Ruth 2:8-11

“Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.”

A wonderful truth we find in these verses that come from the life of Ruth. As we well know the story, Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. Naomi’s husband and two sons died and she was left alone. With nothing left to her name, she told her daughters-in-law to go back to their families and their gods. Though Naomi tried to get Ruth to go back, she would not leave her mother-in-law but instead decided to stay with her and take care of her. When they came back to the homeland of Naomi, she told Ruth to go and glean in the field of a wealthy relative whose name was Boaz. When Boaz came out to see his employees working, he saw this young lady out there gleaning from the leftover crops that the servants had left behind. After finding out that this was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, Boaz told his servants to leave her alone and even leave a little more than they usually do because he had seen how she treated her mother-in-law. Ruth never knew that her treatment of Naomi would lead her to the lineage of Christ. Because she was good to everyone, she was blessed in a great way.

How we must learn ourselves to be sure that we are good to everyone with whom we come in contact. We just never know to whom we are being good. It may be we are being good to the next great preacher of our nation. It may be we are being good to a future employer who will take care of us for the rest of our lives. It may be we are being good to someone who will be a future leader in a nation. We never know with whom we are talking. Because of this we should just be good to everyone. Would it not be sad if we were not good to everyone we came in contact with and ended up hurting our own future? Yes, you may be having a bad day, but you can still be good to everyone.

Be careful with how you respond to people. Your sharp response just may cause them to remember who you are, and that person with whom you are sharp may be the one who God intended to help you somewhere down the line. It does not take much to be good to people. We must make it a daily habit to be good to everyone, because we just never know to whom we are being good. It just may be someone that will help us later on down the road.



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