You’ll never have this moment with them again.
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
Isn’t that so true? If you want a cheerful marriage become a proactively cheerful wife. And if you want a cheerful household, which is so necessary for a happy home, put on a cheerful face. Smile at everyone in your family. Speak uplifting and encouraging words. You may not feel like doing so but take no notice of your feelings for they are deceiving and not the true reality. It is amazing that when you put on a cheerful face your heart will soon begin to feel cheerful too. And then everyone will be cheerful. Isn’t that what you want?
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Have you lost your first love? Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus because they had lost their first love for Him. To keep love going, we have to rekindle it, don’t we? God’s heart of love never changes toward us but we need to keep our hearts close to Him and loving Him back. We do this by keeping in His Word, in prayer, and fellowshipping with the saints.It seems that we are prone to losing the first fire of love. It happens in marriages too. What is the current love temperature in your marriage? Is it hot and passionate or getting a little cold and boring? Love doesn’t automatically keep hot. Without doing anything, it easily slips away.
Jesus told the Ephesus church to “repent, and DO the FIRST works” (Revelation 2:5).
Jesus never rebukes us without giving an answer. What is the answer? Do what you did in the beginning. It’s the same in our marriages. If our love toward our husband is waning, we DO something. First of all, we repent! Then we start doing what we did when we first fell in love.
When you fell in love with your husband, you spoke lovingly, endearingly, and kindly to him. Do it again.
You were sweet to him. How sweet are you now?
You smiled at him and looked at him adoringly. Are you doing that when he talks to you now?
You wanted to be with him all the time and communicate with him? Are you communicating now?
When love has grown really cold, it can seem impossible to get back the first love. But do it one step at a time. You do one little thing you used to do. And then you take the next step and the next step and as you keep doing the things that made your husband fall in love with you at the beginning, it will restore that glorious love between you again.
In fact, it will be more glorious. Older love is even more amazing than first love. Never be satisfied with lukewarm love. Go for the ultimate. It will happen if you do what God says.
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Annet Loginova, Russia
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"Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government, etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? The homemaker’s job is one for which all other’s exist."~ C. S. Lewis
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The following is a message from one of our Above Rubies readers, Samantha Ferguson:Hey Above Rubies families! I am in need of some young people's help this summer! We are going to be building a kennel for our Great Dane 
business and also starting a Flower Farm. Along with those business ventures, general help with our eight children and home management such as cooking, cleaning, etc. will also be needed.
business and also starting a Flower Farm. Along with those business ventures, general help with our eight children and home management such as cooking, cleaning, etc. will also be needed.I was thinking a duo, brother/sister, sister/sister, friend/friend, whatever combination, could stay with us from the April Above Rubies Retreat to the August Retreat! They will be a part of our family while they stay with us!
We have a big house, so they will have the basement basically to themselves. Currently being renovated, they will have access to a workout room, bathroom, and a kitchen right outside their bedroom. We have an additional bedroom if needed as well.
Further information:
Our businesses are outgrowing us...
Not Content Coaching
Ferguson Family Danes
Hayden's Homestead
(Feel free to check out our pages to see what our businesses are like and the services we provide)
We have an amazing opportunity for two rising entrepreneurs!
Qualifications:
Love the Lord with an eagerness to grow their relationship with Him
One of you must have their driver’s license
Love of children and animals, especially dogs!
Creative ideas for social media content and editing skills
Skills you'll be learning:
Business Management and Marketing
Direct Sales
Social Media Management
Content Creation
General construction
Building a kennel this spring/summer
All things Homesteading
Vegetable Gardening
Flower/ Bouquet making
Canning/ Food preservation
Dog Breeding & Training
We will have 2 litters due around end of July
We will cover:
Room and Board (if needed)
Performance based Bonuses
For further information please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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The following is a lovely story from JL. JL had her first baby at 32 years and last October was blessed to receive her 7th baby at age 42! God is good. You’ll love both poems!
Years ago, I came across an old mother’s poem that I loved. When I first read it, I had such a sense of mothering across the ages. The mom that wrote the poem in the 1950s was about 37 years with five children when she had the poem published in the 2020s. I was 38 years when I wrote my own version with five children. (Now 42 and recently welcomed baby 7!)
When you read the poem from the 50s, you may relate to me in that I haven't poisoned any moths lately. But there are new temptations that threaten to take away my mothering and baby moments. I will print her original and REWRITE mine below. Mothering is the same through all the generations!
Song for a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton (b.1921-2018)
(published 1958 in "Ladies Home Journal" magazine, her five children at the time about ages 11, 9, 7, 5 and baby)
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew,
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo,
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
MY REWRITE:
Rocking my Baby 'Cause Babies Don't Keep!
by JL. (b.1982-) (written when her five children were 7,4,3,1, and baby)
Momma, oh Momma, come put down your phone,
Close Facebook and Pinterest, be really at home.
Start the next load of washing, slice gluten-free bread,
Put away the laundry and fresh sheets on the bed.
Where is the mom with no online presence?
She’s rocking her baby, so blissfully present.
Oh, I've lost track of current style, what's next and what's new,
(I'm too busy loving and cuddling you).
Emails are waiting and responses past due,
(Those snuggly hugs and squishy baby cheeks too!).
Not sure what's for supper, leftover stew?
And there's things that need doing, more than a few-
But I'm holding my lovey, all I'm wanting to do.
And oh! Did you hear that giggle and coo?
(I'm soaking in loving and snuggling you).
Instagram and TikTok will wait till tomorrow,
For this time doesn't last as I've learned to my sorrow.
So my phone is on silent. Computers on sleep.
I'm rocking my baby 'cause babies don't keep!
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Mother’s determine the course of the next generation. Godly home-mothering, home-teaching mothers influence the nation for good.
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God loves to rejoice over His children. Zephaniah 3:17 tell us that God rejoices over us with joy. He even sings over us. Isn’t that wonderful?Deuteronomy 28:63 and 30:9 tell us that God rejoices over us for GOOD. He loves to do good things to us and for us. The interesting thing is that the first good thing He wants to do for us is to multiply us. To give us children. Lots of children. Who thinks that’s good?
Well, if we don’t, we are opposite to God, aren’t we?
Do we have the same heart as God? We should also rejoice over our children. Not complain about them but rejoice over them. And when our children grow up and get married, we’ll rejoice when God gives them children.
It is sad that many parents warn their children to wait a few years before they have children. Maybe you have been reticent to tell your parents that you are pregnant again, knowing you will receive negative remarks from your parents.
Isn’t that strange? Parents should REJOICE that God is blessing their children with a new precious life. That they are building the family dynasty. This is for their GOOD. There is no greater blessing than a precious new life, filled with potential, given to the parents to prepare for God’s destiny for them in this life, and for the eternal world.
Psalm 107:41-43 tells us that God loves to make “families like a flock.” A flock is more than one or two. And then it tells us about the response of those who see these growing families. It says that those who are wise will rejoice and understand the lovingkindness of the Lord and “all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” They won’t be making snide and negative remarks!
God gives a mandate to grandparents, not to discourage, but to encourage their children to have children. Jeremiah 29:6: “Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.”
Love from Nancy Campbell
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Why is it so important to gather your family together daily to read God’s word, pray and worship God together? Because . . .1. It brings the presence of God into your home (Exodus 20:24).
2. It strengthens your marriage and family ties (Joshua 1:8 and Isaiah 59:21).
3. It is the greatest way to make sure your children are daily filled with God’s word (Colossians 3:6). It is only the truth of God’s Word that fortifies them and saves them from the deceptions of our humanistic society.
4. It gives opportunity to discuss the Scriptures and divine truths together. It is an opportunity for the children to ask questions and for parents to ask the children questions.
5. It is the best way to make sure we pray together as a family—for one another, for our own nation, for Israel, for the nations of the world, and for all those in need (2 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Timothy 2:1-3; and Hebrews 3:3).
6. It is imperative for it shows God that we honor Him first above everything else. And it also gives the example to our children that God is the preeminent One in our home (Psalm (92:1-2).
7. It is essential for the blessing of the nation! When families no longer take time to pray and read God’s Word together, the family weakens. And when the family weakens, the nation weakens (Psalm 1:1-3 and Jeremiah 10:25).
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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And God wants us to raise boiling hot families for God, children who will love and serve God with all their hearts, who are filled with the knowledge of God’s truth, and who will never compromise.
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“Out of the mouth of babes and suckling hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2).This Scripture causes me to think of the writing of Frank Boreham. The last paragraph is one of my favorite quotes:
"A century ago, men were following, with bated breath, the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles.
"In one year, lying midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes! During that one year, 1809, Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby rectory, and Oliver Wendell Holmes made his first appearance at Massachusetts. On the very self-same day of that self same year Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederic Chopin at Warsaw, and of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg . . . Samuel Morley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Francis Kemple. But nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles.
Yet viewing that age in the truer perspective which the distance of a hundred years enables us to command, we may well ask ourselves, ‘Which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809?’
We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. That is why, long, long ago, a babe was born at Bethlehem.”
Frank W. Boreham (Mountains in the Mist - published 1914)
Be blessed today, mother. You are in the most important career in the nation as you raise your children to be mighty warriors for God’s kingdom.
~ Nancy Campbell
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It’s just a humble wooden chairWhich is precious to me,
Because Mother rocked us all
In this chair as children wee.
I can still hear her singing:
“I Need Thee Every Hour,”
And “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,”
Old hymns that still have power.
‘Twas in this very rocking chair
That as an infant I was fed,
‘Twas here that I was rocked to sleep
Before being put to bed.
My brothers and my sisters
Were all rocked, each in turn,
And I would rock my dolly
And from Mom’s example learn.
I, too, rocked our children
When they were rocked and fed
I, too, sang favorite hymns to them
Then tucked them into bed.
Oh, what cherished memories
I pray that it won’t be long
Til I can rock grandchildren
While singing them a song.
Jan Lutz © 2007
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I love the beautiful truth that even though God is the highest above all, He is willing to stoop down to the lowest to come to our aid and help us where we are.In Isaiah 6:1 we read how Isaiah saw “the Lord sitting upon a throne, HIGH AND LIFTED UP, and his train filled the temple.” Although God was “high and lifted up” the hem of His garment came down to the people. The word train is the Hebrew word “school” and means “a letting down, the skirt, hem, or bottom edge of the garment.” It’s like the train of a bridal dress that flows along the floor after her. Don’t you love bridal trains?
Psalm 133 gives the beautiful picture of the anointing oil running down the head and then the beard of Arron the High Priest. But it didn’t stop there. The anointing oil flowed all the way down to the skirts of his garments.
We all know the beautiful story of the women who suffered chronic bleeding for twelve years. She pushed through the crowds and touched them hem of Jesus’ garment and was instantly healed.
Although God’s anointing is high, it comes right down to where we are. You can reach out and touch the hem of His garment for healing, for comfort, for strength, for wisdom, or whatever your need. God brings it right to where you are in your home. There is anointing in the hem of His garment. Read the beautiful passage in Psalm 113:4-9 where once again it pictures God “high above all nations and his glory above the Heavens.” And yet He comes down to the poor and needy and to the mother in her home (v. 9).
I think this also speaks to us as mothers in a practical way. I think that little children also receive blessing, assurance, and safety from the skirts of their mothers. I know my little ones used to hang on to my skirts and even hide under my skirts when they were little.
Sadly the skirts of some mothers are so short that little ones cannot reach them. I think there is something special about the skirts of the mother.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Dear mother, as you nurture your precious children you are revealing the heart of God and His nurturing heart of compassion and mercy. What a privilege!
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Sometimes we need to be reminded that our children belong to us. Well, first of all, they belong to God for He is their Creator and Designer, the One who uniquely and specifically created each one of our children. And there is not one child who is the same. Everyone is an intricate and unique creation of God. He is the One who has also planned their destiny from before the foundation of the world. God calls them “thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me . . . my children” (Ezekiel 16:20, 21But God entrusts them to YOU as parents. He gives you the responsibility to care for them and train them. He gives you the responsibility to teach them in His ways. Over and over again He not only reminds us, but COMMANDS us to teach His laws and His ways to our children and our children’s children "all the days of our lives.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-8 in the Amplified version reminds us how seriously we are take God’s command about teaching our children God’s truths: “You shall teach them diligently to your children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.”
Therefore, do not be intimated. Your children do not belong to the government. They do not belong to the public school system. They do not belong to another other organization. They belong to YOU. You are responsible for what they are taught. You have the last say!
Why would a God-fearing parent put their children in a public school where they aim to program your children in socialism and anti-patriotism. Most schools embrace common core teaching, the re-writing of history, the lie of white supremacy, and even transgenderism. They are tutored in the new words, phrases, and pronouns that are geared to change the thinking and ideas of this new generation.
You must know exactly what your children are being taught. And you will never know unless you are there. Why would you risk your children being brainwashed and taught lies? Nearly every student coming out of our schools and colleges today is ingrained in extreme socialism, globalism, and climate change indoctrination.
Take charge of your children’s education. The rise or fall of America depends upon it. The rise or fall of Christianity in this nation depends upon it.
God has given the authority to YOU, dear parent, not the state.
Blessings,
Nancy Campbell
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The beautiful family meal table! “I beg your pardon?” you shout. “Our table is chaos! I don’t even know how to get order!”I know. We come to our meal table with our weaknesses and failings. Our children are certainly not perfect. Sometimes they are fussy. Sometimes they don’t want to eat. They grumble and complain. They don’t want to eat their vegetables. They squabble and argue. Or even have a fist fight!
Help! Without God’s intervention, it can be total shambles! But did you know that God wants to come to your table and bring His presence?
Can I share a beautiful and biblical truth with you? The first mention of the table in the Bible is in Exodus 25:23-24, talking about the table of shewbread. In this passage God tells Moses to make a table from acacia wood and then to overlay it with pure gold. It is interesting that this table was to be made of both wood and gold, speaking of Christ’s humanity and His divinity. I believe this also relates to the tables we have in our homes.
In the Bible wood always speaks of humanity. That reminds us of our earthly table that can be very earthy! But God covered this wooden table with pure gold which speaks of the divinity of Christ.
Dear frustrated mother, God wants to bring His presence to your table. He wants to cover your humanity with His divinity.
This is what He did at the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve, and He wants to continue this practice throughout all generations. (Genesis 3:8-9) Every day He came to talk with Adam and Eve. He did not come to them in the heat of the day or during their hours of work (for God established the principle of work before sin entered the Garden of Eden). He came to them in the cool of the day, in the evening time—the time of the day when we gather around the meal table to eat together, fellowship, and relax.
God wants to join you at this time of each day too. Realize that you don’t have to survive this time on your own. God wants to come. He wants to be part of your family mealtime.
INVITE HIM TO COME. This Is the secret. It makes all the difference when you invite Him to come. Let the children be part of inviting Him to come. Help them to realize that God is present with you. Acknowledge His presence. His presence will bring the atmosphere of Heaven to you, and it will cover your earthy humanity.
I can’t do without Him at my table. I don’t think you can either.
Be blessed today,
Nancy Campbell
Picture: The Drennan family from Texas.
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I am sure, like me, you have found a rotten potato in your bag of potatoes. Isn’t it such a foul smell? There’s nothing worse. I found one the other night in my bag. The only trouble with a rotten potato is that it contaminates all the other potatoes around it! I had to throw out most of the bag.We can also be like a rotten potato. When things don’t go your way, what do you do? Do you say, “Oh well, praise the Lord anyway. Or do you get into a mood? Begin to pout? Or give the “silent treatment”? We know these reactions come from our rotten flesh. And it stinks!
Actually, our flesh is meant to be dead! The Bible tells us that when Christ died, we died with Him. When He rose, we rose with Him. When we come to Christ, we die to our flesh and instead yield to the life of Jesus Christ who dwells in us.
Galatians 2:20 says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loves me, and gave himself or me.”
A dead person doesn’t react! When we react with anger or get into a mood, we show to everyone around us that our flesh is still very much alive.
The problem is that one rotten potato affects many others. Because it is part of a bag of potatoes it begins to pollute all the potatoes around it. It’s the same with us. We live in a family. When we react negatively, live in self-pity, “fly off the handle,” or put on a miserable attitude, we affect everyone around us. We make them miserable too. They smell the stink of rottenness. And then they start to get rotten too! And everyone begins rotting together.
Are you giving off bad smells or the beautiful aroma of Christ?
Love from Nancy Campbell
Sorry for the horrible picture!
Read Romans chapter 6, Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Ephesians 4:22-27; and Colossians 3:5-9.
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Motherhood is not a part time job. It is our life! And although challenging, it is the most fulfilling life!
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I was arrested by a Scripture I read this morning in Isaiah 26:18 (NET): “We cannot produce deliverance on the earth, people to populate the earth are not born.” The NLT says: “We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.”Wow, these words are very powerful, and yet true. There are many hurting and broken people in this world and all around us. They need God’s salvation, deliverance, and healing. God is waiting to show them His salvation and deliver them from all their bondages. But how does it happen? God uses His people. We are His body on the earth, and He works through us.
The sad thing is that thousands of people are missing from the earth—men and women who God wanted on this earth. But they are not here because for so many years God’s people have thrown away His plan and decided they had a better plan.
Instead of receiving the children God planned from them, they limited their families to the average two-child family in the nation today. Millions are missing.
I pray for the eyes of God’s people to be opened to God’s ultimate plan. The more children God chooses for us to bring into this world, the more impact we have for the kingdom of God. God wants His salvation and glory to fill the earth. He wants His people to be “more and mightier” than the heathen (Exodus 1:7-12).
Psalm 105:24 tells us that God “increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.” We become weaker when we diminish. We become stronger when we multiply. These are plain facts. Plus they are Bible language.
I love the quote from Frank Boreham: "We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, GOD SENDS A BABY INTO THE WORLD TO DO IT. That is why long, long ago, a Babe was born in Bethlehem."
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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