I said what I said. How many of you make a New Year’s Resolution and actually keep it? Exactly! We don’t. Today is the last Monday of 2020, can I get a “yahoooo,” and I feel a bit like I have been holding my breath. I don’t have this irrational belief that like Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight everything will go back to normal, but that start of a new year can be a “reset” for us. 

So before it is time for a “reset” into 2021, I want you to take a hard look at 2020. 

Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions that you won’t keep anyway, let’s Renew, Reevaluate, and Receive. 

While rereading the book of Ruth I began to realize she is a perfect example of moving out of 2020 and into a “reset.” To get more of the background of Ruth you can read Love the One You’re With but if you recall Ruth has moved away from her family to be with her husbands, but then in war he dies. Her mother-in-law generously tells Ruth and her sister-in-law to return to their homelands and find new husbands while they are young (Ruth 1:8-15). One runs and one stays. 

Do you ever feel like running away from hardship? 

I distinctly remember a night after Alex died when I was standing on my bricked front porch steps. Everything in me said to run. The feelings to leave it all behind and start over was overwhelming. I believed I could somehow “forget” all the sorrow and pain. Secretly I hoped it would all end the moment I stepped away. But I can still feel my fuzzy socks sticking to the brick and like Ruth, I stayed. 

RENEW. 

Ruth didn’t have to renew this relationship. She could have taken the easy road. She could have returned home to her parents, eventually found a new husband, and had children. At this time being a widow was similar to the status of someone who is homeless today, but Ruth chose to be a widow. She also chose to stand by the side of the woman who renames herself Mara which means “bitter” (Ruth 1:20). Consider this for a moment. Ruth isn’t sticking alongside someone who is supporting her but someone she clearly will have to support.  

What things in your life do you need to renew even though it isn’t easy? What relationships do you need to continue to work on?

 REEVALUATE

Ruth took the opportunity to see what she could do. She did not name herself Morah and crawl back into bed (although some days it feels like the perfect thing to do). 

Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

And then she did. Over and over again she did exactly what she could. She was determined, a hard worker, and did with what she had available to her. 

What things in your life do you need to reevaluate? What things can you look at today, even if it seems small, that could change your future? 

It could be something as simple as:

•  not having a “drop zone” in the house but things have to be put away right away everytime to eliminate clutter. 
• making the decision to spend a set amount of time with each kid every day to build better relationships with your children. 
• planning a weekly date night where you don’t have “electronics” with your husband. 
• saving a set amount of money every day, week, or month into a jar or moving into a separate account. 
• committing to writing every single night before you go to bed. 

What is God telling you to reevaluate?

RECEIVE

When we RENEW our relationships and REEVALUATE what God wants us to do we often then come into the opportunity to RECEIVE. 

For Ruth, it came from the field owner, Boaz. 

Ruth 2:8-16
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

Ruth could have said, “I don’t deserve the nice treatment” or “I am just…” Instead she allowed the opportunity to receive. 

What in your life have you pushed away when it was meant to be a blessing from God? 

As you head into 2021, begin to “reset” your mindset so you are able to RENEW relationships that need you to stay, REEVALUATE the situations you could do a simple step to improve, and open your eyes to RECEIVE the blessing God has for you. 

If you are looking for an opportunity to move beyond your past and into HOPE you can find a new Book Study for the book HOPE (Amidst the Stories I Told Myself): How to Find Hope in Love and Loss. The Book Study dives deeper into scripture forcing you to dig within yourself. You will work through three sections: Recognize, Reflect, and Renew. This book study is now available for a limited time on Amazon for only $0.99! You will need to use the book HOPE (Amidst the Stories I Told Myself): How to Find Hope in Love and Loss alongside it. This book is $13.99 at all book retailers and 100% of the profit is used to provide this book to grieving parents after child loss. You can read more about this at Hope in Healing Hearts.