January 25, 2008

Today we started class off with a small scripture chase - everyone seemed pretty tired today. It almost woke them up!
We studied the book of Ruth today. As we started, I asked the students to share some of the things which they thought would be important (qualities) in a spouse - things that they were looking for. We got quite a list, and then I asked them to think about which qualities they were working on developing to make them a better spouse, and a better person.
As we began the book of Ruth, we started out looking for the trials that Naomi went through, and then skipped along and read about Ruth and her attitude. The students answered what type of a person they thought Ruth was. We discussed her conversion, her kindness etc, and discussed when she must have begun developing these qualities. Most likely she began to really develop these qualities in her youth. We saw that she was VERY converted and chose to follow the God of Naomi and be steadfast in her faith.
We continued to read and looked to see if we could figure out what type of a person Boaz was. We found that he was kind and compassionate. We discussed what his motiviations for his kindness may have been. We discussed how the students would have reacted if they had been Ruth in this situation, and what they thought she might do. We then read about her humility as she bowed down, and was so humble and grateful for Boaz's kindness. Later, we read about Boaz's motivation.
In Chapter 3:10-11 it talks about Ruth's reputation. We discussed our own reputations - how are they? Does the entire city know that we are virtuous people? or what do they say about us? How do we develop a reputation? What type of reputation might we have? Is that the reputation we want to have?
Finally, we ended class with the question - How did Ruth live her life to be worthy to be one of Christ's ancestors? Ruth was a convert- what a strong conversion she must have had!! Once again we returned to the question - which qualities am I developing now, or what qualities do I want to develop now while I am in my youth?
We will continue to work on Isaiah 29:13-14 next week.
The reading assignment is 1 Samuel 1-3.