Beauty in Loyalty and Generosity

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband . . . So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gather, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.” (Ruth 2:11-18)
     Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

         A teacher in a country school was giving a math lesson. She picked out one boy and said, “James, you have nine people in your family, seven children and your parents. If your mother made a pie and gave each person a piece, what percentage of the pie would each person get?” James answered, “One-eighth.” The teacher replied, “James, that’s wrong. It would be one-ninth. Don’t you know your math?” James answered back, “Yes ma’am. I know math. But you don’t know my mother. She’d say she didn’t want any pie.” A beautiful heart of a mother is characterized by love that causes her to be loyal and generous in caring for her family.
        Ruth exemplified those characteristics in her life. Boaz was attracted to the beauty of her loyalty to Naomi. Ruth had made a commitment to be loyal to God and to her mother-in-law. She also was generous in sharing the extra food that Boaz gave her to eat. Loyalty and generosity are two characteristics of true beauty. 

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