Bible in a Year - Women’s Thematic Reading Plan | Day 179

Day 179 of the Women’s Bible Plan: Read Ruth Chapter 1 and reflect on Naomi and Ruth, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who walked together through grief, displacement, poverty, and return. Through their relationship, this devotional helps women consider how love, loyalty, companionship, and faith can lead family members closer to God.

🌸  Dear Sister, welcome to Day 179 of our reading journey. 

Family relationships are often the closest relationships in life, but they can also be the most complex and tender. A mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship can be especially sensitive. Different family backgrounds, different habits, different emotional needs, and the weight of marriage, children, responsibility, and loss can all make the relationship difficult to navigate.

Yet Ruth Chapter 1 gives us a beautiful and unusual picture of this relationship. Naomi experienced famine, life in a foreign land, the death of her husband, and the loss of her sons. Her life seemed stripped down to grief. Ruth was a Moabitess who could have remained in her homeland and begun again among her own people. Instead, she chose to stay with Naomi, follow her path, and follow the God Naomi knew.

This is not a story of a perfect family. It is a story of a broken family in which love still keeps watch. It is not a relationship without pain, but a relationship where loyalty, companionship, and faith remain alive in the middle of pain.

A Minute of Grace

Ruth Chapter 1 begins with a famine in Bethlehem. Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and their two sons away from Judah to dwell in the country of Moab. Later, Elimelech dies, and Naomi’s two sons also die, leaving Naomi with her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. When Naomi hears that the Lord has visited His people in giving them bread, she prepares to return from Moab to Bethlehem.

On the road home, Naomi urges both daughters-in-law to return to their mothers’ houses and begin again. Orpah kisses Naomi goodbye, but Ruth cleaves unto her. Ruth says, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.” She continues, “thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

These words are often remembered as an expression of loyalty and love, but they also reveal something deeper: a turning of faith. Ruth was not only choosing to care for her mother-in-law; she was also choosing Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God. Even though Naomi was full of sorrow and even said, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara,” Ruth still chose to walk with her back to the people of God.

Today’s theme, “Naomi and Ruth: Discipleship in a Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law Relationship,” reminds us that discipleship does not only happen in classrooms, pulpits, or formal Bible studies. Many times, discipleship happens within family relationships: walking through tears together, making hard decisions together, facing poverty together, and returning to God together. Naomi, even in her weakness and grief, became an important bridge for Ruth to come to know the God of Israel. Ruth, though young, foreign, and widowed, became a comfort to Naomi through loyalty and companionship.

From the perspective of parenting and family, this chapter invites us to consider that the deepest family influence is not only what we say, but how we live, choose, grieve, repent, and return to God. When a family can lead one another toward God in the middle of pain, the relationship becomes more than blood or marriage connection. It becomes a place where grace can flow.

Whispers for the Heart

1 Naomi returned to Bethlehem after deep suffering, returning also to the people of God. Has your family experienced loss, relocation, hardship, or painful relationships? In those situations, are you more likely to blame one another, or are you willing to turn toward God together?

2 Ruth chose to stay with Naomi, not merely out of duty, but with love, loyalty, and a turning of faith. Do you have an opportunity in your family to become a faithful companion? When a family member is weak, disappointed, aging, wounded, or low in faith, how can you walk with them in practical ways and help lead them toward God?

3 Naomi was not emotionally steady or full of visible faith throughout this chapter. She carried bitterness, grief, and struggle in how she understood her life. Can you receive family members when they are imperfect in pain? Are you also willing to believe that God can still use imperfect you as a bridge for your family to see His grace?

As you read Ruth Chapter 1 today, do not see this only as a moving story of a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law staying together. See how God quietly prepares grace through family brokenness, loss, and return. Naomi and Ruth remind us that discipleship in the family may not always be a polished lesson. Sometimes it is loyal companionship, a shared return, and a road walked together toward God.

Take a quiet breath before you begin. Bring your family relationships, parenting relationships, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships, marriage relationships, and hidden wounds before the Lord, and let His Word meet you there.

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🪕 Response Hymn: 

Ruth Chapter 1 (KJV)

1 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

3 And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.

5 And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.

6 Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.

7 Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.

8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

9 The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;

13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.

14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

18 When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

19 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

21 I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

🪕 Response Hymn: 

💡 Closing Thought · On the Road of Leading Family Toward God

After reading Ruth Chapter 1, we see that Naomi and Ruth’s relationship was not formed in comfort or ease, but revealed through loss, poverty, displacement, and return. Ruth accompanied Naomi with loyalty, and Naomi, even in her brokenness, became an important bridge for Ruth to come toward the people of God. Together, they walked back to Bethlehem and into a story of grace God was already preparing.

As we close this page and return to our own family relationships, perhaps your family is not perfect. Perhaps there are misunderstandings, weariness, generational differences, tension, and wounds that have not been spoken aloud. Remember this: discipleship in the family is not always perfect teaching. Often, it is supporting one another, reminding one another, accompanying one another, and walking toward God together in real life.

May today’s Scripture remind you that you do not need to be a perfect person in your family, but you can become someone willing to lead others closer to God. May God use your companionship, prayer, gentleness, loyalty, and repentance to make your home a place where grace can flow.

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