Although Ruth the Moabitess was a foreigner to Israel, she earned the testimony of being known as a “virtuous woman”—a woman of valor, strength and courage. Boaz confessed, “All the city knows thee for a bride worth the winning” (Ruth 3:11 Knox).

Mother, we have the privilege of training daughters to be a “bride worth the winning.” What a wonderful vision. Many young women today are not ready for marriage. They have been educated for the market place instead of the high calling of motherhood and managing a home. But we can prepare daughters who understand their destiny and know that embracing children and establishing a godly family is the highest privilege upon which a woman can embark.

We are not only preparing a “bride worth the winning”, but a “nation strengthener.”

Love from Nancy

Would you like to know my favorite Scripture? It is Isaiah 26:3-4, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” Because it is a favorite, I have memorized it, so it is always with me.

What is perfect peace? The true Hebrew rendering is “peace, peace,” meaning a double portion of peace. It is God’s peace which is undisturbable. Don’t you love that? Nothing, no matter how traumatic, disturbs God! And because He is your God, and dwells in you, you can also live in this kind of peace.

But there are two things you have to do:

1) Focus your thoughts upon the Lord. If all your thoughts are upon your problem and the trauma you are facing, you will not experience peace.

2) Trust totally in the Lord. If your trust is in man or trying to solve your problem with your own limited capacity, you will continue to live in stress. Try God’s way.

Love from Nancy

Proverbs 10:21 says, “The lips of the righteous feed many.” I long for this to be my testimony, but in order to have feeding lips, I must first feed my soul. I want God’s Word to not only be in my heart but in my mouth, ready to feed whoever is around me. All mothers need feeding lips. Not only do we have hungry bodies to feed, but hungry souls and spirits too.

What a tragic thing to be faithful to feed our children’s bodies so they are robust and strong and yet they grow up with tiny starved souls and spirits. Our children’s “inner man” needs feeding as much or more than their “outer man.” I like to tell my children the statement I read of a great Chinese Christian who confessed, “No Bible; no breakfast!” He would never feed his physical body until he first fed his spirit.

Be a “lip feeder” today. Richly feed your children and those around you with wisdom and truth.

Love from Nancy

How much laughter fills your home? I’m sure the children are always laughing, but what about you and your husband? Statistics say that children laugh up to 300– 400 times a day whereas most adults only laugh about 15 times a day. I wonder if some adults laugh that much!

I know that the stress of each day limits laughter, but is it because we are taking the stress on ourselves instead of walking in the strength and rest of the Lord?

The Bible is correct when it says in Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” I am sure that the more we laugh, the healthier we’ll be.

Laughter reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system and releases endorphins. Laugh at your children. Laugh at the little things that happen. Laugh at yourself. Enjoy the life God has given you in your home.

Love from Nancy

Did you know that God wants each new generation to learn how to fight? He left enemies in the land of Israel so that each new generation of Israelites could be taught the art of war (Judges 3:1-3).

While we are on this earth, we will always be in a battle. We are in a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, truth and deception and light and darkness. We must know how to fight these daily battles, but we must also teach our children how to fight the enemy. If we do not teach the strategies of warfare against the enemy, they will fall prey to his attacks.

We want to raise children who can fight the enemy and will still be standing after the fight! Read 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; Ephesians 6: 10-18 and 2 Timothy 2:3-4.

Love from Nancy

“Ye are the children of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1). What does that mean? I am a redeemed, blood bought child of the King of the universe. Not any king, but the King of kings. I am royalty. You are royalty. Therefore we should live like royalty. The Knox translation says, “Learn to carry yourselves as the children of the Lord your God.”

Do you speak like royalty--like a daughter of the King of kings? Do you walk like a daughter of royalty? Do you dress like a daughter of the King of kings? That means modestly, but also beautifully. You won’t see a princess in drab, dreary clothes. Do you live in every way like a daughter of the King?

Are you teaching your daughters to carry themselves as daughters of the King? Acknowledge who you are and live accordingly.

Love from Nancy

I am sure I don’t have to remind you that mothering is hard work! It’s how it’s meant to be.

When God put Adam and even in the garden home, he gave them work to do—and that was before the fall of man. Don’t despise that your career takes work!

Work is a blessing. Work is therapeutic. Work releases creativity.

God told the first couple to “dress” the garden. The word in the Hebrew is avad and means to “work until weary, to be fatigued.”

God reiterates the same theme in the New Testament in 1 Timothy 5:10 where He tells us that feeding and raising children is a “good work.” The Greek word is ergon and means, “work that is not accomplished by a single act but by accumulated labor and continued work.” That sounds like daily mothering, doesn’t it?

Rejoice as you work. Sing while you work. You are in the perfect will of God.

Love from Nancy

I was amazed to read about some of the sons of Israel. 1 Chronicles 12:14-15 NASB says, “The sons of Gad were captains of the army; he who was least was equal to a hundred and the greatest to a thousand. These are the ones, who crossed the Jordan… when it was overflowing all its banks and they put to flight all those in the valleys, both to the east and to the west.”

What a vision! To raise a son who is equal to a hundred men! Or even a son who is equal to a thousand other men! In 1 Chronicles 26:29-31 we read about “capable men” and also “men of outstanding capability.”

Don’t aim for raising sons and daughters that are status quo and like everyone else around. Aim your vision higher. Educate children who will think like God thinks instead of the “dumbing down” spirit of this world. Raise sons who will “know their God” and who will be “strong, and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32).

Love from Nancy

How blessed we are to have the gift of life. How blessed we are as mothers to have the privilege of bringing life into the world, not only life for this earth, but for the eternal realm. We were created to be life-givers. To cooperate with God to bring into this life an eternal soul who will live forever is a privilege beyond any other.

Life-giving is our glory. We teach our children the wonder of life. We teach them the preciousness and value of life, from conception to the grave. We teach them how to enjoy life. We speak life-giving words to our husband and children and everyone we meet. We prepare our family life-giving foods.

We delight in life because “Christ who is our life” dwells in us (Colossians 3:4).

Love from Nancy

Nehemiah faced persecution on every hand. His adversaries tried every way to stop him build up the gates and wall of Jerusalem that were broken down.

You are also in a building program and the adversary, the devil does not want you to succeed in building either. He wants your marriage and family weakened.

But what did Nehemiah do? In Nehemiah 6:9 he says, “They all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.” Instead of caving in to their plots against him, he cried out to God for strength to continue.

The Knox translation says, “I pressed on the harder.” The more his enemies came against him, the more he determined to finish the task. The Moffat’s translation says, “I applied myself with greater energy.”

When everything is coming against you, don’t give in. Press on harder in God’s strength.

Love from Nancy

Psalm 53:5 says, “There they were in great fear, where no fear was.” The margin of my Bible says, “They feared a fear.”

One of Satan’s greatest tactics is to bind us up with fear even when there is no valid reason for the fear. These deceptive fears immobilize you from fulfilling God’s plan for your life. They debilitate you.

Society fills women with deceptive fears. “It would be dangerous to have a baby in my forties!” I beg your pardon. You are in your child-bearing years until you reach menopause.

“I may have a Down syndrome baby.” And you may not, so what are you fearing? And if you did (which can happen to a mother of any age), this child would be your greatest blessing.

“I’ve had two c-sections and my doctor says I can’t have any more.” There are many mothers who have seven and eight c-sections and their womb is still as great as ever.

The “fears of a fear” keep coming. Will you give into them or trust in God?

Nancy

Michelle, thank you for your great post.

I have just read William Barclay's translation of Romans 8:5-6, "Those who have allowed their lower nature to become the rule of their lives have an attitude to life which is dominated by their lower nature; those who have taken the Spirit as the rule of their lives have an attitude to life which is dominated by the Spirit."

Oh to let the Holy Spirit dominate our lives. When the Holy Spirit dominates our lives, our marriage will be dominated by the Holy Spirit and our home will be dominated by the Holy Spirit. How wonderful.

Nancy

Moses prayed in Psalm 90:17, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” We would all like to be beautiful, wouldn’t we?

We imagine our self beautiful, even if we aren’t. Beauty is delightful to behold. In fact, “delight” is the meaning of this word in this Scripture.

More than anything else, God wants His beauty to be upon us. He wants our children to learn of His beauty and character as they watch our lives. He wants the world to see His beauty through us for this is the way He has planned for them to get a glimpse of Him.

His beauty is His presence in our lives. I love to pray these lines…

"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All his wondrous passion and purity. O thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine, ‘Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me."

Love from Nancy

You are pregnant! But you are scared to tell your parents or parents-in-law! You know you’ll get a negative reaction (or maybe even a violent reaction)!

Can I encourage you that you only have to get through the next few months, for when your precious baby is born, their hearts will change. No one can resist a baby!

Your parents and friends have this negative reaction because they have been educated to have this response.

Society, the media and the education system all teach that you shouldn’t have too many babies and should instead give your lives to careers and jobs that you will leave behind and will have no impact on the nation or eternity! Their minds have been conditioned to believe lies from Satan who hates life.

But don’t despair. They’ll love your baby when he or she comes.

And every new baby is a revelation of God’s truth and God’s kingdom which is a kingdom of life. You are helping to establish the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven.

Love from Nancy

The Bible gets it right every time. Before science ever discloses a truth, God has already established it. Here’s another maxim that God established from the beginning, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23).

You can’t get away from it. What you think is how you live. Are your thoughts full of self-pity? Don’t expect to rise up out of your pit.

Are your thoughts filled with selfishness and how everything should revolve around you? Expect to stay miserable.

Do you harbor anger and bitterness in your heart toward your husband or anyone else? You are on the way to self-destructing.

There’s only one way out. Change your thought patterns. Change them to what God says about you. Meditate in God’s Word and make it your confession. Think love. Think forgiveness. Think of blessing people. Think of how to make your husband and children happy. Think joy. Think peace.

Think God’s thoughts and you are on the way to life and victory.

Love from Nancy

One of God’s attributes is kindness.

The Hebrew word is chesed which is one of the most powerful words in the Old Testament. The meaning is much bigger than our English word of kindness. It means unfailing love, benevolence, goodness, grace which we don’t deserve, mercy, loyalty and strength.

The amazing thing is that God wants us to reveal His same chesed kindness to one another. It gets even more personal when we read the description of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:26, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” Yes, the word is chesed.

Can you imagine what our homes would be like if we daily, and constantly, demonstrated and spoke words of kindness to our husband and children?

Love from Nancy

God cannot do anything but good, because He is inherently good. This is His nature. We look out upon the world and see so much evil and suffering, but in it all, God is still good.

Because we have evil in the world does not change God’s goodness. Because we go through difficult and traumatic times does not change God’s goodness. God is Sovereign and working all things out for good.

I think of Joseph who was torn away from his family as a young teen and taken to a foreign country. He was put in prison and faced disappointment after disappointment. But God was working it out for good.

When the time came to be reconciled to his brothers, he confessed, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 45:7-8 and 50:20).

God is working everything in your life for good, too. Trust Him and acknowledge His goodness.

Love from Nancy

God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM THAT I AM! (Exodus 3:14). That says it. No one can question God’s purposes for He is I AM THAT I AM. No one can question His counsel for He is Jehovah and His thoughts are far above our thoughts.

But more than that, He is I AM today. He is I AM in the situation you face right at this moment. He is not only the faithful God of the past and the eternal future, but the God of the moment. Now! He is I AM with you in your kitchen right now, with all your frustrations and the needs of your little children and teens.

God said to Moses, “Say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” I AM comes to you right now. Acknowledge His presence with you at this “special” moment. Never forget that every moment of the day, no matter how frustrating or difficult is “divine” when I AM is with you.

Love from Nancy

SECOND MILERS!

“Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two” (Matthew 5:41).

As we prepared to update the address labels to send out the new issue of Above Rubies, we encountered a problem. We had to manually verify nearly a thousand addresses, right when we needed to print labels! It is a lengthy task to locate the address, go to the USPS webpage and verify it, and then change it on our data base.

Knowing the urgency of the task, my Above Rubies helper smilingly started to work. She didn’t only work from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm as we do each day in the office. She worked through her lunch hour. She shifted into a new gear—the “second mile” anointing! She kept on with the job in the evenings. She worked all through the weekend and continued the same pattern the following week. She didn’t stop until the last address was verified! I called her, “Second Mile Haley.”

Read the complete story at Second Milers! - Above Rubies Devotionals