Unexpected Blessings!

Friday was such a special, blessed day!

Early in the morning we discovered I’ve won a card making challenge I entered with the sample card I’ve made for Heidi-Mari’s First Blog Anniversary Card Making Challenge. 

It is the most amazing feeling to open a challenge blog and see your name and/or the picture of your card.  I normally feel like someone who dream when I see Heidi-Mari’s name and have to look twice! She has won quite a few challenges until now (she confesses, she still experience an initial shock every time!), so when I saw my own name, I was pleasantly surprised!  I won 3 digital stamps for Heidi-Mari’s digital stamp collection!  

The rest of my Friday was taken up with normal chores, cleaning the house (how is it possible that a house can get so dirty in a week?), doing laundry, taking care of the many needs of my many children, in between home schooling and driving the older children to their extramural activities in the afternoon.  

I also gave little Michael his first haircut!  

Oh! My baby has grown up so quickly and is becoming a little boy.  It felt like yesterday that my baby was born, but he is already 8 months old.  He is developing a personality of his own, but also amazingly share personality traits of his siblings! 

Since he got his first haircut he is even more adorable (if it is possible).  David (turning 4 end of October) will often tell me “Your baby is very cute”  I’m sure you’ll agree when looking at this precious little face!  

Then when Christo came home after work, Friday afternoon, he handed me a parcel.  Now I’m mad about surprises and since I was not expecting anything, it was even more exciting!  I couldn’t find scissors quick enough to open my parcel!   Inside this unexpected gift was a book, 8 rubber wrist bracelets and a very encouraging thank you letter!  

The book:  Nancy Campbell’s newest book ‘100 Days of Blessing’. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes, for the second time the day! I read about Nancy’s latest book in her  newsletter and decided I just had to have it, but didn’t have the time to order it yet.  What a blessing to receive it as a gift!

While making Daniel asleep that night, I read Day 1 with my LED headlight and already I’ve been blessed!  It was such a powerful message and taking into account the unexpected blessings/rewards I’ve received during the day, it hit home even stronger!  

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Cor 15:58

How easy do we get weary in the very demanding job as a mother!  I almost daily receive e-mails and phone calls from weary mothers! I myself have days that weariness is in every single part of my body! It is no easy job to raise a growing family, with Godly standards, in an ungodly world!  It is a selfless work, serving your family, mostly 24 hours a day, with a joyful spirit, while human strength often cannot keep up the pace! 

Then it is a lowly  job in the eyes of the world - wasting your time and talents!  Often family don’t even understand why you are doing it, giving you moments of heartache and disappointment.  I myself just recently got an unexpected blow from a family member for having so many children, embarrassing them in front of their friends!  

Friends don’t encouraged us in raising our children ourselves, either.  The moment you confess weariness in a moment of weakness, they are quick to tell you they are glad it isn’t their job, they will never manage, they don’t have the patience!  Not very encouraging when you are weary!  

Raising godly children, one need to have a long term vision. Often we don’t feel strong enough for the challenges that lies ahead and fruit or rewards on your hard work is few and far between!

But in 1 Cor 15:58 we read the Lord want us to ‘abound’ in our work for Him!  Where can women find a more valuable work in the eyes of the Lord than caring for the needs of children and train them on His behalf! God also exhort us  not to become weary in doing this work for him - He has a promise with His challenge!  He will be our Rewarder!  

Wow, how encouraged and full of joy and excitement my day ended on Friday, because of my unexpected gifts!  How much more will be our joy and excitement when the Lord returns with our rewards!

To keep going with the work He set before us, we need to renew our minds and think what is important for God!  We need to separate our selves from the thinking of the world and take every thought captive. We need God’s Word in our hearts and minds so we can recall His promises when we get weary!  And to help me with this, I’m so thankful for my rubber wrist bracelets!  

Here is how the Wrist Bracelets where ‘born’ in Nancy’s own words:

When my sister, Kate, was proof-reading my book, 100 Days of Blessing,

I noticed loads of little Post-it Notes sticking to her arm.

"What on earth are you doing, Kate?" I asked.

"There are so many statements in this book that are life-changing. I don't

want to forget them," she replied. "

You should get bracelets with these slogans on them so mothers can look

at them and be reminded of these truths throughout the day," she

continued. 

It sounded like a pretty good idea to me.

It would be too expensive for mothers to purchase fancy embossed

bracelets so I have printed eight different rubber wrist bands with...

Powerful and Positive affirmations for 

wives and mothers!

The ones currently 

available are:

I LOVE MOTHERHOOD

WE'RE A SMILING FAMILY

I'M A COVENANT KEEPER

I LOVE MY HUSBAND

I AM ABOVE SELF-PITY

MOTHERHOOD=ADVENTURE

I AM A NATION BUILDER

WORTH MORE THAN RUBIES

Over the past few days I constantly wore them on my wrist and were reminded of my high and mighty calling as a mother and wife! 

While writing this posting  I’m wearing I’m a Nation Builder!  What an incredible goal and to see it every time when I look down, it is such a strong reminder!

When I received the bracelets on Friday, I immediately put on ‘I love my Husband’!  It was amazing what effect it had.  My husband was really tired and stressed out when he came home!  On top of worked very hard the whole week, the new DVD player he bought the day before, didn’t put out sound after CJ connected all the wires.  He had to work through the whole system to find the fault and that wasn’t good.  While he had all these challenges, I saw my ‘I love my Husband’-bracelet while I took of the washing from the line, bathed the little ones and did the dishes.  It was just so much easier to encourage and love my husband while he was tired!

Over the weekend I went with 6 of my 8 children to buy summer clothes!  Christo and the two older boys were at the WP Junior Show Jumping Championships.

Heidi-Mari and I had to take the 5 younger children with us! What a challenge!  So I put on “We’re a smiling family” Wow it was so powerful!  Every time when weariness and frustration wanted me to give up on being a loving, smiling, patience mother, I saw my yellow bracelet and I could smile with my children, again! How powerful is the smile of a Mother!

I’m going to wear my bracelets every day and change them as I’m facing challenges, to help me win the everyday battles that come with being a Godly Wife and mother!  My only hope is in the Lord! 

“Father God, please help me to have an abounding attitude as I mother in home - abounding in joy, fun, laughter, nurturing, sweetness, love and wisdom. 

Amen”*

“If I only do what is required of me, I am a slave.  When I do more than is required, I am a free person.”*

* Taken from 100 Days of Blessing

by

Nancy Campbell

For South African Readers:  I’m going to import these bracelets and Nancy’s 100 Days of Blessings as soon as possible.  I’ll post here when it arrives.

With Love

Linnie

Danika Made a Christmas Card

Danika absolutely adores her sister and imitates her in every possible way.

Since Heidi-Mari started her Blog Anniversary Card Making Challenge, I could see Danika wanted to participate as well.

This whole afternoon I helped her to make a Christmas Card. 

I cut the paper and from there she coloured her image and polished and distressed the paper to her heart’s desire!  She enjoyed every second!

Tonight I supervised while she put the card together.

I think she did a fantastic job!  She will give the card to Heidi-Mari to add to the cards she will hand out the week before Christmas at an Old Age Home in Durbanville, South Africa!

Danika entered this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Card with a Twist at Heidi’s Crafts (she has some nice candy to win in celebration of her First Blog Anniversary!)

The Sketch at Weekly Christmas Card Challenges

“X” for Xmas at Alphabet Challenge Blog

What a blessing to have an older sister who can inspire her to become a Daughter for the King!

With Love

Linnie

Joy to the World!

My dear daughter got me really challenged during the past week.  

But let me first give some background.

On the 10th of December Heidi-Mari’s crafting blog will be one year old!  She gave thought to a special celebration for weeks! So she came up with a Card Challenge which will run over two months.  Anyone around the world can take part in this challenge.  

I know many of my readers and their girls, here in South Africa, but also in other parts of the world are so creative and talented. I would like to explain how you can take part in this challenge, although you may never have taken part in such a challenge ever before.

Heidi-Mari would like to see Christmas Cards, especially for Senior Citizens. 

You don’t need to have a Christmas stamp, you can draw a Christmas picture or cut out a Christmas picture from a previous Christmas card - be creative!  If you would like to try something new and colour a stamp (like the one I’ve used) you are welcome to e-mail me and I can send you a few Christmas stamps to choose from and use it on your card.

You make the Christmas Card (use as many different papers, lace, ribbon, flowers, charms etc. as you like) and then take a picture of the card. If you have a blog, you write about the card (as I am doing now), put it on your blog and upload a link to your blogposting on Heidi-Mari’s blog.  You need to go to Heidi-Mari’s blog to do the uploading, but it is so easy and you don’t need to register for anything.  Only your name, blog posting address and an e-mail address (which are not publicly displayed) is necessary.

Don’t dismay if you don’t have a blog!  You can send the picture of your card by e-mail and Heidi-Mari will upload your card on her blog.

Now, after you’ve taken a picture of your card, you write a message of blessing inside the card and snail mail the card to Heidi-Mari!  Heidi-Mari with the help of her siblings, plans to take all the cards entered in her challenge, to an Old Age Home a week before Christmas and they will bless the senior citizens with Christmas Cards!   I think this will mean a lot to the sometimes lonely seniors

On the 10th of December, Heidi-Mari’s dad - Christo, her Brother - CJ and me will have the privilege to choose the three top cards and then a winner!  The winner will receive some beautiful candy, which anyone would love to have, even if they don’t make cards, but just scrapbook or like to be creative.

The Candy includes:

25 various hat pins (5 crystal; 10 daisy pearl; 5 stars; 5 pearl drops)

1 packet of pins

1 packet Prima Ribbons

2 packets dotted ribbons

1 packet mixed charms

1 x Me & my Big ideas embellishments

1 x En Marc Ribbon sliders

1 x Ribbon sliders

1 packet 8mm flat backed Pearls

1 packet 4mm flat backed Pearls

1 box multi colored dew drops

3 packets paper flowers (pink, red, blue)

1 Whiff of Joy stamp with foam mounting

Heidi-Mari will send this prize to any place in the world - so don’t hesitate to take part!

Now back to my card!

In previous cards I made, Heidi-Mari coloured the stamps, for me.  But she invited me to be a “Guest Designer” on her blog!  Wow, what a privilege!  So she couldn’t colour my stamp, I had to do it myself.  Heidi-Mari got a beautiful set of Christmas stamps from Whiff of Joy, a month ago.I  merge three different images and used them as one stamp!  Typically me, I need to do it different.

It is Whiff of Joy stamps with images of Mary, baby Jesus and a donkey. They are so beautiful and fit perfectly with my idea of Christmas - All about Jesus!

Then I started to colour them.  Oh my!  I coloured three images before I realized I just had to start the real one, or I would still be busy colouring a ‘test stamp’ and never get to the real stamp!

For the layout of the card, I got some inspiration from Friday Sketchers.

The one pattern paper has Bethlehem stars printed on it and I alternated the rectangle blocks with stripped patterns.

Then I added some ribbon and lace and did some finishing touches with flowers and pearls.  The sentiment, is “Joy to the World” - one of the reasons Jesus came, was to bring us joy!   Not the joy the world is looking for, but inner joy, even in times of trouble and disappointment.

May you all experience the Joy of Jesus - the Jesus who is not a baby anymore; who is not walking the earth anymore; who is not hanging on the cross anymore; but the Jesus that is the Risen King of the Universe, busy preparing a place in heaven for each one who calls upon him to be their King and Saviour! 

You can hop over to Heidi-Mari’s blog and get some inspiration from her card and the other creative cards made specially for her, by some very special Card-Making-Friends from around the world!

And TAKE PART IN HER CHALLENGE!

I also want to enter this card in the following challenges:  

Jesus is the Reason for the Season at Winter Wonderland Challenge;

Inspiration from Song Title at Allsorts Challenge and of cause the name of my song is "Joy to the World!"

and

"X" for Xmas at Alphabet Challenge Blog.

Thank you Heidi-Mari for inviting me to make a sample card.

With Love

Linnie

Thank You!

Five years ago (Jan 2005) the Lord amazingly lead me to  take responsibility for the Above Rubies Magazine in South Africa. During that time only 70 South African families received this encouraging magazine for families from Nancy Campbell in the States, founder and author of the Above Rubies magazine.    

Above Rubies  started more than 32 years ago in New Zealand when Nancy Campbell was the young mother of 6 children.  She felt (like many mothers feel even more so today) the pressure of feminism and humanism all around her in the media and in the education system and there wasn’t any encouragement for mothers at home. Nancy Campbell felt the burden to send out a regular magazine that would encourage and affirm mothers in their high calling as a mother, which will bring strength to marriages and bless families! 

She approached a Christian printing firm with her vision to encourage marriages, mothers and families and they printed 1500 magazines. It sounded like an enormous amount back then! Within weeks after she was a quest speaker at a conference, giving out the magazine for free, she started  receiving letters and donations from people all over New Zealand.  She went to print with the 2nd issue and printed 5,000 and 20,000 for the 3rd issue.  At that stage the magazine had a huge impact on the nation in New Zealand.

Above Rubies is a free magazine - made available TOTALLY by donations to its Readers over the past 32 years!!. It isn’t a Subscribing magazine, since people only subscribe for something which they believe in!  And Yes, Above Rubies do bless thousands of Godly families who believe in Godly marriages - but Nancy’s vision is bigger than that.  She also want to bless those marriages that are falling apart, those women who don’t have a vision for home, those mothers who are still in their careers and NO vision for home and motherhood. So that is why the Above Rubies magazine is made available by donation, so people can take it out, hand it out and share it freely and trust God to provide. And now it is more than 32 years and God is still providing.

Currently about 120 000 copies are printed.  It goes all over the world to more than 100 countries.

During the past five years, the Lord  sovereignly provided financially for the Above Rubies Ministry in South Africa and it exploded!  In 2005 only 70 families received this precious magazine, but currently we send out 4,000 magazines to 600 readers in South Africa and neighboring countries.

During 2009 Above Rubies South Africa experienced a dip in financial support, but at the beginning of 2010 the Lord miraculously opened the hearts of South Africa’s Readers’ to support this ministry!  

Since Heidi-Mari and I love to make cards on our Mother-Daughter evenings once a week, I decided to start making ‘Thank you’ cards for families who invest money in this ministry.  Obviously I will not be able to make a Thank you card for every family, but I’m going to start - using this crafting passion for the Lord.

And here is the first card I made:

I chose a stamp from Heidi-Mari’s Whiff of Joy collection.

A mother reading to her child.  It  fits the vision of Above Rubies to encourage mothers to have a vision to build into the lives of their children. Mothers who know motherhood is their highest calling. Mothers who invest not only in their children’s lives for this life, but also for eternal life!  Mothers who know they have the ability to change the world, by raising Godly children! What a calling!!

What is a more precious way to build into a child’s life than taking the time to read to him!

I asked Heidi-Mari to colour the stamp with her Promarkers (I can’t even colour a picture with crayons - I leave that to the children!) 

Around the stamp I made fake stitches.  While making the stitches, putting down the pen and picking it up again, it reminded me of moments when I have a positive influence on my children, but also times when I miss some golden opportunities to build into their lives.  The life of a mother is full of ups and downs.  There will be days you want to hold on forever, full of fun and special moments, then there will be days you may feel that you are not accomplishing anything at all.  Don’t be discouraged.  Keep working hard according to the grace of God in you, not your own strength, but what He gives to you.

Next to the images I made a soft pink bow and put a pearl in the middle to give it extra elegance. So often the world looks down on a stay at home mother, who ‘wastes’ her talents and gifts by not going out into the corporate world.  

A mother who value herself enough to stay at home and use her talents and gifts to create a safe haven for her husband and put all her time (24 hours a day) and energy into her children to make them everything they can ever be, is like a precious pearl hidden deep in the bottom of the ocean.

I gave the card a vintage, shabby look, by tearing the paper and using thick distressing, since being an Above Rubies mother, is going back to ancient times (the name of my blog), raising children and taking care of the home, loving and submitting to your husband like the Lord intended for women to do since the beginning of time, and in the process strengthening their families!

Motherhood is a very special season in a mother’s live.  Nancy Campbell, time and time again encourage mothers to not only love their children, but love Motherhood!  Yes, there is a difference.  All mothers love their children, but often mothers hope a certain fase of their child will pass so they can enter the next, hopefully better, easier stage. Dear mother enjoy every stage of your children, don’t just ‘endure’ each day, but seek to make it special.  You will never have these days with your children again. Enjoy your current season of Motherhood.  It will pass so quickly, then you will have more than enough time to do all the projects you want to and didn’t have time for in your mothering season! 

To emphasize the idea of Motherhood being a short, quick passing season, I used fall colours. Although in South Africa it is now spring, the rest of the world is entering fall.

I put the sentiment: “Thank You for Investing in Motherhood” on a tag and slide it behind the image. The idea is for the mother who receive the card, to use the tag as a bookmark and always be reminded to invest her time, energy, gifts, talents, love - her total self in Motherhood!  A mother who grows in her calling of motherhood and not only loves her children but motherhood too, will shine in the world, like the golden beads at the end of the rope I’ve threaded through two eyelids in the tag!

I put a little rosebud on the tag too.  The rosebud reminds me of the precious children whom we raise in our homes.  They are like delicate rosebuds in our hands and we make them or break them, by the way we handle them.  They trust us with their lives, God entrusted them to us!  Will we take care of them, with lovingkindness, tenderness, patience, passion, joy and enthusiasm and allow them to grow into mature, wise adults who live their passion and calling in live!

I’ve put small red flowers in three of the corners and left the fourth corner open, to give it an unbalanced look - being an ‘old-fashion’ stay at home mother who knows her calling by taking care of her husband, children and home, is off-balance with the World!  You will always be questioned, often revered to be weird, many times belittled, seldom be encouraged and never be part of the main steam! 

I also took part in a few challenges with this card, for motherhood is always a challenge.

And though mothers don’t always receive acknowledgement for their hours of labour, day and night, in this world, be encouraged, God is always watchful and a rewarder of those who serve Him by serving their husbands and children!

The challenges I took part in:

Whiff of Joy Challenge - Special Thank You

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Stitching

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Use Fall Colours

Alphabet Challenge Blog - V for Vintage

ABC Challenge - D is for Distressing

Stampavie and More - Bookmark

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Autumn or Fall

Everybody Art Challenge - Autumn

Paper Playtime - Autumn

Stampin for the Weekend - Tag it!

Craftalicious Challenge - Thanks
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Anything Goes

To every Above Rubies Mother, may this card: 

Be a reminder of your highest calling;

An encouragement to go into your home and change the world through the children and husband, entrusted to you by God; 

Be a thank you for your service as a mother and faithful wife!

With love

Linnie