14th June 2020
God is unchanging and has promised to always be with us. We can trust him to keep every promise he has made. And incredibly we can hope to be more faithful too - to become reliable friends who will remain true even in hard times.
This colouring page is a statement of God’s faithfulness for your wall:
“Let’s hold fast ... because He who promised is faithful.”
Ruth provides an excellent example of faithfulness to her mother-in-law Naomi. It would have been easy to turn back and return to her family and homeland but she followed through on her commitment to Naomi and her God.
Click the image above for a colouring page
Here are some ideas to help you explore faithfulness together at home.
The dependable pattern of sunrise and sunset every day speaks of God’s faithfulness and reliability. Use horizontal strips of ripped green or blue paper for the land, then a lovely yellow sun with strips of yellows, oranges, reds and pinks behind to create a beautiful sunrise to remind you that God is as sure as the dawn.
We can depend on God to do what He says He will do.
“As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.””
Colour in this picture, then colour in and cut out Ruth and stick her on a lolly stick! Carefully cut a slit along the line between Orpah (Ruth’s sister-in law) and Noami (Ruth’s mother-in-law). Pop Ruth into the slit and your little ones can demonstrate the story of Ruth choosing to stay with Noami and support her, even when Orpah turned back.
Collect some little sticks and then turn them into family and friends! We can show faithfulness by sticking with people even when they’re going through difficult times - just as God sticks with us.
Ruth’s story is summarised below. Look up the key verses in your bible and use the questions to help you think about and discuss the story. Imagine how it would have been for Ruth, and consider what God can teach us through her example.
A man called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons decided to move away from Bethlehem in Israel, where there was not enough food due to a famine, to the land of Moab. Soon after they arrived, Elimelech died. His wife, Naomi, stayed in Moab with her sons, who chose wives and married. The family stayed there for ten years and then both the sons died. Naomi was upset; she felt alone in a foreign land where the people didn't understand either her or her love for God. She decided that she should move back to Bethlehem where her family was from. She said goodbye to her daughters-in-law; telling them to go back to their mothers; but one of them, Ruth, decided to come back to Bethlehem with Naomi. She was very determined.
Read Ruth 1:16
Why do you think Ruth was so keen to stick with Naomi and go to Naomi’s home in Israel?
What do you notice about what Ruth said to Naomi to convince her that she wanted to come?
Have you ever followed someone or been faithful to them even when it was difficult? Why did you do it? (Parents it might be good to help children think of a time or share one from your own life. Perhaps you or they have stuck by a friend or sibling who was being left out by others).
When Naomi returned to Bethlehem, she was very poor. She and Ruth lived in a small house and they hadn't even got enough food. Ruth said to Naomi that she would go and glean in the cornfields. Gleaning meant following the people who were harvesting the corn. Anything that the harvesters dropped, the people gleaning were allowed to pick up. But gleaning was hard work, and it could be dangerous because often the people who needed to go gleaning were quite rough. However, if they wanted to eat, Ruth had to go gleaning and so she went!
How do you think Ruth felt about gleaning in a foreign land?
How did Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi help her?
Have you ever been anywhere where you felt like you didn’t belong? Why did you go? How did you feel about it? Did you go there with someone who did belong, or who fitted in better than you? (Maybe you went with a friend to their wider family or to their club they go to as a guest)
Ruth asked to glean in one of the fields and the man in charge said that she could. The field belonged to a man called Boaz, who was in fact a relative of Naomi. Boaz was impressed by Ruth’s faithfulness to her mother-in-law Naomi and how she had come to a foreign country and worked hard. Boaz showed Ruth kindness.
Read Ruth 2:8-13
What did Boaz hope would happen to Ruth?
All the way through the harvest, Ruth gleaned in Boaz' fields. Before the winter, Boaz married Ruth, and the next year they had a son called Obed. Boaz cared for both Ruth and Naomi, they no longer lived in poverty and they belonged in a family. God had blessed Ruth for her faithfulness to Naomi!
It can be really hard to be faithful to others, to stick with them even when it is tricky. Let’s think of how we could show faithfulness to someone we know you needs it, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. You could make a stick person of them (see the craft section) to remind you to pray for them.
Use what you have available at home to set a challenge of building the tallest structure that will support a book with a lego character on top.
Fruit, pegs or sweets are all great building materials when combined with cocktail sticks or lolly sticks:
Talk about what it means to be a friend / sibling that people can rely on.
If the tower falls, talk about what it feels like to be let down!
Use this imagery of a supportive tower throughout the week as your kids do well/struggle with faithfulness/reliability. Remind them that God will never let us down - he is the Rock we can rely on at all times.
“Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.”
