Zooming in on: RUTH

"Ruth" is means 'pity or compassion', but also means 'loyal friend'

Background

The book of Ruth starts in the heathen country of Moab, then later moves to Bethlehem. A famine causes a man by the name Elimelech and his wife Naomi to move from Judah to Moab. Elimelech dies and Naomi is left with her 2 sons who go on to marry 2 Moabite girls; Orpah and Ruth. Later, the sons both die and Naomi is left with her 2 daughters-in-law and encourages them to return home to their families. Orpah returns to her parents, but Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi, and cannot be persuaded otherwise as she has shared loneliness, anxiety and grief with Naomi, so they travel back to Bethlehem where they meet up with Naomi's wealthy relative; Boaz, a wealthy man. When they arrive in Bethlehem, it is barley harvest time, and not one to sit back and wait as events happened around her, Ruth decides to help glean the barley in the fields (a form of charity work for the disadvantaged such as widows and orphans). As she labours, she finds favour in Boaz' sight and often gets preferential treatment as he is Naomi's next of kin. In a very unorthodox manner, Ruth proposes marriage to Boaz and eventually they get married and have a son together by the name Obed, who becomes the grandfather of David and the ancestor of Jesus.

The Lesson

• Ruth’s obedience brought her into the privileged lineage of Christ.God guided Ruth every step of the way to her becoming His child and to fulfill His plan for her tobecome an ancestor of Jesus. In the same way we should be assured that God has a plan for each and every one of us. Her obedience and trust in God's plan and purpose caused Him to order her footsteps, and get her to a place of greater blessings.
• Ruth is an example of the virtuous woman depicted in Proverbs 31. she was devoted to her family and fully dependent on God, and spoke words of kindness, respect and wisdom.
• Ruth’s devotion to Naomi illustrates her love and loyalty, a characteristic we should all emulate. It was probably much easier for her to remain in her home country of Moab after she was widowed, but her commitment to Naomi magnified God's grace in her life.

A loving tribute to a true Proverbs 31 woman, my mother

Rise Up and Take Your Place

Have you ever thought about how seemingly insignificant YOU are in the fuller scope of the 7 billion people in the world? I mean there are 6,999,999 other people, so what difference can you make?

 Right? Wrong. You can change the world, by just being the change YOU want to see in the world as Gandhi said. Imagine if everyone looked at themselves as insignificant, and opted for inaction; the world would simply stay the same, if not get even more out of control.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the tag line of this blog is “Empowered To Empower”. I have been empowered through personal experiences and through watching other people’s lives. I have had so many “ah ha” moments through personal reflection and with the help of  wisdom imparted to me from others, and I tell you, it’s an awesome place to be…knowing that I may be one, but knowing the power of one to impact and change lives, and ultimately change the world. Knowledge is power, and the purpose of this blog is to impart some of what I have learnt to y'all. If I had the frame of mind of looking at myself as only 1 out of 7 billion, I probably would have stopped blogging log ago. 

I am hoping for increase in viewership of this blog, and that it reaches and touched those who need it, and for that I will require your assistance. I implore you to rise up and take your rightful place wherever you are, whatever your sphere of influence may be. Recommend articles that touch you, give me feedback either publicly or privately. Make suggestions/crit me on where I can improve, suggest other great blogs to check out, WHATEVER, but DO SOMETHING. Don’t shrink back at the challenge and daunting thought of you being only one person. We can be the change we want to see in the world, if we empower each other by sharing knowledge.

I'm baaaack :)

First off, my sincere apologies to all you loyal readers for the "disappearing act"... Unfortunately, technology had gotten the best of me, so I had been unable to upload articles, but all is well and sorted now so keep an eye out for the upcoming posts.

I've got quite a number of articles that I have been working on while I was offline. Look out for more editions of the popular "Relationship Series", as well as the promised and much anticipated "Zooming in On" articles. I will be featuring a mighty woman in the next article, as a tribute to my mother (March is her birthday month :)), and many more thoughts from my heart, lessons learnt and revelations and epiphanies I have had.

I am very happy to be back and I am so excited for where this blog is going and the lives it is changing. Please keep sharing, on Facebook, twitter, and "+1" it on Google.


Much much love to you all.

Tash