Time To Say No

 

Dear Gail-Friends:

Nancy Campbell is a mentor to me and scores of other women.  This is her most recent email devotional.  It's so important.  Please share it.  She has given me permission to share her writings with others.  I recommend her website and her podcast.  I pray for her mantle to fall on each of us.  We were born for such a time as this - to stand strong against the evil one's plans to steal, kill, and destroy. 

June 02, 2022

Dear Gail, This is the latest Women's Devotional.

Time To Say No “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

The devil wants our children. He will take the souls, minds, and hearts of our children if we let him. He wants to take them down his road of destruction. We cannot give him an inch, or he takes a mile. We must be fierce guarders! Because the devil hates everything that God loves and planned for His creation, he robs women of their God-given home and mothering by wooing them into their careers. He robs children of being raised in the home which is their inheritance. He robs families of children that God has eternally destined for them by contraception, sterilization, and abortion. He robs marriages through pornography and adultery. He robs our silver and gold by tempting us to spend it on wasted material pleasures instead of God’s kingdom. We see an example in the life of King Ahab in 1 Kings 20:2, 3. Ben-Hadad, king of Syria sent messengers to king Ahab of Israel: “Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.” How dare he take ownership! They did not belong to him. But what did king Ahab answer? “My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.” He even stated: “I denied him not” (1 Kings 20: 4, 7). Can you believe it? Because of the fear of man, or because he didn’t have the courage to stand up against king Ben-Hadad, he surrendered to him. He gave up everything that was most precious to him. How sad to read such a testimony? And yet we can so easily get caught. God gives us our children to raise for Him and for God’s destiny. And yet we give them to daycares and hand them over to the state education system. Somehow, even some Christian parents don’t mind that their children are taught that Islam is a peaceful religion (while we watch Islamic terror on TV). Many children in state schools have been asked to draw posters of the Five Pillars of Islam and pictures of the Prophet Muhammad, sing Islamic songs, wear Islamic clothes, construct a 3-D model of a mosque, design an Islamic prayer rug, and do calligraphy for “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.” Yes, this is in American schools. They don’t seem to mind that their children are openly taught about alternative lifestyles and that transgenderism is a choice for them. They may even be ignorant that the gay agenda now pushes their lifestyle in our state schools through books and curriculums (even on-line school). One of their latest books available to schools is “It’s Perfectly Normal” which contains material so sexually explicit that, according to the American Life League, it has been ruled inappropriate for prisoners by a Washington State court. Did you know that Ontario (Canada) passed a bill where children could be taken from the parents if they oppose their wanting to change their gender? Some parents don’t mind that their children are taught that abortion is a woman’s right. They don’t seem to mind that their children are brainwashed in socialism.  Let’s not give in like Ahab. Let’s have the courage to rise up and say No to the enemy! No to his robbing of all that God has given us. Speak your confession out loud: “I will not give anything to the devil. He has no right over me. I am God’s possession. He has no right over my children, and I will not give him any authority over them. They are God’s possession, and I am their guardian.” It’s time to say No. Nancy Campbell www.aboverubies.org PRAYER: “Dear Father God, please give me courage in this hour. Please save me from handing over my children to the devil’s plans. Help me to stand strong against liberalism and socialism and the lies and deception of the devil who wants to steal my children’s mind and hearts. Help me to guard them well. Amen.” AFFIRMATION: As a mother, I am on the guard against all deception and lies from the enemy. I say No to liberalism, socialism, progressivism and all plans steal my children from their God-given destiny. New Ontario law allows govt to seize children if parents oppose their ‘gender identity’ — RT World News

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell. I know you will be so blessed. A new podcast comes out each Tuesday morning. You can go to the home page of Above Rubies to click on to it or go to: http://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com

The Silent Tragedy Affecting Today's Children

“I know that many would choose not to hear what I say in the article, but your children need you to hear this message. Even if you disagree with my perspective, please, just follow the recommendations at the end of the article. Once you see the positive changes in your child’s life, you will understand why I say what I say!” ~V.P.


Victoria Prooday is a registered Occupational Therapist and an outspoken advocate of children and hands-on parenting. I share her post with her permission because I believe her advice is absolutely on target.

The silent tragedy affecting today’s children

by Victoria Prooday

"There is a silent tragedy developing right now, in our homes, with our children. Through my work with hundreds of children and families as an occupational therapist, I have witnessed this tragedy unfolding right in front of my eyes.

Talk to teachers and professionals who have been working in the field for the last 15 years. You will hear concerns on kids’ mental health similar to mine. Moreover, in the past 15 years, researchers have been releasing alarming statistics on a sharp and steady increase in kids’ mental illness, which is now reaching epidemic proportions:

• 1 in 5 children has mental health problems
• 43% increase in ADHD
• 37% increase in teen depression
• 200% increase in suicide rate in kids 10-14 years old

How Much More Evidence Do We Need Before We Wake Up?

No, “increased diagnostics alone” is not the answer!

No, “they all are just born like this” is not the answer!

No, “it is all the school system’s fault” is not the answer!

Yes, as painful as it can be to admit, in many (not all) cases, WE, parents, are the answer to many of our kids’ struggles!

It is scientifically proven that the brain has the capacity to rewire itself through the environment. Unfortunately, with the environment and parenting styles that we are providing to our children, we are rewiring their brains in the wrong direction and contributing to their challenges in everyday life.

Yes, there are and always have been children who are born with disabilities and despite their parents’ best efforts to provide them with a well-balanced environment and parenting, their children continue to struggle. These are NOT the children I am talking about here.

I am talking about many others whose challenges are greatly shaped by the environmental factors that parents, with their greatest intentions, provide to their children. As I have seen in my practice, the moment parents change their perspective on parenting, many of these children change.

 

What is Wrong With Our Children?

Today’s children are being deprived of the fundamentals of a healthy childhood, such as:

• Emotionally available parents
• Clearly defined limits and guidance
• Responsibilities
• Balanced nutrition and adequate sleep
• Movement and outdoors
• Creative play, social interaction, opportunities for unstructured times and boredom

Instead, children are being raised by:

• Digitally distracted parents
• Indulgent parents who let kids “rule the world”
• Sense of entitlement rather than responsibility
• Inadequate sleep and unbalanced nutrition
• Sedentary indoor lifestyle
• Endless stimulation, technological babysitters, instant gratification, and absence of dull moments

Could anyone imagine that it is possible to raise a healthy generation in such an unhealthy environment? Of course not! There are no shortcuts to parenting, and we can’t trick human nature. As we see, the outcomes are devastating. Our children pay for the loss of well-balanced childhood with their emotional well-being.

 

How to Fix It?

If we want our children to grow into happy and healthy individuals, we have to wake up and go back to the basics. It is still possible! I know this because hundreds of my clients see positive changes in their kids’ emotional state within weeks (and in some cases, even days) of implementing these recommendations:

Set limits and remember that you are your child’s PARENT at this time, not a friend.

Offer kids well-balanced lifestyle filled with what kids NEED, not just what they WANT. Don’t be afraid to say “No!” to your kids if what they want is not what they need.

• Provide nutritious food and limits snacks. Avoid toxic foods.
• Spend one hour a day in green space: biking, hiking, fishing, watching birds/insects.
• Have a daily technology-free family dinner.
• Play one board game a day. (List of family games) Allow for unstructured play.
• Involve your child in one or more chores a day (folding laundry, tidying up toys, hanging clothes, unpacking groceries, setting the table etc).
• Implement consistent sleep routine to ensure that your child gets lots of sleep in a technology-free bedroom.

Teach responsibility and independence. Don’t over-protect them from small failures. It trains them the skills needed to overcome greater life’s challenges.

• Don’t pack your child’s backpack, don’t carry her backpack, don’t bring to school his forgotten lunch box/agenda, and don’t peel a banana for a 5-year-old child. Teach them the skills rather than do it for them.

Teach delayed gratification and provide opportunities for “boredom” as boredom is the time when creativity awakens:

• Don’t feel responsible for being your child’s entertainment crew.
• Do not use technology as a cure for boredom.
• Avoid using technology during meals, in cars, restaurants, malls. Use these moments as opportunities to train their brains to function under “boredom”.
• Help them create a “boredom first aid kit” with activity ideas for “I am bored” times.

Be emotionally available to connect with kids and teach them self-regulation and social skills:

• Turn off your phones until kids are in bed to avoid digital distraction.
• Become your child’s emotional coach. Teach them to recognize and deal with frustration and anger.
• Teach greeting, taking turns, sharing, empathy, table manners, conversation skills,
• Connect emotionally – Smile, hug, kiss, tickle, read, dance, jump, or crawl with your child.

We must make changes in our kids’ lives before this entire generation of children will be medicated! It is not too late yet, but soon it will be…"

I hope you will visit Ms Prooday's blog where you will find some very practical parenting tips:   Your OT Victoria Prooday 

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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:
  Spiritual Sundays  GRAND Social      Modest Mom Monday Link-up      The Art of Homemaking Mondays
   BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS LINK PARTY     Share Your Cup Wednesday Wordless Wednesdays    Classical Homemaking Link-Up     
    Favorite Things Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life  Paula's Weekend No Rules Blog Party Friendship Friday 
Sunday Thoughts Link-Up
 OVER THE MOON LINKY PARTY!

Wisdom Wednesdays - Mothers Won the War

My heart quickened when I read this.  I receive it and hope you'll pass it on.

MOTHERS WON THE WAR!

(This is a prophetic reading by Sharon White via Above Rubies Facebook page)


The old town church bell began to ring. There was heard a shout! It was a call throughout the land for Mothers everywhere to return home. 

"The children need you,” came the cry. 

"Your husbands need you," the preacher urged from the front church steps. "This nation needs a great Christian revival for Mothers to get back on the old fashioned path of being at home. This is your post. Stand by! Stand Fast! The country is in turmoil. There is misery and suffering everywhere. We need all the Mothers in the home. Dig in your heels and make your homes lighthouses of holiness and service. Don't let the enemy invade the hearts of our homes. Don't let the enemy get a foothold in or they will slowly erode and take away the godly home."

There was a cry of repentance and lamentation. There were tears of conviction and a softening of cold, worldly hearts which had been hardened by materialism, the seeking of money, and a life of seeking constant recreation. Work must be done in the home! A sense of joy, pride, and relief filled these mother’s minds. 

There was heavenly work to do and they were coming from the byways and highways, back to their own homes. The Mother's place was being restored everywhere.

As the sun rose the next morning, there were mothers on their knees in prayer. They were reading their Bibles. They were making homemade breakfasts, doing the laundry, wearing aprons, and caring for all who entered their doors. They were soldiers for the HOME.

Every house had a Mother in her post in every community across this land. Every child in every 
neighborhood had security and peace knowing that a loving, godly mother was always home. Their innocence was restored and protected.

Husbands were now known in the gates for their work in civic and church duty. They were no longer coming home to empty houses, or having to take on the extra task of Mother's work. They provided the living again. They served the community and took on church work. They had loving wives at home, who cared for their families and provided a place of rest.

All the prayers and Bible reading from the mothers infiltrated the lighthouses and brought holiness into the children's souls. Mothers trained up their children to do a mighty work for the Lord. Mother was always there to make nutritious meals, to keep the home pretty and clean, and to have the patience of a saint to care for her charges.

This revival of Mothers at Home affected the land and the nation. Godly children grew up with integrity and honor. They took political offices, held places of authority in both business and government, and their actions and lives turned the tides and won the war against the threat of ungodly ruin and sinful devastation.

The tide was turned. Mothers helped win the war because they heard the preacher's cry. They heard the bell from the town church which called all citizens to stand fast, to stand by, and to take action! The land was restored to order as all the mothers were called out of the world and back into their homes.

They sacrificed much, they sacrificed energy, money, and fulfillment. And by their actions of a mass exodus of Mothers back to their homes, these women restored a godly nation!
~ Sharon White



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I'm sharing this post with some of my friends at :

Charlotte at Spiritual Sundays

Janis with Sunday Stillness
The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up
 

 Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life 
GRAND Social
  All Things Bright and Beautiful Link-Up

 GRAND Social

Modest Mom Monday Link-up 

Meet-Up Monday

Growing Homemakers Link-Up

  The Gathering Spot Link-Up 

Titus 2 Tuesday 

Share Your Stuff Tuesday 

Wordless Wednesdays   

 Jennifer Dukes Lee Tell His Story

Teaching What Is Good Link-Up

A Hope in Every Season Homemaking Link-Up 

Judith’s Wholehearted Wednesday   
Raising Homemakers Wednesday

A Wise Woman Builds

Wake Up Wednesday

A Little R & R Wednesday
 Wednesday's Prayer Girls & Link-Up Party!

  
Thought Provoking Thursdays at 3D Lessons 4Life

Thursday  Favorite Things

Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life

Friendship Friday 
  Faith Filled Friday at Missional Women
 Fellowship Fridays at Christian Mommy Blogger

 My Fresh Brewed Life with Barbie – Weekend Brew

Wisdom Wednesdays - The Joy and Pain of Motherhood

photo courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com

I love being a mother, and I love poetry.  When I found this poem about motherhood, I had to share it because it so perfectly expresses the depths of my heart .  I admire a poet who can put into words something so deep, and that is both joyful and painful at the same time.  I hope you will take the time to read it slowly and carefully and be touched as I am by the beauty.  

THE JOY AND PAIN OF MOTHERHOOD

The fair young earth hushed all her sounds of life,

As evening gathered in the western sky,
And calmed the sportive winds that she might hear
The world's first mother's first fond lullaby.

A rapture, such as mothers share with God
By sweet melodious cadences expressed:
"My child! Part of my heart in human form--
My living thought, plucked from my throbbing breast!"

How good was God to give such balm divine
To sinning Eve bereft of Paradise!
To grant her, mourning over Eden lost,
To find new Edens in her baby's eyes.

And every mother, crooning o'er her child,
Catches the same sweet rapture from the skies,
And, though shut out of earthly Edens, finds
In mother-love, a sinless Paradise.

Each height of bliss but measures depth of woe,
And mother-joy is matched by mother-pain.
Eve's gentle heart bled o'er her sinning child,
And Mary wept o'er hers who had no stain.

Mothers alone drink Sorrow's deepest dregs.
Did God need sympathy that He should deign
To grant to woman through her mother-love,
Some comprehension of His love and pain?

Mothers alone climb Joy's most rapturous heights;
Here, too, they touch the heart of love divine.
“O Father, God, how very good thou art
To grant us joys that else were only thine!”

A partnership with God is motherhood;
What strength, what purity, what self-control,
What love, what wisdom should belong to her
Who helps God fashion an immortal soul!
~ Mary Wood-Allen

The line, "To grant to woman through her mother-love, some comprehension of His love and pain" really, truly expresses a deep truth.  Motherhood is both wonderful and terrible at the same time because we are connected forever, at the heart, to another human being.  We think of them every day, even when they reach adulthood.  We feel their happiness and we feel their sadness. Isn't this how G-d feels about us?  

When I became a grandmother, I told someone, "I now know a whole new level of love, and a whole new level of worry."  My grandson, too, is in my thoughts daily.  

I wonder at my own grandmother who had eleven children, and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Three of her eight sons were alcoholics, so she must have had many cares, but I know because of her strong faith, she learned to cast those cares on her Heavenly Father.  That is what I do when a worry about my children or grandson crosses my mind.  I pray, "Father, I cast this care into your loving hands," and I find His peace .

The last section also impacted me.  "A partnership with God".  Yes, that is how I've always viewed my mother role.  I desperately desired to rear my girls to be His followers.  I continue to desire to be a mentor and example to them.

The attributes of motherhood listed in the last section are a tall order, but are attainable if we cling to His Spirit and His Word as a guide.  He will give us His strength, purity, self-control, love and wisdom if we seek them.  

I would never claim to be a perfect mother, but I continue to desire those virtues in my walk through this world, because I still have a role as a mother and a grandmother to "help fashion an immortal soul".  My role will not end until I pass away, and I take it very seriously  -- and with great joy.

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I'm sharing this post with some of my friends at :

Charlotte at Spiritual Sundays

Janis with Sunday Stillness
 

 Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life 
GRAND Social
  All Things Bright and Beautiful Link-Up

 GRAND Social

Modest Mom Monday Link-up 

Meet-Up Monday

Growing Homemakers Link-Up

  The Gathering Spot Link-Up 

Titus 2 Tuesday 

Share Your Stuff Tuesday 

Wordless Wednesdays   

 Jennifer Dukes Lee Tell His Story

Teaching What Is Good Link-Up

A Hope in Every Season Homemaking Link-Up 

Judith’s Wholehearted Wednesday   
Raising Homemakers Wednesday

A Wise Woman Builds

Wake Up Wednesday

A Little R & R Wednesday

  
Thought Provoking Thursdays at 3D Lessons 4Life

Thursday  Favorite Things

Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life

Friendship Friday 
  Faith Filled Friday at Missional Women
 Fellowship Fridays at Christian Mommy Blogger

 My Fresh Brewed Life with Barbie – Weekend Brew

Thankful Thursday - A G-dly Grandfather

at the Massing of the Colors on Veterans Day

I am very thankful that my grandson has a G-dly grandfather.  Rabbi Jem is teaching him to love G-d, his family, and his country.  We always take Jonathan to the Veterans Day, 4th of July, and Memorial Day parades.  

at the air museum where PawPaw volunteers

He loves teaching him about airplanes.

weekly park day

And has the time and patience for laying down to look at clouds.

I'm thankful that Jem is a big kid himself, so he loves to play.  He's like Peter Pan -- he won't grow up, and that's a good thing.  A very good thing.

At the arcade

Playing Mario Kart on Wii

At the park - on a rainy day

Here he is with Rose, a little girl in our congregation.  She wanted a picture of him with a sticker on his nose.  No problem.  You have to love a man like that...and I do.

Ready for sword fighting any time

He has a special hat for every occasion...and a quotation to go along with it.  He's such a ham - whoops, that's not kosher! (smile)

Never a dull moment.

What a guy....what a grandfather.  I am so thankful.
 
I'd love to hear what you are thankful for today.

 Thankful Thursday is my day to focus on and be thankful for the good things in my life. 

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I'm linking up today with:

Spiritual Sunday
The Gathering Spot Link-Up
GRAND Social
All Things Bright and Beautiful Link-Up

Modest Mom Monday Link-up 

Meet-Up Monday

Growing Homemakers Link-Up

Titus 2 Tuesday 

Tuesdays with a Twist 
Share Your Stuff Tuesday

A Hope in Every Season Homemaking Link-Up  
Wordless Wednesdays 

Winsome Wednesday

A Wise Woman Builds

Whole Hearted Wednesday 

Wake Up Wednesday

Jenny Marie's Wordless Wednesday 
Favorite Things 

Hearts for Home 

Friendship Friday  

 Freedom Friday