Monday, February 1, 2010

Bible in 90 days (Ruth), Hope, and Dave Ramsey

John 3:16Image by Eat a Crayon Photography via Flickr




We are working on week 6 of Dave Ramsey.  It has felt so good to be putting these baby steps into motion!  They may be called baby steps but they feel like gigantic leaps!!  Imagine, if you will, the image of a man walking on the moon, taking those flying, gravity free, leaps.  That is how freeing and liberating this has been.  We are putting our budget in motion and, although we WILL absolutely have to make changes, our sties are focused and our desire is to hit the finish line (whenever that may be!). 

Mackenzie's birthday weekend was so much fun.  We had her party on Sunday and our families came over.  She was such a riot playing and enjoying her cupcake like we had stifled her for all of her life by never giving her sugar!  Oh, the horror!!!

I have made no shopping trips and do not plan to as I had to include the food I bought for her party in the grocery budget, and all of that food is G-O-N-E GONE!!!  So we will make due with whatever I have stashed away for 2 weeks.  Hope my husband still loves me when it is all over!

I am going to press on now in my blogging in an effort to catch up to where I am reading.  RUTH!!  I love and adore this woman.  Her faithfulness to her widowed mother-in law was unheard of in those days.  I look to Ruth as an example of following your heart.  This book was written in the time of Judges, but was not actually included until long after.  In fact there are many Jewish bible, (I believe) that do not include it at all.  Some look at this as "secretive" or creating a false sense about the bible, however, if you look at the big picture of Ruth, there is nothing to hide here.  She simply wanted to stay nearby the mother of her husband as they were both widowed!  She clung to here.   Verse 17 says "where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."  the faith and the dedication behind her oath to Naomi is rarely surpassed.  Naomi helps her find Boaz whom I believe to have been very impressed with Ruth possibly because of her loyalty and dedication.  He saw her working and living with Naomi and Naomi's returned love for her.  She became the grandmother to David!  Ruth is what I call a quiet woman of the bible.  She is virtually unnoticed but should be highly recognized.  Much the like virtuous woman, she just deserved more attention.  But I suppose that is what makes her so amazing.


1 Samuel will come tomorrow.

I am going to do something a little different to close in my next few blogs.  I want to present an idea with each of the coming 5 blogs.  Our series at church is "For God So Loved..."  and this first week started of with the famous verse John 3:16 and led into what God gave to us.  In Exodus, there are several verses we were given.  The first is 3:7-10.  Here we learn about God giving hope.  Something we all look for, desire, and NEED!!  What are some examples in your life of hope?  What does hope mean to you?  How have you seen hope through God in your life?

Hope is that light when there is nothing to make it feel better.  You grasp at the light, the hope.  We should grasp at the hope in God's promises.  Hope has been threaded throughout my entire life.  Through the worst of the worst, there was a hope I could reach for.  The proof is when I look back and see that God's plan worked.  I may not have wanted to hold out, but He made me and now I look back and say DUH!!  You knew all along.  My hope right now is that my family will be better equipped to reach out to others in the coming years. What are your's?
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1 comment:

  1. I always have hope when God loves me through other people. Spending time in the word and reading about how God always prevails. Knowing that the hardships and test we face last only but a season. Knowing that I am becoming a better woman through them all. God takes us from broken and scared to renewed and loved. So we can share our experiences and share with others, to give them hope.

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