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. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Ruth 1: 16, 17
I love how God uses a familiar passage to speak to me in a new way! Today as I read my Bible I came across this verse. In this passage Ruth is speaking to her Mother-in-law, Naomi. She is responding to Naomi's encouragement for Ruth to stay in her homeland while Naomi traveled back to Bethlehem. Ruth tells Naomi that she will not abandon her. Ruth was loyal. Despite losing her husband Ruth still considered Naomi part of her family.
I can relate to this passage in my own marriage. When Jeff & I were married not only did he become my family but so did his Mom & Dad & the rest of his family. I didn't think of them as "my husband's family" rather, I loved them as my own Mom & Dad. When we became husband & wife I took to heart the portion of this passage that says "Your people will be my people". That is why the loss of Jeff's parent's a year & a half ago was so hard for me. I felt as if I was losing my own Mom & Dad.
I think about that now because this past weekend our family walked in the Alzheimer's Memory Walk in memory of Jeff's Dad & Grandmother. In a previous post I wrote about the verse Genesis 2:24 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Not only did we become one flesh physically, spiritually & emotionally but we also became "one flesh" in family. His family became my family. Jeff's family is very important to him. I know that when I love his family I am showing him that I love all of him.
What is your relationship like with your spouse's family? Do you accept them as your family? Is there anything you need do to show your husband you love all of him? Please let me know if there is anyway I can be praying for you and your marriage.
In His Calm,
Mary
I love passages in the bible that talk about marriage because I want to build my own marriage up. Then I was led to your site,I look forward to reading and discovering all you have. As for my hubby's family, I have never met them, and he doesnt talk with them. He did once years ago during Thanksgiving but not since. AS for your prayers they can be that I learn to be a better wife to my husband.
ReplyDeleteDebi,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you found my site! I will be praying God will show you how to be a better wife to your husband. I love Jeff's family and would do anything for them. One of the things we have learned over the years though is to focus on our nuclear family (Jeff, me & our 2 children). If we are strong and loving to each other and put Christ first in our family we can make it through anything.