“[16] But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. [18] When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” — Ruth 1:16, 18 NIV
What are generational choices? They are choices whose effects transcend beyond one generation. They come before many people, especially ladies — in the form of marriage proposals daily. But unfortunately, few people grab them well.
For example, when a man of vision, who’s on course with the Lord, proposes to a daughter of Zion for a godly and meaningful relationship leading to marriage to start, it’s a generational choice for the woman. Why? Because she would either become an eternal benefactor of this privilege in Christ (by serving as the helpmeet of the vision — both family-wise and vision-wise) or lose that privilege entirely.
The former will occur when she accepts the proposal, but the latter will happen when she turns down the proposal. This choice isn’t mainly about whether she loves the man or not, but about generations. And I’m sad to say that some Christian ladies have missed this because of self-crafted unscriptural wants.
A chance came for both Ruth and Orpah to make a generational choice, whether to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem or to move back to Moab, seeing both their husbands and father-in-law dead. Naomi consistently urged these two ladies to leave her alone. But they didn’t know that following her was a divine pathway to be infused into the genealogy of Jesus Christ and to abandon idolatry forever — because Ruth and Orpah weren’t Israelites but Moabites that served idols before getting married.
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and left (Ruth 1:17), but Ruth pressed hard to let Naomi cease discouraging her to follow along. Today, Ruth’s name is part of the genealogy of Jesus because she became the great-grandmother of David (see Matthew 1:5-6). We still remember the works of Ruth today as a whole book in the Bible had been dedicated to telling her life story. However, for Orpah, her exit from Naomi’s life ended her records. We don’t see her anywhere in the scriptures again till today.
What opportunities are you treating so lightly today? To the men, it’s more about God giving you a vision to follow or a man of vision to follow your entire life. But to the women, it’s about godly relationship proposals.
See, God doesn’t present generational choices in hefty packages. It’s in simple forms. It can be a text, an interview or something little to think about and decide. But if you fail to pray or be decisive on what’s best for God for your life, you’ll miss it and may never get it back. Be wise not to trivialise golden opportunities.
You’re a blessing.
Prayer
Father, open my eyes of spiritual understanding to behold generational choices that come as little opportunities before me. Don’t let me or your people miss any of them because of emotions and terrible self-crafted wants, Lord. Have mercy on our generation to remove the scales of darkened understanding in our minds and hearts. Amen. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Devotional Code: KGD – 2023 – 038