Good Morning, today is Mother’s Day and I wanted to introduce you to my husband Doug and my mother-in-law Marge. I call her Mom. Some lessons from Marge. When making jelly your need to prepare the night before, gather all your supplies and ingredients. When I made jelly with her, I learned that you have to stir really fast so that the jelly is not scorched. Another lesson in washing dishes is to have the water so hot you can barely stand it and then the dishes dry quickly. Yes, she is my mother-in-law.

Every good gift is from God. Ruth is a great book to emphasize the love that God has given me for Marge. Ruth 1: 1-5

In the days when the judges ruled,^a there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

I married my husband forty-five years ago and living with my mother-in-law for the last three years because she lost Doug’s dad in June of 2012. She has macular degeneration so her vision prevents her living on her own.  Naomi decides to return to her home. Naomi releases her daughter-in-laws to return to their people. Naomi obviously loved her daughter-in-laws. She prayed for them and wished them well. Ruth 1: 6-14

When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

Read that last line, Ruth clings to Naomi. Naomi impressed Ruth in the those years of marriage to her son. Naomi was a woman of God. Perhaps she witnessed God’s faithfulness during this famine. Naomi had lost her husband and now her sons. Her son’s were good sons. Naomi felt she needed to leave Moab and to return to Bethlehem. She does what would be expected, she releases Orpah and Ruth from proving care for her. But Ruth chooses her mother-in-law and her way of life, including her faith in God.

“But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16

Ruth honored her mother-in-law. Today we honor our moms or we are honored as mother’s . We have dinner reservations for a special dinner. Flowers  yellow roses. Beloved, is your mom alive? What are you doing to honor her, today? I had an amazing mom, my mom loved God and taught me to pray and she taught me to honor my mother-in-law. Take a moment and thank God for your Mom. My husband and I will care for her until God calls her home. I look forward to learning more life lessons from her and I hope to impart my faith each day as I show the love of God to her.

Happy Mother’s Day