Weeping Forward

I’m studying the book of Ruth right now with some friends.  Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi.  Naomi lost her husband and both sons while living in a foreign land, and was so bereft that she had changed her name to Mara, meaning bitter.  The author of the bible study made a thought-provoking point about Naomi and Ruth “weeping forward”.  They had both been devastated by loss, but they didn’t let that stop them from moving forward with their lives….in the direction God had planned for them.  

When I came to the personal reflection part of the study, I struggled to relate to the hardship Ruth and Naomi faced.  But a few days later, I had an “aha” moment.  While I haven’t suffered a major loss, I would qualify parenting young children as cause for needing to weep forward.   My three boys have a special talent for inducing not only endless joy, but endless weeping!  There are certainly some days when I have to weep forward, like Ruth.  And there are other days when I could be called Mara, like Naomi.  

Potty training is the perfect example.  There were so many times when I wanted to turn back, buy stock in Huggies, and send my sons to Kindergarten in diapers.  Especially the day my 90% potty trained son pooped in my friend’s toy room.  Yep, right there in the Little Tikes play house.  It had already been a long day of accidents, but I kept moving forward, refusing to diaper the uncooperative participant.  You could have called me Mara when my friend’s daughter came to report the accident.  And just like Ruth stood by Naomi, my friend stood by me.  She stood by me through potty training hell, even insisting on cleaning up the mess.  I weeped my way forward through potty training, never turning back.  Now it’s a distant memory, and I find myself weeping forward through new phases of parenting….in the direction God has planned for me and my boys.  And just as God provided Ruth to Naomi, He has provided me a community of mamas for encouragement.   So find yourself a Naomi (someone who needs encouraging) and a Ruth (someone to encourage you) and let’s all weep forward together!