IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
Part 4

“Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good”
(Romans 12:9).

LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO BRING CHANGE

In the last three devotions, we have been talking about the reasons many young mouthers are depressed when they have their babies. Now, what are we going to do about it? It’s not much use talking about all the reasons unless we take some action, is there? We’ve got to get building again.

David cries out in Psalm 11:3: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Well, there’s only one thing to do and that’s build them again! So let’s get going.

We cannot let things carry on the way they are. Unless we rise up and make known the truth, the next generation will degenerate further away from God’s plan. You may not feel you can do this in a big way. But you don’t have to. Be faithful in the little opportunities. Start with your own family, filling them daily with God’s truth and His plan for family life. Give them a love and awe for embracing life from God, Teach them to love babies. If God blesses you with a new baby, it I such a wonderful way for older children to experience the joy of a new baby.

Help your children to understand the horrors of abortion. Give them strong convictions to live by.

We cannot allow ourselves, or our children, to get used to evil in society. Abortion is the murder of precious life in the womb. We can never take it for granted., Romans 12:9 tell us to “ABHOR that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” The word “abhor” means “to shudder with horror.” We must teach our children to shudder with horror about abortion and other evils in our nation such as same sex marriage and transgender, etc.

When you and your children see things wrong in society, don’t let it go without speaking about it. Teach your children what is wrong. Help them to have discernment between the right and the wrong, the clean and the unclean. I don’t think there is anything sadder that seeing a young person grow up in a Christian home without godly convictions and without courage to stand up for truth.

We all know the famous quote: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." It was attributed to Edmund Burke and was recently judged the most popular quotation of modern times (in a poll conducted by editors of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations).

As you go out of your home, always be prepared to drop seeds of truth at every opportunity. Take a few Above Rubies magazines with you. Put them in a plastic bag in your handbag so they don’t get mutilated. Give them to people and to mothers when you meet them. You may not have a chance to say a lot, but you’ll never know how the Holy Spirit can speak to them through the pages of the magazine.

We need to get this magazine out in greater and greater ways. I’m tired of being bombarded with liberal and progressive jargon. The feminists and liberals do not keep quiet. Why do we when we have the truth? For more ideas of how to spread Above Rubies, go to:

http://aboverubies.org/magazine/ideas-for-distributing-above-rubies

Most of all, live the plan. As we embrace God’s plan for family life with joy and positivity, we are a testimony to all around us. Happy, united, loving, and God-fearing families are the biggest blessing of the nation.

When motherhood returns to normality in our society, we will see happy mothers instead of depressed mothers.

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, please help me to be part of building the foundations of truth again in our nation. Help me to be faithful to plant truth in the hearts of my children. Help my husband and I to be an example of family life to them. Oh God, please help us all to make Your ways known in this nation again. We cry out for the hearts of the fathers and the mothers to turn back to their homes and to children. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I will be a truth lover, a truth speaker, and a truth imparter to my children and everyone I meet.

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
Part 3

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather REPROVE them”
(Ephesians 5:11).

Why do many mothers feel depressed after having a baby? I continue sharing the last three reasons.

7. THEY ARE PROPAGANDIZED TO DENY MOTHERHOOD

Liberal teachers and professors teach the students of this generation to despise motherhood. They direct them toward alternative lifestyles and that to murder the unborn babe is accepted behavior. Many states even sanction murdering the baby after it is born! They are leading them down a path of destruction. To get back to normality their brains must be reprogrammed again in God’s infallible truth.

8. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FINANCIALLY

Rather than not have enough income, many young mothers entering motherhood may already be receiving a big paycheck. They are used to their own independent financial security. They are not mentally prepared to rely on their husband, to learn to economize, make ends meet, and be “content with such things they have” (Hebrews 13:5, 6). They expect to go into a home with all the things their parents have taken years to accumulate.

Young people have not been taught to start little and gradually build their lives together. They want it all at once. They haven’t learned to do without, to sacrifice, to cook from scratch, plant a garden, and start with a tiny house. They don’t need a huge home when they first begin their marriage. That comes with time as the Lord adds more blessings to their family.

9. THEY ARE ISOLATED

Another reason many young mothers feel depressed is because they are isolated. They don’t know many other mothers living around them. Their own mother is often working and not available. Or, even if she is, it is so long since she had babies that the is not confident herself. They were brought up pin the two-child family syndrome and there are no younger sisters or brothers to be willing babysitters and help with the baby.

Why do we have this scenario? Because mothering is not accepted as an important career in our society. I believe that when motherhood becomes the norm in society that depression will disappear (except for the genuine clinical PPD).

Mothers need one another. It is fun to have babies when family members, friends, and neighbors have babies at the same time. This is how God intends it to be. We are not meant to live isolated lives. God created us to want fellowship and company. That’s why the current mask wearing and social distancing is causing havoc. More suicides than ever. It is not the way God intended mankind to live!

When I was raising our children, I always had a Ladies’ Bible Study in my home. Every week, mothers, babies, and children filled my home. The children broke things and messed up my home, but we had great fellowship together. It was what kept us going through the difficult times. We could laugh and cry together.

I would encourage every young mother to find an encouraging Ladies’ Bible Study group where she can learn more about motherhood and find strength from being with other mothers. Make sure you find a group that encourages biblical mothering and not the opposite which is counter-productive!

Go to: http://bit.ly/PowertOfMotherhoodUS and order the manual, THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD. Every mother in the world needs this manual which takes you into the Bible to see what God says about you as a mother. It is a great manual to use at Ladies’ Bible Study Groups to share and discuss together.

Many blessings from NANCY CAMPBELL * www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, I thank You that You created me to be a mother. I embrace it with all my heart. Please help me to not only rejoice in this great career You have given to me, but to encourage every other mother I know. Help me to always be a proclaimer of You ways. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am lifting up the status of motherhood wherever I go!

PICTURE:
Painting by Sharon Forbes
https://www.macys.com/shop/product/sharon-forbes-mother-child-canvas-art-18-x-24?ID=9048095&item_group_id=PG_781143427

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
Part 2

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it”
(Mark 8:35).

We continue to talk about reasons why many mothers feel depressed after having a baby.

5. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FOR RESPONSIBILITY

It is true that motherhood is not easy. It is not for wimps. It is a life of selflessness rather than selfishness. Most young people today grow up with an entitlement attitude. They think everything revolves around them and nothing should get in the way of their plans. A baby arrives. Suddenly, they can no longer live their own life. Or do what they want when they want to. They must sacrifice for another person. They can’t even have a full night’s sleep. Help! A little baby arrives to change their life forever.

But no matter what we do in life, nothing will always be perfect. Everyone who wants to do something great will face challenges, hardship, and sacrifice. A businessman has setbacks, trials, and disappointments. But he doesn’t give up and go into depression. He faces them head on, understanding they are part of life.

A missionary often faces hardship and persecution. Does he or she get into depression because life is not a bed of roses? No. They face the battles head on because they’re doing a great work.

It’s the same with motherhood. It is the most important career in the world. It is the highest career God gave to women. He equates it with joy. But every mother will face challenges. She will face laying down her own life for her baby. Sacrifice . . . yes. Selfless love . . . yes. But isn’t this what grows us into maturity? It takes us from the selfish and ugly to beauty and joy?

6.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED BIBLICALLY

Most young women have no idea of God’s plan for them as a woman. They don’t know what God’s Word says. Even young mothers in the church are often as ignorant as those in the secular world. Where are the older women who teach the younger women about being a wife and mother (Titus 2:3-5)? They are often nonexistent in our churches today. Will they be responsible for a nation of mothers who have no idea of God’s plan for motherhood?

I am saddened when I hear older women saying, “I don’t need to hear about motherhood anymore. I’m well past that time of life.” I beg your pardon. We are never “past that time of life.” When the time comes that we can physically have no more children, we don’t abdicate motherhood. We were created to be mothers and nurturers until our life ends. We begin enjoying grandbabies. And then we move into the responsibility of teaching the young mothers of the next generation how God wants them to mother. How can we do that if we say that “we are past that kind of thing”? I think many older mothers desperately need to hear God’s truth for mothers so they can pass on the truth to the next generation, rather than leading them astray. 

Our humanistic society puts mothering at the bottom of the list. When God gives a description of the attributes of a godly woman in 1 Timothy 5:10 He puts mothering at the top of the list!

God did not create haphazardly. He created each female with a womb to conceive life and breasts to nurture life. He reminds us we will be preserved through embracing motherhood. Many scientific studies now reveal that the more children a mother has and the more babies she nurses at the breast the more protection she has against female cancers.

1 Timothy 2:15 (NASB) says: “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.”

The Greek word for “saved” or “preserved” is sozo, pronounced sode’-zo. It is a powerful, multi-encompassing word meaning “to save, deliver, protect, heal, cure, preserve, keep safe, and make whole.” That means that through embracing motherhood a woman is saved, delivered, protected, preserved, healed, and made whole--physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You can’t beat that!

The reason many young mothers (and older mothers) feel depressed and confused is because they have not embraced their role of motherhood. They love their baby. They love their children. But they don’t love the career of motherhood because they think it interferes with their life.

The true joy of motherhood comes when a mother not only loves her baby but loves and embraces her role of motherhood. A mother who embraces mothering WILL NOT BE DEPRESSED. She experiences the joy, delight, and glory of motherhood that God intends for her.

Nancy Campbell
www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, please help me to understand that I save my life by losing my life. Help me to teach this biblical principle to my children as I prepare them for life. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

How can I be depressed when I am walking in the perfect will of God?

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
Part 1

“And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living”
(Genesis 3:20).

How far have we degenerated from God’s original plan?

Recently a new mother mentioned to me that before her post-partum checkup, the hospital called to check if she was suffering from depression.

“Why would they ask you this question? I asked.

“Oh, don’t you know it’s a standard question?” she replied. “Most mothers have depression after a baby. Didn’t you hear about the new mother who recently committed suicide because she was so depressed because of her new baby?”

I was appalled. What is their purpose? To get them started on anti-depressants? Make them victims? Give them a pill to counteract our deceived society?

Yes, I concede that there are some mothers who suffer severe hormonal PPD, but this is not normal motherhood. This is not what God intended.

Again, I can see how many young mothers today feel depressed as they begin motherhood. But a pill is not the answer. The reason is that we live in an environment where motherhood, originated by God, is not the vogue. Most mothers having their first baby are not conditioned for this role.

It’s time to come back to God’s original plan. It’s time for change. Let’s think about some of the reasons:

1.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EXPERIENTIALLY

Many young mothers grow up in two-child families. They don’t grow up in homes where new babies keep arriving, the joy and delight of the home. As they grow older, they don’t have the opportunity to care for a baby, to see their mother nursing the baby as a natural part of life, or to experience the responsibilities of daily motherhood.

Friends and family don’t have babies in their homes either. Some never hold a baby until they hold their own baby in their arms. No wonder they feel overwhelmed. Their depression is not due to a clinical state, but because they don’t know what to do. They feel inadequate! Unprepared!

2.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EDUCATIONALLY

Most young women today are not educated for motherhood. In fact, they are educated against motherhood. They’re educated and trained for whatever career they want to pursue in this world. Anything except motherhood.

They are brainwashed to think motherhood is an inferior career. Even when they prepare for marriage, counselors (even Christian counselors) tell them to delay motherhood and continue pursuing their career. Motherhood is always delegated to the lowest item on the list.

3.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EMOTIONALLY

They are not encouraged toward motherhood. Because they don’t live in an environment of motherhood, it is unfamiliar to them. They don’t feel comfortable with being at home, cooking meals, or looking after a baby.

4.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED PSYCHOLOGICALLY

When the new baby comes along, they feel it is an interference to their career, college, or their plans for life. Although they love their baby because it is their own flesh and blood, they are thrown into confusion. This baby is a “wrench in the machinery.” How do they fit this baby into their lifestyle or well laid-out plans? No wonder they feel depressed.

We will share more reasons next devotion. But you can see how far we have degenerated from God’s original plan. How can we turn the tide? It begins with older women understanding truth and passing it on to the next generation.

Let’s get started.

Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Oh God, there is a young generation of mothers who do not know Your plan for them. Please raise up older mothers to be teachers to the young mothers. Please help me to embrace motherhood with joy and delight and to be a testimony to the other mothers around me. Help me to show them that motherhood is the glory You have given to us as women. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am shining the joy of motherhood everywhere I go.