat 2023

Registration fee: $200

Housing is VERY limited, assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers

This coming January, from the 4th-11^th

Speakers: Nancy and Colin Campbell

Teaching, worship, prayer, small groups, great fellowship, family activities, volley ball and basketball competitions, fun games on the beach. The schedule and meal info will be released soon. 

If you would like to join us for our first ever WINTER family retreat, make sure to register asap!! We only have about 25 housing units available for this retreat, and they will be first-come first-served to those that register and pay through the link below! 

*If you are not satisfied with the housing that is available by the time we get to your name on the list, we will refund your registration at your request at that time. Otherwise, the $200 registration fee is non-refundable. The great news is that we will get the winter rates for campus housing, and the prices are incredibly affordable!!!! 

Gather your friends, old and new, and join us for this exciting week of fellowship together! We can’t wait to be with you!

If you have any questions about this new retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/dJcXHQCbwJw1UTmw9

April 19 – 26 – The popular annual retreat!

Above Rubies Gulf Coast Spring Family Retreat 2023

Registration fee: $200 (non-refundable)

Meals $60/person ages 3+

Housing is assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers, but payment for your housing will go directly to Laguna. 

This is our biggest retreat serving over 100 families during our week of fellowship, sessions with Nancy and Colin Campbell, breakout sessions with gifted speakers and teachers, family activities, and incredible worship! Come as a friend but leave as family! If you aren’t already registered, sign up now! We still have room!

If you have any questions about this family retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/iERkREjdmgkA6D1V7

August 9 – 16 – The Reunion

Above Rubies Gulf Coast Family Reunion 2023

Registration fee: $100 (non-refundable)

No meals are offered at the reunion, but potlucks tend to happen a few times! 

Housing is assigned through Gulf Coast Above Rubies Organizers, but payment will go directly to Laguna. 

Have you attended one of our family retreats before? If so, we’d like to invite you to a reunion on the beach! Join your favorite families for a week of fun and fellowship! Nancy and Colin will join us for a few sessions, and we will host a handful of family activities, but this week is much more laid back than the typical retreats. 

If you have any questions about this family retreat, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Registration link:

https://forms.gle/oMhpTs7a6GyEz8bg7

 

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 213: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 24

Can you believe it? This is our sixth podcast about JOYFUL MOTHERING. Today we talk about the ways that God wants us to rejoice. Does He want us to rejoice a little bit, only when everything is going great, and when we feel in the mood? No, He explicitly tells us to rejoice greatly, exceedingly, and with all our hearts. And more! Find out how we can do this. And even though I haven't yet shared everything about joy, I promise we'll begin a new subject next week!

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Well, that is mothers and babies. Some of you may have your babies with you as you’re listening. You may even be nursing your baby. And children, I know there’s lots of children who listen, too. Hello, children! I love you, and I’m so glad you are listening to me! Oh, I am so happy about that! And teens, and grandmothers, and well, maybe even some men. Welcome to you all.

Now since our last podcast, we have all been rejoicing over the wonderful, amazing, miraculous overruling of Roe vs Wade. Well, I trust you have been rejoicing. I know you will have. But I wonder how much you rejoiced. I believe when God does something great like this, we really do need to rejoice.

That day I was preparing for our Shabbat meal. Then some of our grandsons called me, and they said, “Nana, can we have a barbeque tonight? And a celebration over this overruling of Roe vs Wade. I thought, “Wow! I can’t say no! Of course, we can!” So, we had a barbeque, and the families came and whoever wanted to come. We had a great barbeque together.

Then we came inside, and we worshipped and praised the Lord for this wonderful answer. I know some of our teens and young twenties, back when they were young, I can still remember in our services, these young children, anything from five, six, seven, eight, nine. When my husband said, “OK, it’s time to pray! Come on children! You come and pray too,” because we always loved to welcome the children and young people to pray, they would come up. They would run up. They would line up in front and take the mike, one by one. They were so concerned about little precious babies being killed in the womb. Sometimes they would even get down on their knees and cry out, “God, save the babies! God, please, bring down abortion!”

I know God heard their cry. They have waited a long time. They were so rejoicing. They’re grown now, but they so wanted to celebrate and rejoice at the answer to their prayers. Of course, the answer to the prayers of so many intercessors across this nation who have prayed and fasted and interceded and fought to get rid of this Roe vs Wade which has been the result of over 60 million babies being murdered in the womb.

We pray that now there will be a whole new awareness of life in our nation. Before Roe vs Wade, you most probably were aware that abortion was illegal in 30 states in our nation. Now, we’ve got to get back to that, and to more, so that the majority of the states in our nation will be abortion-free. Oh, wouldn’t that be so wonderful?

I think this is a date we have to remember. The 24^th of June 2022. I think it’s a date we will remember, like we remember the date when Israel became a nation, which is a date that every one of us should know, and all our children should know. I’m sure you all do. 14^th of May 1948. That was also a historic day, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

I think that now we’ve had that victory, it’s an encouragement to us to continue praying for many, many more victories, because we need many more victories. There’s so much evil in this nation.

I think of the Obergefell vs Hodges bill, where the Supreme Court of our land, I simply can’t believe it. I could not ever get over that day, when they ruled that same-sex marriages would have the same legality as the marriage of a man and a woman. How could that be passed by the Supreme Court of our land?

That is an absolute abomination in the eyes of God. It is totally against His plan. It is totally opposite to the way God created mankind, male and female. We can never, ever accept this ruling. We cannot accept it, because it’s against the Bible. It’s against God. It’s against the way He created us.

We need to keep praying. We need to keep pushing and fighting against that also. That could also be overruled. What does the Bible say? That “When righteousness is in the nation, the people rejoice. And righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Let’s not give up in prayer. God answers prayer. Let’s keep praying. Let’s keep pushing against evil. Amen?

Well, dear precious ladies, I trust that you enjoyed the last three podcasts with my daughters, Pearl, and Serene, and Evangeline. They were all wonderful podcasts! That means we have now done five podcasts on this point, that MOTHERHOOD IS A JOYFLAND LAND.

To tell you the truth, I still have so many Scriptures. I think I’m going to do one more podcast on this point about joyful mothering. I know I won’t even get through them all in this session, but I promise you I’ll stop at this session, OK?

After having so many sessions talking about joyful mothering, I’m sure that you are now joyfully mothering in your home. If you’re not, maybe you need one more session! And if you are, of course, you will love to hear more about rejoicing in our homes, and rejoicing in motherhood, and rejoicing in our daily lives.

We all need this encouragement, don’t we? I need it myself. The greatest way we can get this encouragement is from the Scriptures. It’s the Word, as Jesus said in Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every word, every word, every word of God. And God has His Word for every situation, and everything we face in life. We can live our lives by His Word.

As we get into the Scriptures, then they become part of us, and we can live them. This is how we’re meant to live. If we’re not living what God says, we’re living what our humanist society says. We’re either living one way or the other. That’s why we need the reminding of the Scriptures into our lives.

I’d like to look at few Scriptures today about HOW do we rejoice? We’ve been talking about being filled with joy and rejoicing, but how does God want us to rejoice? I have here just seven points.

Number one: He wants us to GREATLY REJOICE

Do you notice this, ladies? So many times, I talk to you about how our Christian life is not a normal life. This life that we live in the kingdom of God is not normal. It’s not average. It’s not status quo. It is above the normal, beyond the status quo. It’s a whole new realm of living!

It’s amazing how we are born into the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “Except ye be born again,” we cannot enter into His kingdom. We’re born again into His kingdom, and most of the time, we still live our old life. Yes, we’re born again. We’re cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We know that we have eternal life. But how do we live now? We’ve got to live by the Scriptures and what God says. Here, even in rejoicing, God says, “I don’t want you just to rejoice. I want you to GREATLY rejoice!”

In Psalm 21:1, David, the great psalmist, the sweet psalmist of Israel, he confessed: “In Thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice?” That’s talking about himself.

Psalm 28:7: “The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth. With my song will I praise Him.” Do you notice, it’s not only just rejoicing, but greatly rejoicing? It’s always going beyond the normal.

So, darling ladies, the kingdom of God language is not the normal, “Oh, well, you know, I’m feeling pretty happy today.” No! It’s “greatly rejoicing”! Now, you may not even be able to rejoice in your circumstances at the moment. Maybe everything’s going wrong. It’s tough. It’s difficult.

But you see, your rejoicing is not in your circumstances. Your rejoicing is in the Lord. In the Lord. It’s in Him you are rejoicing. As you rejoice in Him, you will be amazed at how you can live in victory over your circumstances, because it’s not our circumstances that rule us. No, it is the Word of God. This is a whole new level of living to come into, living by what the Word says, rather than how we feel, or rather than our circumstances, or even whatever everyone else is saying or doing.

This word here, ladies, “greatly rejoiceth,” that word in the Hebrew is alaz. A-L-A-Z. And it’s another one of those words meaning “jump for joy”! Oh, my! The language of the Bible is so beyond the normal. Now, come on, jump for joy, the Bible says!

Well, how often do we do that? Now, I’m speaking to you, but I’m challenged myself, ladies. I’m not just speaking to you. I’m speaking to me. And how much do I jump for joy? I can rejoice in the Lord, but how much am I jumping for joy? Whoo! We’ve got a long way to get into real Bible living and real kingdom living, haven’t we?

Do you know that that word that’s in the Scripture here, “rejoiceth,” alaz, “jumping for joy”? It’s the same word that is used in Habakkuk 3:17, 18. Oh, these words always challenge me.

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Here this servant of God is confessing that even when there’s nothing left, there’s nothing! He’s still rejoicing, jumping for joy in the Lord! Wow! My.

And it’s the same word in Psalm 5:11: “Let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee.” Jumping for joy! And many other Scriptures.

Let’s look at Psalm 71:23: “My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto Thee, and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.”

Isaiah 61:10: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Now, the word in this Scripture, “My soul shall be joyful,” this is the Hebrew word giyl. What does it mean? It means “to spin around, under the influence of any violent emotion.” Here we get another Hebrew word, which affects our whole body. Spinning around. Wow, I wonder if any of us have ever got to that yet? But that’s what it means. That word is used many times in the Bible.

We’ve got these words. Often, we don’t see the fullness of their meaning until we go to the Hebrew. The meaning is “jumping for joy, spinning around.”

OK, Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion. Shout, oh daughter of Jerusalem.”

Go to the New Testament. 1 Peter 1:6: “Wherein we greatly rejoice.” It’s talking about this place of temptation and difficulties. But it says: “wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.”

All right, number two: EXCEEDINGLY

 Psalm 68:3: “Let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God. Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.” Another Hebrew word. A different word again. This is alatz. And once again, it means “jumping for joy.”

Zephaniah 3:14: “Sing, oh daughter of Zion, shout, oh Israel. Be glad and rejoice.” There’s the same word, jumping for joy again. It says, “With all your heart.” Yes, with all your heart. That’s another point, actually.

Number four: WITH ALL YOUR HEART

Yes, in Psalm 28:7, it says: “with my heart” and here in Zephaniah 3:14: “with all my heart.” We are to rejoice. It’s not just what’s going on, our feelings, but it’s with our heart that we rejoice.

Number five: WITH SINGING

Psalm 68:4: “Sing unto God. Sing praises to His Name. Exalt Him that rideth upon the heavens by His Name Yah, and rejoice before Him.” That’s jumping for joy again.

Psalm 149:5: “Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds.”

James 5:13: “Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.”

Psalm 71:23: “My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto Thee.”

Zechariah 2:10: “Sing and rejoice, oh daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.”

Number six: WITH SHOUTING

Ever do any shouting? Well, sometimes you might be shouting at your children. You’re getting a little bit frustrated, and you’ll be letting out a few shouts. It’s not actually talking about that here. It’s talking about shouting for joy!

Lovely ladies, we don’t go around shouting in our homes with anger. We shout for joy!

Psalm 5:11: “Let all those who put their trust in Thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy because Thou defendest them.”

Psalm 32:11: “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice (spin around) ye righteous and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”

Psalm 47:1: “Oh clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph!” Yes, ladies, the Bible does give us an excuse to shout but to shout with joy. How often do we do that? I think many of us would feel a little bit embarrassed to be shouting out with joy but it’s Bible language. Can you imagine what it would be like in our homes if we were all greatly rejoicing, exceedingly rejoicing, singing and shouting with joy?

Go to Ezra 3:11. This is when they had laid the foundation of the temple, which had been destroyed. When this happened, it says: “And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”

Back to the Psalms. Psalm 132:9: “Let Thy saints shout for joy.”

In same psalm, verse 16: “I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.”

Isaiah 12:6: “Cry and shout.” The word in the Hebrew is ranan, and it means “shout for joy.” “Shout for joy, thou inhabitants of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”

Wow, ladies. I’m not spouting this out. I’m reading the Scriptures. Wow. It’s time we got into what the Scriptures say, isn’t it? This is how God wants us to rejoice.

Now we go to the next one. Number seven: with JOY UNSPEAKABLE

1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Well, we’ve been reading a lot of Old Testament Scriptures, but this is New Testament, so whether it’s Old Testament or New Testament it’s all talking about an excessive rejoicing. Here it’s “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Number eight. The last one: MORE THAN IN THE TIME OF GREAT HARVEST

In Psalm 4:7 it says: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” I want to go to this psalm and look at it a little more here because I remember that this psalm, when David was writing this psalm, he was going through some difficult times. Let’s go to it here.

Psalm 4:1: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.” We see that he starts off having been in distress. But now, we go down, and as he continues to praise the Lord. We go down to Psalm 4:7, and he confesses: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.”

He continues: “And I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” Even though David had been in distress, he’s been facing his enemies, he rejoices in the Lord. His rejoicing is not, once again, just an average kind of rejoicing. No, it’s more than, more than how they rejoice in the time of harvest.

In a time of great harvest, the Israelites would really rejoice. They would get out, the women would be out dancing and singing with their tambourines and rejoicing. Everyone would be rejoicing. He’s rejoicing even more than that. I think God wants us to get into that place of not being just average and boring, but that more than, more than.

MORE AND MORE

I think one of my favorite Scriptures in the Bible is Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” That’s what we’re meant to do. We’re meant to be always doing that which is more.

More rejoicing. Just rejoicing in the little things that happen in our lives each day. Rejoicing with our husbands. Rejoicing with our children. Rejoicing in every little thing that happens. Not just taking all God’s blessings for granted but rejoicing in them. Thanking Him. Our lives should be filled with thankfulness, gratefulness, rejoicing.

Of course, the greatest rejoicing that we can ever have is rejoicing in God’s great salvation. Even as David said: “I rejoice in Thy salvation.” I try to make it a habit of mine that each day, at our family devotions, when we all pray together, that I thank the Lord for His great salvation, His great redemption. It’s beyond what we could ever fathom. We can never take it for granted. We can never forget about it. I believe we need to constantly thank Him AND praise Him, for His great salvation and rejoice in it. Rejoice. Rejoice that our names are written in heaven.

Maybe you are going through difficult times, challenging times. You feel the weight of the world upon you. But dear one, I want you to look up. Look up to Jesus. He has promised to carry your weight. “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you,” the Bible says. Trust Him, look to Him and thank Him. Thank Him that He is taking your burden. Thank Him that He has got everything all planned out, even though you can’t see a way out. God has got it all in His hands. He’s working everything out.

Above all, thank Him that your name is written in heaven. This life is just a vapor. We have an eternal realm waiting. How we need to be thanking and rejoicing. Don’t let the days go by without doing this, will you?

REJOICING HOMES

I want to mention, we’ve been talking about rejoicing in our personal lives. But God not only talks about our personally rejoicing but having rejoicing homes. Did you know that God wants us to have homes of rejoicing?

Let’s go to Psalm 46:4. The Jerusalem Bible says: “There is a river, the streams of which make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the tents of the Most High.” It’s talking about the homes.

At that time, many of them were living in tents. But it says: “homes of the Most High.” The city of God consists of many homes. It consists of God’s people. And to have a joyful city, what do we have to do? We have to have joyful homes. We can’t have a joyful city without joyful homes.

Isn’t it sad that there are so many sad homes today? So many sad things happening. So many marriages that are sad. They’re not getting on. They’ve even broken up. Once that happens, what sadness comes to the family? What sadness comes to the children?

Oh, children can never come out unscathed from a divorce. It’s impossible, because God intends for children to have their father and their mother. Even after a divorce, they still have their father and their mother, but they’re not together. They have to go from one home to the other. It causes such heartache in children.

Of course, there are so many sad things going on, even in Christian homes, let alone the secular homes of this world. Oh, but God’s plan is for us to have joyful homes. Joyful homes make a joyful city! Then, when we have joyful cities, we will have a joyful nation!

But it all starts in the homes. How do we get that joy? Well, it comes from the river. There is a river that flows from God. It’s streams. The Bible says: “Make glad the homes of God’s people. The streams of the river, the river of the Holy Spirit.” God wants the river of the Holy Spirit to flow into each one of our homes. He wants to flow, cause His streams of joy and gladness to flow.

His streams of love, and forgiveness, and sweetness, and healing, and encouragement, and compassion, and kindness, and tender-heartedness, and humility, and meekness, and longsuffering, and patience, and peace-making. These are all streams that flow from the river, the river of God, which flows through the Holy Spirit, bringing all these different streams to fill our homes with love and joy and peace.

Sometimes we need a bigger stream of one of these beautiful attributes than the other, but the Holy Spirit will bring whatever we are needing.

GOD WANTS US TO RAISE OUR CHILDREN IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF JOY

We go over to Isaiah 32:13. In that Scripture it talks about the “houses of joy.” That’s what God calls them. His homes, He wants them to be called the “houses of joy.” Joy is the atmosphere in which He wants us to raise our children.

Then over in Isaiah 51:3, it gives us another description of the homes of Zion. “For the Lord shall comfort Zion. Joy and gladness shall be found therein. Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Now, do you notice something there? We’ve got some twins. There’s lots of twins in the Bible. God puts two things together because they fit together. Here we see “joy and gladness.” They’re twins. They run round together. God wants them in our homes. Joy and gladness, jumping around for joy in our home.

The next twins, “thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Thanksgiving and singing, we could call those twins. In fact, in another translation, “Joy and gladness shall abound in her.” Not a little bit of joy but abounding with joy and gladness. Abounding with thanksgiving and singing.

Then, there’s another set of twins that God loves us to have in our homes.

 Psalm 118:15: “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles, the homes of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.” Some translations say: “The voice of joy and victory are in the homes of the righteous.” So, there’s another set of twins, “joy and victory” which also want to jump around and be glad in our homes.

Lovely ladies, I trust that you’ve really got this message now, of joyful living, joyful mothering. As we joyfully mother in our homes, we have the power to bring joy and gladness into our homes, to our husbands, to our children. Are we raising children with joy? Are we raising children who know how to rejoice?

Or are we raising children who are always grumbling and complaining? So many homes are filled with grumbling and complaining, always concerned about this and that. There’s no joy or victory.

But God wants our homes to have joy and victory. Dear mothers, it comes back to us. We’re the ones who set the tone for the home. We’re the ones who establish the atmosphere in the home, according to what we are doing. If we are constantly rejoicing, well, our children are also going to learn the habit of rejoicing.

May the Lord richly bless you. I promise next session we’re starting on a new point. We’re still traveling through this land of motherhood. But we’re coming to the end. It’s such a wonderful, vast land. I trust that you’re getting a little glimpse of the glory of this land.

Let me pray:

“Dear Father, we thank You so much again for all Your goodness to us, all Your faithfulness to us. We thank You again for this victory of the overturning of Roe vs Wade. We give You thanks. Lord, it is Your doing. You have answered the faithful prayers of Your people. We thank You, Lord God.

“We thank You that we can trust You. We thank You that You are bigger than all our circumstances. We thank You that You are bigger than how we feel, because our feelings are so deceiving. We thank You that in You we have victory. In You we have our joy. In You we have all that we need. So, we give You thanks today.

“I pray Your blessing on everyone listening. Lord, bless them. Pour out Your anointing of joy upon them. I pray that, Lord, Your joy will rise up from within them and bubble up, Lord God, and they will be rejoicing mothers. And Lord, that You will give them that anointing to establish rejoicing homes. I ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

EXTRA:

Here are some extra Scriptures for you to look up, meditate upon, and enjoy. I didn’t get time to talk about them in the last six podcasts about joy.

WHAT DO WE REJOICE IN?

GOD’S SALVATION

Psalm 9:14: “I will rejoice in thy salvation.”

Psalm 35:9: “My soul shall be joyful (giyl) in the LORD:  it shall rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah 12:3: “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

Also read Isaiah 25:9; 61:10; Romans 5:11.

GOD’S PRESENCE

Psalm 16:11: “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy PRESENCE IS FULLNESS OF JOY; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”

Psalm 21:6: “Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.”

Acts 2:28: “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me FULL OF JOY WITH THY COUNTENANCE.” (From Psalm 16:11).

GOD’S WORD

Psalm 19:8: “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.”

Psalm 119:14: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.”

Psalm 119:162: “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.”

Psalm 19:7-11 tells us that God’s Word restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, gives us warning, and “in keeping of them there is great reward.”

The psalmist proclaims in Psalm 119:111 that God’s words are “the rejoicing of my heart.” Do you rejoice in the truth? Even when it challenges you? Even when it hurts? Also read Psalm 119:14, 162, Psalm 19:8; and 1 Corinthians 13:6.

GOING TO CHURCH AND MEETING WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Psalm 122:1: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” The word “glad” is sameach meaning “to brighten up, cheer up, make joyful, make merry, rejoice.” Is this your attitude as you meet with the people of God each week? Or more than once a week.

Isaiah 56:7: “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer . . . for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”

GOD’S JUSTICE

Psalm 97:8: “The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments (mishpat, justice) O LORD.”

GOD’S HOLINESS

Psalm 97:12: “Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”

WHO LIVES IN JOY?

THOSE WHO LOVE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATE EVIL

Psalm 45:7: “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Repeated again in Hebrews 1:8,9

Psalm 68:3: “Let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.”

THOSE WHO TRUST IN HIM

Psalm 64:10: “The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.”

THE UPRIGHT

Psalm 97:11: “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright I heart.”

THE MEEK

Isaiah 29:19: “The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD.”

THOSE WHO SEEK THE LORD

2 Chronicles 15:12-15: At that time Asa and all the people “entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. And they sware unto the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire: and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest round about” (2 Chronicles 15:12-15).

Be blessed. Love from Nancy.

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 212: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 23

Another revolutionary podcast today with my daughter, Evangeline. She shares her story of mothering her young children in a small one room "hut" with no running water and cooking outside. Eventually, they had two rooms where she and her husband slept in the kitchen. No room for children's beds, so they all slept on the floor in the main room.

She tells how she learned to embrace her situation with joy and make it fun, and how she has learned to CHOOSE JOY in every situation. Be ready for a challenge when Vange gets going! Evangeline is a mother of 10 and grandmother of six and three more on the way.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Well, can you believe it? I now have Evangeline, my daughter, with us today. You’ve heard from Pearl. You’ve heard from Serene. And now I have Evangeline. It is so great to have them with me, and for you to hear from their lives, how they have learned to walk in joy. For those of you who are just coming onto this podcast, we’re talking about the land of motherhood, and how that it is a land of joy. God wants us to have homes of joy.

Jeremiah 30:18-19: “Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents,” talking about their homes, “and have mercy on his dwelling places. . . And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.” Do you notice, ladies, what comes out of the homes? “Out of them will come thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry.”

In Isaiah 51:3, we see another description of the home. It’s talking about Zion, but it relates to our homes. “For the LORD shall comfort Zion . . . joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”

We actually see two sets of twins in that Scripture. “Joy and gladness,” they go together right through the Word. We see joy and gladness, and God wants them to be in our homes. The other set of twins are “thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” God wants them in our homes, too.

When God was blessing the tribes of Israel through Issachar, He told them, the tribe of Issachar, that they were to rejoice in their homes; Deuteronomy 33:18. The word for “homes” is ohel, and it means, “a covering, a dwelling place.” It can be used to talk about a hut, or about a mansion, or a palace.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, I live in this little, cramped space. It’s just like a hut! Goodness me! How can I have joy in my home? If only I had more space and a bigger home! Well, I could feel a lot happier.” But Vange, that’s how you started your motherhood.

Evangeline: Well, you know, I love that you said that because I was thinking as you were speaking, “Oh, I’d better tell these stories!”

Nancy: Yes, I want you to start.

Evangeline: A lot of you don’t know, and I want to say a lot to you, because this is my passion, speaking about the joyful mother. So many of you rely on your circumstances. Literally, Mum, I have so many mothers come up to me. “Well, you know, you’ve got your mother, and you don’t know my mother. You don’t know my life.”

Or “You haven’t had cancer,” and “You haven’t had this,” and “You don’t live in my house.” Everybody’s got something to whine about, or to cry over, or some spilled milk. We live in a fallen earth. But that’s not where we leave our brains! Especially when, Mum, you were saying all those verses about where the joy comes out of our dwelling place.

We live in one percent, the west, of the richest people in the world. I’ve had a fun adventurous life. Even with my children, we, in one weekend, we moved out of a city, and we had some land. We didn’t have enough money to build. My husband found some stuff in a dumpster. In one weekend, he put up, I think it was 9’ x 14’, one room. We moved all out there. This was when I had, I think I had six children, pregnant with my seventh.

I know I had five, and I was pregnant with my sixth child. I had my sixth child out there, Mum. It’s true. We moved into this one room with no water. It was literally one room. No bathroom, no taps (faucets), there were no holes in the wall. It happened to be the coldest winter Tennessee has ever had on record.

We were cooking outside. Everything got frozen. I’ve got so many adventurous stories. You can’t even believe it.

I had people coming up to me, “Oh, you poor thing! This is just . . .” Look, I’ll tell you what! It was all in the mind. I literally had the most adventurous, adventurous life! If I followed their thinking, man alive! I would have been down in the pits like you couldn’t believe! Like the poorest, like the worst woman! I know I felt like I was the millionaire most days, because I chose it! I chose how my brain was going to go and think about my circumstances.

Many years went by, and it took a long time to get water, because we had to hire machinery, everything. It’s a long story, but eventually we got water. But you know what? I felt like I was living in Africa, in these beautiful woods. You’ve got to look at the fine, at the wonderful things around you. You’ve always got to choose joy. It’s all about choosing.

Can I say something more, Mum?

Nancy: Yes!

Evangeline: The other day, Zadok said, “Oh, somebody was asking what your mother is like,” because my children are very out there, and full of personality. I thought, “Wow, wonder what their mother is like?”

He said that verse: “She laughs at the days to come” (Proverbs 31:25). I’ll tell you what. When things do go wrong, you have to laugh. I remember my husband, well, he had hired all this machinery for, I think it was about the tenth time, to try and get water. We had to go down a cliff to get water. Then ice and snow. It just filled up the whole trench again. I think I had hemorrhaged. I was pregnant. We came in, and all we could do was laugh, because what else are you going to do? You have to laugh at some things. There’s no other choice, because otherwise you’re going to cry, and then you’re going to die early. Because joy literally makes you live longer. You have normal blood pressure. Joy heals you.

Nancy: I wonder if you are imagining it. Vange was saying how she came out with these children. They have ten children now. Of course, she is a grandmother today. Where did they sleep? The children grew up with no beds. They never had beds. There was no room for beds. So, they had their sleeping bags in the corner which they put down and slept in this little one room in the evening.

Nancy: And then your bedroom . . . Well, in the end, you got, you had the one room. Then you had one more room. Wow, hallelujah! But the little kitchen was where you and Howard slept, in the kitchen! And then the children all just laid down their sleeping bags on the floor in the other room. But they’re all here to tell the tale and they loved it!

Evangeline: Oh, yes! My boys thought beds were for girls. In fact, they hate sleeping on beds to this day! Because they grew up on the floor and they moved out. So many fun, fun stories.

But I want to tell you guys, you cannot laugh at the days to come when you’re full of anxiety. You cannot laugh when you’re full of yourself and woe is me! You cannot laugh when you’re fretful. You cannot laugh and have joy when you’re fearful, when you have no hope, when you have no purpose.

Let me tell you, mothers, this is your season. Own it. You cannot laugh and be joyful when you have no purpose. I think I just said that. You’ve got to choose it. Jesus said to the Israelites when they had feasts and there will be joy. He said, “You will be joyful.” Joyful is not just a state of the heart that willy-nilly comes.

“Well, I’m not joyful.” Well, jolly well choose it for crying out loud. Tell yourself to smile! Laugh out loud. Choose it! There is a choosing. Instead of choosing how you feel.

The other day, a story that just happened. I saw it again. I was over at Serene’s house, and Pearl came in. We’re just all talking away of what’s happening. I mentioned a little story, and I was in great spirits. I hadn’t even though anything about it. And then Serene said, “What? What?”

I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

She said, “Where were you?”

I said, “Oh no, I was here.”

She said, “Well, I’m not having it. No! Oh, my goodness! No, you should have to deal with this. I could really work you up in a tizz. But it wasn’t fair Vange. That wasn’t fair for you.” I’m like, “Well, I’m good, I’m good, Serene. I haven’t even thought about that. Didn’t even think about that.”

And then Pearl was there. She was like, “Oh, Vange, we could really work you up in a tizz.” They were joking, of course. Well, when I got home, I saw the situation again, and all of a sudden, I thought, “Oh, yes, that is just not right.”

It shows you, when people start to hear your story, I’m like, “Oh, poor you.” No, no, no. Do you know what? I went home and got myself in such a tizz. It was so stupid! I thought to myself, “This is the dumbest thing in the world. My brain was perfectly whole, and perfectly happy, until I took up somebody else’s offense, even though they were joking.

Stop taking up other people’s offense, and other people’s offense on where you are, on how you live. When I lived in that one room, when they were all little, the whole world was offended at how I lived. But do you know that every child that came in, and some of them were millionaires that came in and said, “Oh, I wish my mom and dad lived like this. This is so adventurous. This is so fun!”

See? It’s all about how your brain goes. We must be proactive at choosing joy.

It’s not having joy. It’s CHOOSING joy.

As the mother goes, so the family goes. You have to mother your own mind. Just as you mother your children and you teach them, you have to mother your own mind and teach yourself. Teach it. Encourage it every day.

King David did it. He said: “Oh my soul, live, and my soul lived!” Mother, tell yourself, “Oh my soul, be joyful!” And you will be joyful. Tell yourself, “No moods. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.” Life is always full of points down. If you haven’t, go back to the beginning, and write.

Stop and see where your subconscious is. What are your top thoughts? And by that, what I mean is, what do you think about when you’re in the shower? Just not really, it’s calm, the hot water is falling all over you. If it’s not conducive to life, then change your thoughts for joy and life because you’re wasting your thoughts.

As your thoughts are, so are you.

You can be wasting 70,000 thoughts a day.

It takes practice. It takes practice. Don’t allow your external state to determine your joy. If you try to control your environment, then let it go, and look up, because, in Jesus, when you’re in the spirit with Jesus, there are always blue skies. I don’t know or care what circumstance you are in, there are always blue skies with Jesus.

Do not own “the terribles”? Don’t take on other people’s problems. Do not be weighted down. Even in Ezekiel 37, and I’ve not talked to you ladies before, the people of God, it’s actually the people of God, and you women listening, you might be a person of God. They cried out, and they said, “Lord, we have no hope.” Ezekiel 37, it’s really fantastic. It says because they had no hope, they were not in joy.

Then, here he comes. In the Spirit of the Lord, he prophesies. You mothers have to stop prophesying to yourself every day. In the Spirit of the Lord, say, “Hear the words of the Lord to those old, dry, negative bones that have not had joy in a long time. Say, oh bones, oh mind, live in joy!”

Hezekiah, in the Bible, said, “The Lord delivered my soul.” He said the Lord didn’t deliver his circumstances. Maybe later on. But first, He delivered his soul. You cannot be joyful when you whine. I have never met a group of people who whine so much as mothers in this modern-day culture.

And yet, how does the Bible, throughout all of history, describe mothers? As the “happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:9). And yet we have forfeited our actual title over our lives because of whinehood.

It’s not whinehood, it’s motherhood.

Happy mothers who don’t ever whine.

Forgive, because you cannot have joy when you’re holding something against your husband, your children, or somebody else.

Nancy: It’s like this verse in Deuteronomy 28. It’s very challenging here, where it says: “Because you serve not the Lord your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore shall thou serve thine enemies.” And it goes on.

The Lord sees this as something very serious. When we don’t serve Him with joyfulness in the ministry . . . The service God has given us to do as mothers, is to serve our families, serve our husband, to build our homes. Our serving unto the Lord is in our homes. He wants us to do it with joyfulness, with gladness of heart.

When we don’t, and when we don’t, sadly this is in the section on curses. We start off this chapter with all the wonderful blessings. That’s where we want to be, in the blessing part. But don’t be in the cursing part, dear ladies, where we are not serving with joyfulness. We’re serving with groaning and grind, whining and griping.

No, let’s serve with joyfulness! Serve our husbands, serve our children, with gladness of heart and joyfulness. It makes all the difference to your life, and it makes all the difference to your husband, and all the difference to your children!

Evangeline: Another huge point is that the way you view God is the way you will be. A lot of you have the wrong image of God. You have Him as this person who’s always unhappy and about to beat you up.

Jesus said: “As you see me, so you see the Father.” The Father is the most loving person on earth, because out of the whole of history, Jesus, there was no one who set foot on the earth who was so full of love, so full of mercy, so full of life, so full of joy. Jesus was the most joyful Person that ever has lived. That’s who God is, and you’ve got to start seeing God as the most joyful person. Then you can be like that.

You can’t be joyful when you’re going around without a smile. It’s true. I actually do this. I practice this throughout the day. I just smile, by myself. I do the biggest grin I could ever have. It really alters and elevates, and I think it gives you endorphins. Smiling shows the world. When somebody’s smiling at you, it’s very hard not to smile back.

I think when you’re smiling, it’s very hard for your heart not to smile with your actual external expression. Change your countenance always. Stop going around as the grump in your house. Tell your children too. Smile! I tell my children, “Hey! Smile!” “Oh, nothing’s wrong.” No smiles. Just smile. Smile! Force yourself to smile throughout the day, all day.

If somebody’s done you wrong, if it’s not evil, evil, evil, immoral, if it’s just something that annoys you, smile! Smile, smile, smile, smile, smile, smile. Mum, do you mind, before we leave off, if I read this? It’s something that I wrote, and my Mum actually got me to write it. I don’t know if you posted it or what. But I found it the other day and it’s so good, so I’m just going to read it to you ladies out there,

It's titled “LOOK UP,” because as you look up to Jesus, as your thoughts look up, you’re going to change.

“There is so much life to be lived, even under the grayest of skies and the bluest of skies. The skies of our brain are made up of 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. Can you imagine seeing 70,000 stars, twinkling and pulsing with life, through an inky black sky? It would literally pulse our breath into sheer wonder and glory.

That’s how I feel most times. My stars are my thoughts. I have chosen them. I don’t let the inky black displace the light of 70,000 twinkling life choices, even though the dark night is always going to be there in the background. No, it’s a very war cry against the empty black that has my soul breathing the words of Light Himself.

Shine. Shine. Shine like stars in this universe. ‘See, I have set you as a light to shine, to shine in your family.’ And how? How are you going to do that, when your supposed circumstances don’t match up? The epic revelation that shining begins in your own brain, in your own dark sky. My own mind.

Will I light my own backdrop to see light, and goodness, and glory, and beauty of the everyday? Will I realize the mystical music of living each day as doing the little things that need doing with a smile? The things that no one gives a nod to play the music of life more beautifully than Beethoven’s greatest symphony.

Why should we live for those fleeting high moments when it is the thrill of enjoying a million mundane, everyday moments of time that makes one love life and have joy? These moments, these notes, each one supporting the best music ever played. Don’t live for the thrills. To live another note is thrilling.

Imagine sneering at the sound of a new heartbeat! Impossible! That sound brings triumphant celebrations. Yet, what does it do? It brings a job, day in and day out. Year in and year out, never changing. When it starts, we give parties, we give parties, and when it stops, we cry.

Then why should we sneer at the day-in and day-out heartbeats of our season? The very reason we celebrated in the first place. Why should we cry over the mundane rituals that accompany our season? When we are changing diapers, and they say they are changing the world, you just beam your smile wider. While they are standing and receiving accolades and you are falling on your knees from a stray Lego, still smile.

Yes, feed the children. Get them to bed. Wake up. And do it again. And what for? Because it is beautiful. Because this is what makes life—our everyday moments, the ritual of the everyday, the business of breathing, bathing, work, and the hours people call mundane in order to live, and in fact, find our treasure.

The secret of loving a joyful life is not in pursuit of life but of loving every moment in the rituals of the everyday. If the joyful heartbeat of daily living dies, and you’re whining, you will live for yourself, and lose your soul trying to find purpose for life. Nothing is as dead as not realizing your season and the ritual of it.

To escape the mundane is to escape the very beautiful whole of life. The sheer goodness of having a work before us that is enduring, made up of scars and healing, laughter after pain, dancing after mourning. It’s beautiful, utterly beautiful.

To look for anything else outside of that is to look for something that doesn’t exist, it’s fleeting. It is a fast-paced fleeting fame and burned-out world, offering you false highs, empty escapes, and thousands of new toys to try and make you happy.

But you, ladies, yes you. You now have the market on life. Your mind can choose its skies where the insignificant and daily duties are quite literally the light bulbs of blazing life in all. Look up, my friend. Look up. Because there are 70,000 twinkling stars for your choosing. I love you.”

Nancy: Wow, that’s really amazing, Vange. Where did you get that?

Evangeline: I wrote it!

Nancy: You wrote that?

Evangeline: Yes. I wrote it to somebody who was complaining.

Nancy: Whoo!

Evangeline: I wrote it to somebody who was whining. I just believe it. It’s what changed my life. It’s what changes all our lives. It’s true. It’s true, Mum.

Nancy: That is so powerful! You hadn’t given that to me before.

Evangeline: Oh. I thought I had.

Nancy: No. That is absolutely powerful.

Evangeline: I thought I gave it to you.

Nancy: I know. I’m always waiting for them. Thank you! That is so great. It reminds me of David, and how he constantly affirmed that he would praise the Lord.

Psalm 9:1-2: “I WILL,” he doesn’t say, “Well, I should praise the Lord, but you know . . .” No, “I WILL praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I WILL shew forth all thy marvelous works. I WILL be glad and rejoice in thee: I WILL sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”

We keep going through the Psalms, and he keeps saying: “I WILL,” “I WILL praise the Lord,” “I WILL rejoice in Him.” That also has to be our affirmation, our confession. “I WILL, I WILL.”

Evangeline: I wanted to find the Scripture that I was in the other day, and I can’t find it for you ladies. But the whole chapter was, choose joy. It was Paul and Timothy, and they were nearly dying. They were in jail, and it was so funny. It was so great. The whole chapter was, OK, be happy! Choose joy! Be excited about life! Over-excited about life! The whole thing was like, oh man!

I must have read it before, but I never read it like this. I’m underlining all the things, and there were about twelve of them in just one chapter. All of choosing your state. It was incredible!

Nancy: Absolutely! Yes.

Evangeline: Yeah. Like King David. “I will. I will. I will.”

Nancy: Exactly. It’s all a choice, isn’t it? We’re going to choose joy.

Evangeline: Will you? Today?

Nancy: Absolutely! I love Psalm 46:4: “There is a river, the streams of which make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the tents,” that means “the homes,” “of the most High.” God wants the homes, His homes, He wants His river, the river of the Holy Spirit, to flow through our homes, to make them glad. To make them glad.

We can’t do it on our own. We need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, which is the joy of the Holy Spirit. It’s only through the river. And, of course, this river has many, many streams. The Holy Spirit wants to flow out in streams, in streams of joy and gladness, streams of love, and forgiveness, and sweetness, and healing, and encouragement, and building up. Streams of compassion and kindness, and tender-heartedness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, patience, peace-making. We just go on and on.

There’s a stream for every need that we have as we’re raising our children and building our homes. They may not all flow at once, but they will flow as we need them. It’s all through the power of the Holy Spirit that makes glad the homes the homes of our God, Amen?

Evangeline: Amen. Can I just say one thing, Mum?

Nancy: Yes!

Evangeline: I’m sorry, but the thought came to me that, really, what Mum was saying then is absolutely the truth, because it’s out of the homes that all those things that you were talking about, being kind, and all those lovely, wonderful things.

Anyone can be kind when everything’s going right, when everything’s going your way, and everybody likes you. It’s really a load of junk to only be kind when situations arise. Life doesn’t always go our way. Really being joyful is in the moment where things don’t go right.

You’re not in the right situation. Things are going everywhere, especially as a mother. You’ve got things out of control from morning till night. There are certain things that you can control, but you don’t know if you step on a Lego, or this one’s going to split his lip open. But it’s choosing joy in all the crazy situations.

When you want to scream, you smile! You laugh. When you want to lash out, you don’t. You claw your skin instead, and you laugh, until it becomes one great big fun game. Life does! You have to practice. You have to practice it. Once you practice, it becomes your lifestyle.

There’s not one joyful person that I have known that hasn’t chosen joy (and they don’t live in a normal circumstance . . . you know, multi-billionaires . . . in fact, some of those are sad, and some are happy. But it’s not having your circumstances, joy is not having your circumstances right. Uh-uh. Nope. Not at all. It’s actually practicing when your circumstances aren’t met and aren’t right.

Nancy: That’s right. Oh, yes! Thank you, Vange, for coming and sharing.

Evangeline: You’re welcome, because this is one of my most passionate, passionate things to tell people. I want to kick it in the face.

Nancy: I do think that joy, this is the greatest need in the homes of God today, is His joy. His joy to be filling the home. So, dear mothers . . .

“I pray, Lord Jesus, that You will bless every mother listening today. I pray that You will fill them with Your joy. Lord, we thank You for Your Word that says that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

“Lord, this is Your kingdom life. We thank You Lord, that You’ve given us Your joy. Lord, I pray that You will bless everyone listening today. Just pour Your joy out upon them. Teach them how to put it on, Lord God, because You have already given it to them.”

“I pray that You will fill their homes with joy, and fill their homes with laughter, and fill their homes with, Lord, gladness, and thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Oh, God, that You will be praised and thanked and glorified in every home, Lord.

“We thank You, Lord, that singing unto You, Lord, is part of joy. You want us to do this, Lord. Bless them, bless them abundantly, Father. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.