Parables of Grief: Lessons from Ruth and Naomi

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Join Mama Bear Wendy as we journey through the poignant narratives of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, uncovering the profound lessons these characters have to teach us about navigating loss and grief. This episode invites you to explore the powerful themes of love, loyalty, and the importance of community support during our darkest times.

We start by recognizing the fundamental human experience of grief, emphasizing the power of companionship and understanding in healing. Moving through the intricacies of Ruth and Naomi's relationship, we delve deeply into how their bond reflects resilience and faith amidst bitter circumstances. Wendy shares personal anecdotes that resonate with their stories, encouraging listeners to connect with their experiences and recognize the divine glimpses of healing within everyday life.

A central theme is the transformative power of choice, as embodied by Ruth’s unwavering loyalty toward Naomi, illustrating how our decisions can empower us, even in sorrow. We witness the unfolding of hope and renewal as we discuss Boaz's role as a redeemer, emphasizing the essential nature of community in helping us through loss.

Throughout the episode, listeners are reminded that it’s possible to embrace both love and pain as we navigate our grief. Ultimately, the stories of Ruth and Naomi inspire us to seek out the Savior in our suffering, holding onto hope even when life’s challenges become overwhelming. 

Don't forget to visit mamabearwendy.com for additional grief support and resources that can guide you on your healing journey. Subscribe for more insightful discussions that help you find strength and community in your grief.

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If you would like more grief support please see my website at Mamabearwendy.com for upcoming grief groups and 1:1 opportunities.

Although your experience and path will be unique, there is hope ahead in this path and you are not alone. I can see your pain and we will walk this road together. Here is a big bear hug from Mama Bear Wendy, your fierce support in the journey of grief, until next time.

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"Wendy has a beautiful way of sitting in the deep end of the ocean with you. Her presence alone is healing. She meets you where you’re at and doesn’t push you any further than where you want to go. She gently nudges you into new places with new perspectives. She is highly intuitive, sensitive and compassionate. She brings a depth to the table you rarely see. Her experiences have given her an extraordinary level of understanding and a safe place to walk to as she is a safe harbor fill of strength and integrity. She is raw and real and beautifully vulnerable and she is exceptional at conveying the words that are hard to find. She is a rare one." Christi D.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello friends, this is the Parables of Grief podcast
and this is your host, MamaBear Wendy, I'm here to share
some love and light with you onyour journey through grief and
loss.
I hope, as our healing pathsconnect for the next few minutes
, we can walk together and findstrength for the road ahead.
One scientist suggests thatwhat the grieving need most is
to have others witness our painand help us not feel so alone.

(00:25):
I hope in our time together youwill find the companionship and
understanding that you need.
The intention of this podcastis to use parables of grief to
find the Savior and His promisedhealing in the daily and
commonplace, to see how we aretruly never alone and to find,
like the disciples on the roadto Emmaus, the Savior by our
side, even if we didn'trecognize him at first, because

(00:47):
he showed up in unexpected andcommon ways.
Also, there is much coming soonto help with your journey.
The Parables of Grief book willbe coming out by Christmas of
2025, and there areopportunities to join me in
online grief groups andone-on-one companion sessions.
Please check out my website atmomadbearwendycom for more

(01:07):
information.
Hello, my friends, today we aregoing to talk about some famous
widows, if you have thoughtabout the word widow, then there
would probably be someconnotations from the Old

(01:28):
Testament and the New Testament.
We have several widows that wetalk about there.
It's interesting to me thatonly in becoming a widow did I
recognize the meaning of thestory of Ruth.
So today we're going to delveinto the story of Ruth and Naomi

(01:52):
and Boaz, and as we do that, Iwould like you to be thinking
about two questions throughout,and the two questions are how
are they like me and how arethey each like the Savior?
So I have a quote for you, andthis is from the Bond of Charity

(02:16):
by Barbara B Smith in Octoberof 1980.
In Spanish, the word charitymeans the love that never ceases
to be.
In Micronesia, the word lovetranslates into the power to
change lives.
These tender nuances give us abetter understanding of the pure

(02:36):
love of Christ or the wordcharity.
As we serve with the singledesire to nurture all life, we
come to know what charity means.
This seemed to be thecharacteristic of Ruth, whose
feelings for Naomi are recordedin the Old Testament.
Ruth was compassionate, eventhough the circumstances of her

(02:56):
life were bitter.
Bitter experiences come intothe lives of all of us.
Without the bitter, we cannotknow the sweet the prophet Nephi
explained, for it must needs bethat there is opposition in all
things.
If not so righteousness couldnot be brought to pass, neither
wickedness, neither holiness normisery, neither good nor bad,

(03:17):
wherefore all things must needsbe a compound in one, and that's
2 Nephi, 2, verse 11.
Compound in one, and that's 2Nephi, chapter 2, verse 11.
Ruth knew this opposition.
She was just a young woman whenher husband died and left her
alone without a child.
It was a bitter time, and yetthere was sweetness in her
relationship with hermother-in-law and the strength

(03:38):
of her faith in the God ofIsrael.
Both had come into her lifebecause of her marriage.
So today we're going to talkabout when your life takes a
turn that you didn't expect orwant, and I think that we can
all agree that being widowed isone of those life turns that you

(04:00):
didn't plan on, didn't expect,certainly find very bitter.
And in that bitterness we havea moment to choose, and we're
going to talk about Ruth and thepowerful choices that she made,
even in her sorrow.
So we'll start out with Naomifirst, because Naomi's story has

(04:25):
some words in it that didn'tmean anything to me until my
husband died.
I'm going to read to you fromthe book of Ruth.
This is verse 19 through 21.
So they went until they cameinto Bethlehem.
And it came to pass that whenthey were come to Bethlehem,
that all the city was movedabout them and they said Is this

(04:48):
Naomi?
And she said unto them Call menot Naomi, call me Mara, for the
Almighty hath dealt verybitterly with me.
I went out full and the Lordhath brought me home again empty
.
Why then call ye me Naomi,seeing the Lord hath testified
against me and the Almighty hathafflicted me?

(05:09):
Now the story of Naomi is thatshe went into Moab because of a
famine in Israel and her and herhusband and her two sons all
move to Moab.
And as they are there, herhusband and her two sons die and

(05:30):
she is left alone.
And what a heavy, heavy heartshe has.
So much so that she wants tochange her name from Naomi and
change it into Mara, which meansbitter.
And I didn't really understandthat until after the death of my

(05:52):
husband and I could relate.
I could feel that emptiness andthat desire even to have my
name changed to something thatwould reflect more of the sorrow
and the hollowness that I felt.
It's interesting to me how weare creatures that can only

(06:16):
relate to things when we can,and the Lord gives us
opportunity to understand thingsmore deeply when they are.
Our own experiences resonateswith me in this idea of losing

(06:41):
identity, where she feels likeshe is no more who.
She was Naomi, but now she isMara.
I feel that that can reflect alot of our feelings when we
first lose our spouse especially.
But even last night you wouldthink that I don't know, I have
a lot of shoulds about when I amallowed to grieve and when I'm

(07:02):
not.
And anyway it feels like maybeI've expended my time of being
allowed to be sad.
But last night I went down andwas in my husband and I's old
stomping grounds where we grewup together and went on dates
and all the things, and italways is so triggering to me to

(07:25):
be in those places without him.
He is near, but not the same,and it made me feel a little
Mara-ish, a little bitter.
So we're going to transfer nowto Ruth.
Actually, let's go back to Naomiand just ask ourselves the two

(07:45):
questions.
So the two questions are howare they like me and how are
they like the Savior?
They like me and how are theylike the Savior?
So I think we've addressed howNaomi I can relate to her, but I
think we could think about howNaomi can relate to the Savior.
And I certainly think therewere times, let this bitter cup

(08:10):
pass from me, where the Saviorfelt bitterness as well, from me
where the Savior feltbitterness as well, and in that
moment he did not choose toremain in the bitterness.
He did finish the bitternessand fulfilled his mission.
So can we also take our bittercup and be finished by it

(08:34):
instead of destroyed?
Okay, we're going to go into thestory of Ruth.
I think, when you think of thestory of Ruth, there is always
the loyalty that she has to hermother-in-law.
But, as I have been thinkingabout it, there is also loyalty
to the God of Israel and herwillingness to abandon her own

(08:58):
family, her own religion, herown place that she had come from
, to be part of the house ofIsrael.
And of course she is rewardedby becoming the
great-great-grandmother of theSavior.
By becoming thegreat-great-grandmother of the
Savior, which is a beautiful endto that story.
But of course she doesn't knowthat at this point.

(09:26):
So there is the famous scripturein Ruth.
This is verse 16.
And Ruth said Entreat me not toleave thee or to turn from
following after thee, forwhither thou goest turn from
following after thee, forwhither thou goest I will go,
and where thou lodgest I willlodge, thy people shall be my
people and thy God my God.
So some of the things that Ican learn from Ruth, one of the
things that I love about her, isher loyalty, her faithfulness

(09:49):
to the people that are alive.
My desire, right after myhusband died, was to join him
and go lay on his grave like RedFern grows fashion and just
give up.
But like Ruth, I had to make achoice to the living and to

(10:14):
embrace my loyalty to them, toget up and be a mom and be a
grandmother and join the ranksof the living.
Even though part of me was so,so sad, I love that Ruth, in her
sorrow, does not abandon Naomiand does not abandon the God of

(10:39):
Israel.
And her faithfulness istestament to me that there is
power in that choice, in thatchoice to be loyal to the things
that we know to the God ofIsrael, loyal to the things that
we know to the God of Israel.

(10:59):
So the last part of our story isabout Boaz and Boaz.
In ancient Israel, someone whomarries a widow, there is
obligation for a family memberto take the widow of a brother
or a cousin or something andgive seed to the dead spouse.

(11:22):
So Ruth's story is that she islooking for a family member that
will do this for her, and Naomikind of orchestrates this
meeting between Ruth and Boaz sothat he can be the redeemer of

(11:44):
their family and isn't itinteresting that that's the word
that's used.
And out of this union came themessianic line, thereby Ruth and
Boaz become thegreat-great-grandparents to the
Messiah.
Again, boaz as the Redeemer isthe progenitor of the Redeemer.

(12:09):
How curious is that?
So much symbolism, so muchideas behind that.
Boaz as a symbol of Jesus Christ, certainly.
As a symbol of Jesus Christ,certainly, and as an obedient

(12:31):
servant, he does all in hispower to take care of Naomi and
Ruth by allowing them greaterability to harvest from his
fields.
And he is honorable with herand makes sure that the nearest
relative does not want tofulfill that duty as the
redeemer of their family beforehe takes her as his own.

(12:54):
In all ways.
This story is a story of thejourney of life not taking the
path that we expect.
In all ways, this story is astory of seeking Jesus in our
suffering and being loyal to himeven when we are in bitterness,

(13:17):
the bitterness of sorrow.
There's another piece of thisstory that I find interesting,
and that is how much moredifficult it is for a widow in
those days than it is for me InRuth's day, naomi's day.
There was no way to provide foryourself, there was no ability.

(13:37):
You were at the mercy of yourfamily members, and that has
certainly not been the case forme, and I am so grateful to be a
widow in this time rather thanthat time.
I hope you've enjoyed ourpodcast today.
If you would like more griefsupport, please see my website
at mamabearwendycom for myupcoming five pillars of

(13:59):
resilience group and one-on-oneopportunities.
Although your experience andpath will be unique, there is
hope ahead in this path and youare not alone.
I can see your pain and we willwalk this road together.
Let's take a deep breathtogether and here is a big bear
hug from Mama Bear Wendy.
Until next time, thank you.