Tale of the Three Women: Your Mindset will Determine Your Outcome

The school bell has rung, class is now in session.

Pastor, Michael Fulton Jr. preached an inspiring message on May 21st and 28th, that came from the Book of Ruth. It was so relevant that I had to take the time to share the concept through a post.

The story begins with Naomi, her husband and two sons moving from Bethlehem to a foreign city called Moab. Shortly after moving, her husband passed away. Her two sons decided to marry, and their wives name were Ruth and Orpah. After ten years, their husbands died also, and each women became widows.

MINDSET DETERMINES THE OUTCOME

It was during this time of the message that Pastor Fulton referred to the three women as mindsets instead of just women. This was the part that excited me because I had never thought of them as mindsets.

There was a famine in the land, and Naomi heard that her homeland (Bethlehem) had bread, so she planned to return. She went on to tell her daughter-in-laws they should each return to their parent’s home so that they could plan to remarry. After crying together, Orpah and Ruth insisted on returning with her to Bethlehem, but Naomi told them that would be ridiculous because even if she had more sons, they would be too young for either of them to marry.

Orpah kissed Naomi on the cheek and returned back to Moab but Ruth clung to her and firmly decided to follow her. Ruth declared, “Please do not ask me to leave, or turn back, wherever you go, I will go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God, where you die, I will die.”

THE MINDSETS

Orpah – Familiarity, comfort, remain

Ruth – Faith, unknown, move forward

Orpah decided not to go somewhere she was not sure about and returned to the city and people she was familiar with. While she wanted to stay with Naomi and Ruth, she was afraid of the unknown and did not want to take that risk.

Ruth decided to make a covenant and connect herself permanently with the family, and homeland of Naomi. She had not been to Bethlehem, but something in her drew her there even though it was uncharted territory.

Bethlehem had bread, which symbolized sustainability and provision

In the Book of Ruth, we never heard of Orpah again after she decided to turn around and go back to Moab, her comfort zone. Pastor Fulton interjected during this point that it is ok if someone wanted to remain in their comfort zone, because sometimes people will not push themselves to grow/go further than they are.

The story of Ruth was phenomenal, she flourished in Bethlehem and was blessed beyond anything she could have ever imagined for herself!

I am not saying everyone should always go into unfamiliar territory, because there are times when you should wait.

When you are faced with a decision to remain in your comfort zone or push forward, pray and reflect before making the decision. This will help you make sure you go in the right direction for yourself. Something that can help make the right decision is to think of famine vs provision. Moab was in famine and lacked life, Bethlehem was full of provision and life-giving. Do not remain where things suck the life out of you.

If you would like to see a 7 minute summary on the Book of Ruth, click —-> here

To check out my other blog post that Pastor Fulton inspired, click —> here

To check out my blog post about emotional vampires, click —> here

The school bell has rung, class dismissed.