Parables of Grief
The Parables of Grief podcast is for anyone who has lost a spouse. We discuss the common everyday lessons learned in this journey of suffering when your best friend and confidant is dead. We address the loneliness, the secondary losses, and the hope that lies ahead on this path. We look to the Savior as the master healer in every episode, and we focus on the light he brings to our darkest hours. We cling to His promises, especially his promise that, “I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you,” which is found in John 14:18.
Parables of Grief
Parables of Grief: Lessons from Ruth and Naomi
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.
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.
Hello friends, this is the Parables of Grief podcast and this is your host, Mama Bear Wendy, I'm here to share some love and light with you on your journey through grief and loss. I hope, as our healing paths connect for the next few minutes, we can walk together and find strength for the road ahead. One scientist suggests that what the grieving need most is to have others witness our pain and help us not feel so alone. I hope in our time together you will find the companionship and understanding that you need. The intention of this podcast is to use parables of grief to find the Savior and His promised healing in the daily and commonplace, to see how we are truly never alone and to find, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Savior by our side, even if we didn't recognize him at first, because he showed up in unexpected and common ways. Also, there is much coming soon to help with your journey. The Parables of Grief book will be coming out by Christmas of 2025, and there are opportunities to join me in online grief groups and one-on-one companion sessions. Please check out my website at momadbearwendycom for more information.
Speaker 1:Hello, my friends, today we are going to talk about some famous widows, if you have thought about the word widow, then there would probably be some connotations from the Old Testament and the New Testament. We have several widows that we talk about there. It's interesting to me that only in becoming a widow did I recognize the meaning of the story of Ruth. So today we're going to delve into the story of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz, and as we do that, I would like you to be thinking about two questions throughout, and the two questions are how are they like me and how are they each like the Savior? So I have a quote for you, and this is from the Bond of Charity by Barbara B Smith in October of 1980.
Speaker 1:In Spanish, the word charity means the love that never ceases to be. In Micronesia, the word love translates into the power to change lives. These tender nuances give us a better understanding of the pure love of Christ or the word charity. As we serve with the single desire to nurture all life, we come to know what charity means. This seemed to be the characteristic of Ruth, whose feelings for Naomi are recorded in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:Ruth was compassionate, even though the circumstances of her life were bitter. Bitter experiences come into the lives of all of us. Without the bitter, we cannot know the sweet the prophet Nephi explained, for it must needs be that there is opposition in all things. If not so righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad, wherefore all things must needs be a compound in one, and that's 2 Nephi, 2, verse 11. Compound in one, and that's 2 Nephi, chapter 2, verse 11.
Speaker 1:Ruth knew this opposition. She was just a young woman when her husband died and left her alone without a child. It was a bitter time, and yet there was sweetness in her relationship with her mother-in-law and the strength of her faith in the God of Israel. Both had come into her life because of her marriage. So today we're going to talk about when your life takes a turn that you didn't expect or want, and I think that we can all agree that being widowed is one of those life turns that you didn't plan on, didn't expect, certainly find very bitter. And in that bitterness we have a moment to choose, and we're going to talk about Ruth and the powerful choices that she made, even in her sorrow.
Speaker 1:So we'll start out with Naomi first, because Naomi's story has some words in it that didn't mean anything to me until my husband died. I'm going to read to you from the book of Ruth. This is verse 19 through 21. So they went until they came into Bethlehem. And it came to pass that when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them and they said Is this Naomi? And she said unto them Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. 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?
Speaker 1:Now the story of Naomi is that she went into Moab because of a famine in Israel and her and her husband and her two sons all move to Moab. And as they are there, her husband and her two sons die and she is left alone. And what a heavy, heavy heart she has. So much so that she wants to change her name from Naomi and change it into Mara, which means bitter. And I didn't really understand that until after the death of my husband and I could relate. I could feel that emptiness and that desire even to have my name changed to something that would reflect more of the sorrow and the hollowness that I felt. It's interesting to me how we are creatures that can only relate to things when we can, and the Lord gives us opportunity to understand things more deeply when they are.
Speaker 1:Our own experiences resonates with me in this idea of losing identity, where she feels like she is no more who. She was Naomi, but now she is Mara. I feel that that can reflect a lot of our feelings when we first lose our spouse especially. But even last night you would think that I don't know, I have a lot of shoulds about when I am allowed to grieve and when I'm not. And anyway it feels like maybe I've expended my time of being allowed to be sad. But last night I went down and was in my husband and I's old stomping grounds where we grew up together and went on dates and all the things, and it always is so triggering to me to 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 now to Ruth.
Speaker 1:Actually, let's go back to Naomi and just ask ourselves the two questions. So the two questions are how are they like me and how are they like the Savior? They like me and how are they like the Savior? So I think we've addressed how Naomi I can relate to her, but I think we could think about how Naomi can relate to the Savior. And I certainly think there were times, let this bitter cup pass from me, where the Savior felt bitterness as well, from me where the Savior felt bitterness as well, and in that moment he did not choose to remain in the bitterness. He did finish the bitterness and fulfilled his mission. So can we also take our bitter cup and be finished by it instead of destroyed?
Speaker 1:Okay, we're going to go into the story of Ruth. I think, when you think of the story of Ruth, there is always the loyalty that she has to her mother-in-law. But, as I have been thinking about it, there is also loyalty to the God of Israel and her willingness to abandon her own family, her own religion, her own place that she had come from, to be part of the house of Israel. And of course she is rewarded by becoming the great-great-grandmother of the Savior. By becoming the great-great-grandmother of the Savior, which is a beautiful end to that story. But of course she doesn't know that at this point.
Speaker 1:So there is the famous scripture in Ruth. This is verse 16. And Ruth said Entreat me not to leave thee or to turn from following after thee, for whither thou goest turn 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. So some of the things that I can learn from Ruth, one of the things that I love about her, is her loyalty, her faithfulness to the people that are alive. My desire, right after my husband died, was to join him and go lay on his grave like Red Fern grows fashion and just give up. But like Ruth, I had to make a choice to the living and to embrace my loyalty to them, to get up and be a mom and be a grandmother and join the ranks of the living. Even though part of me was so, so sad, I love that Ruth, in her sorrow, does not abandon Naomi and does not abandon the God of Israel. And her faithfulness is testament to me that there is power in that choice, in that choice to be loyal to the things that we know to the God of Israel, loyal to the things that we know to the God of Israel.
Speaker 1:So the last part of our story is about Boaz and Boaz. In ancient Israel, someone who marries a widow, there is obligation for a family member to take the widow of a brother or a cousin or something and give seed to the dead spouse. So Ruth's story is that she is looking for a family member that will do this for her, and Naomi kind of orchestrates this meeting between Ruth and Boaz so that he can be the redeemer of their family and isn't it interesting that that's the word that's used. And out of this union came the messianic line, thereby Ruth and Boaz become the great-great-grandparents to the Messiah. Again, boaz as the Redeemer is the progenitor of the Redeemer. How curious is that? So much symbolism, so much ideas behind that.
Speaker 1:Boaz as a symbol of Jesus Christ, certainly. As a symbol of Jesus Christ, certainly, and as an obedient servant, he does all in his power to take care of Naomi and Ruth by allowing them greater ability to harvest from his fields. And he is honorable with her and makes sure that the nearest relative does not want to fulfill that duty as the redeemer of their family before he takes her as his own. In all ways. This story is a story of the journey of life not taking the path that we expect. In all ways, this story is a story of seeking Jesus in our suffering and being loyal to him even when we are in bitterness, the bitterness of sorrow.
Speaker 1:There's another piece of this story that I find interesting, and that is how much more difficult it is for a widow in those days than it is for me In Ruth's day, naomi's day. There was no way to provide for yourself, there was no ability. You were at the mercy of your family members, and that has certainly not been the case for me, and I am so grateful to be a widow in this time rather than that time. I hope you've enjoyed our podcast today. If you would like more grief support, please see my website at mamabearwendycom for my upcoming five pillars of resilience group and one-on-one 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. Let's take a deep breath together and here is a big bear hug from Mama Bear Wendy. Until next time, thank you.
