The Gift of Family

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Treasuring Christ :: Year 2: The Prophets and Writings

Connecting Church and Home Quarter 3, Week 7 :: The Gift of Family Treasure Story: Ruth 3 In the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch, Lilo shares that the Hawaiian word for family is “ohano.” In Lilo’s mind, “family means nobody gets left behind.” When reading the book of Ruth, one cannot help but think of this same kind of familial love. Naomi and Ruth lost their husbands and returned to Naomi’s home in Bethlehem. Naomi is older in age and cannot continue her husband’s lineage, but she has a plan to redeem Ruth and have her family name continue. Naomi is looking to find Ruth a husband as a kinsman-redeemer, and she believes she has found that husband in Boaz.

Connect

“The emphasis of the Bible is on the work of the Redeemer, not on the work of the redeemed.” – Tullian Tchividjian

The story in Ruth 3 reveals that Naomi, Ruth and Boaz believe in God’s blessing of family. Naomi had a plan, but ultimately she trusted that God would be the one who would bless Ruth with a husband from their family. Ruth trusted God and did as Naomi instructed her. Boaz trusted God and did as the Law indicated by saying that he would take Ruth to be his wife. Just as Boaz would be Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer, Christ was our Redeemer by taking our sins upon himself and dying for us. Here are a few opportunities to grow as a family and understand better why family matters so much to God and his plan for redemption:

• Family Matters: Sit down with your children and have them list the names of as many different families as they can think of. Encourage them to think about families they have seen at church, their friends’ families from school and other places. They will undoubtedly be able to recognize traditional families with a dad, mom and kids, but they may also notice families with a different structure. Then talk with your children about how God has designed the family as a tool to grow us up and teach us about him. Spend some time thanking God for putting you altogether as a family. • Redemption Talk: Ask your children to share a time when they got into trouble and were very concerned about the consequences. Then ask them to consider how they would have felt if a sibling or friend had stepped in to take the consequences in their place. Ask them how they would have felt about that person. Stepping in to take someone else’s punishment is a form of redemption. Jesus redeemed us out of sin when he paid the penalty for our sin by applying his beautiful grace.

My Mission As Parent

• Be the parent that God has called you to be in your children’s life. Be there for them, pray with them, pray for them and teach them God’s truths. • Think about how God has appointed you as the parent your children’s life. Ask God to give you clear direction and a firm faith that he will use you to guide your children to faith. • Boaz chose to be Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer. Make sure you are constantly pointing your children to the Redeemer in our lives. Let them see that even though we make mistakes and sin often, Christ is still our Redeemer and has died for our sins.

Prayer Points

• Pray that you and your children would be able to see God’s plan of redemption through the book of Ruth. Praise God for how the Gospel permeates through Ruth’s story. • Praise God that he recognized your need for redemption. Thank him for sending Jesus as your kinsman- redeemer. • Pray that you and your family would place your faith in God during difficult situations just as Naomi and Ruth did.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Copyright © Providence Baptist Church, 2014. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for reproduction only for the study of Life Bible Study curriculum by a licensed church during the licensed year. No online or other duplication is permitted