<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Naomi said, \u2018Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today\u2019\u201d (Ruth 3:18 NIV).<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t you want to have a mother-in-law like Naomi on your side to give you words of wisdom when it comes to matters concerning marriage?\u00a0 Especially when the most eligible bachelor in town has told you that He would do whatever you want.<\/p>\n
Waiting for what you want is difficult but it is the most rewarding thing any single woman can do in order to avoid discontentment.\u00a0 So many of us have been led on by men who made promises which they knew they would not keep.<\/p>\n
Jackie Kendall and Debbie Jones address ways that we as women have been defrauded by such men of ill intention.\u00a0 The word to defraud means to excite physical or emotional desires that cannot be righteously fulfilled.<\/p>\n
Many of us have fallen prey to men who have whispered sweet nothings to us and we have been led to believe that we are the center of their world only to found out later on that we were not the only ones these words were being spoken to.\u00a0 I know of a man who called every girl \u201csweetheart\u201d or \u201csweetie\u201d.\u00a0 When asked how many sweethearts he had he explained that he called his sister \u201csweetheart\u201d so he considered every girl his sister.\u00a0 Imagine the heartbreak of the girls when they heard that he thought of them as his sisters and not something more.<\/p>\n
There is a recent type of defrauding that is going on called \u201cfriends with benefits\u201d where boys and girls especially in colleges, or young men and women do not set any boundaries as to what they do in their relationships.\u00a0 They even move in together and live as if they married.\u00a0 The sad part about this set up is the emotions that a young woman puts into such a relationship.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe a young woman can live with a man, share everything including a bed and say that such a relationship has \u201cno strings attached\u201d.\u00a0 There are strings attached to this, where you like it or not, your heart is not detached to you when you are living in this environment.\u00a0 A woman cannot be honest with herself if she says she is content living in this situation.\u00a0 What happens when the man decides he is not ready to move this further and he is happy with the status quo?\u00a0 Where does that live you?\u00a0 Honestly which man wouldn\u2019t be happy when he finds hot food on his table every time he arrives home from work or class, clean clothes nicely folded for him to pick and wear?\u00a0 You literally wait on him hand and foot yet the only word he said was \u201clet\u2019s move in together\u201d and not \u201clet\u2019s get married.\u201d\u00a0 The man gains everything at the expense of the woman who gives more than herself to play house with a man.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this scenario is not only found in Hollywood movies but even among the Christian circles.\u00a0 Many single women are falling into this trap which only leads to discontentment.\u00a0 The Lord does not want us to sell ourselves short because we feel time is not our side.\u00a0 Let us wait upon the Lord and He will give us the desires of our hearts.\u00a0 Running ahead of the Lord will only lead us to discontentment and we will want to dig a hole and hide because we find ourselves in a situation where we wonder how we got there in the first place.<\/p>\n
Naomi did not want Ruth to be overly excited and begin making orders for her \u201cVera Wang\u201d wedding dress or choosing who is going to be her maid of honor or to begin planning a guest list.\u00a0 She wanted her to wait and see how things will turn out with Boaz.\u00a0 This is one woman to be applauded for having such wisdom.\u00a0 Imagine if the other kinsman redeemer was willing to redeem Ruth and she has already told the world who she was going to marry!<\/p>\n
When we are in a dating relationship, it\u2019s so difficult to heed to the wise words of others; we seem to be walking on cloud nine and whenever someone says something we do not like we close our ears and words of wisdom enter through one ear and go out of the other ear.\u00a0 It\u2019s like all over sudden we are deaf to advise.\u00a0 All we want to hear is how we look great together and how beautiful our children will be.\u00a0 We only surround ourselves with people who agree with us and not those who want to tell us to slow down and concentrate on building a friendship.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad to hear \u201cI told you so\u201d when we come face to face with failed relationship.<\/p>\n
As our writers clearly puts it:\u00a0 \u201cAnother way a guy may defraud a woman is by emphasizing the future potential of the relationship rather than focusing on the present opportunities for the friendship to grow. This way of defrauding incites feelings in a woman that cannot be properly fulfilled at that time. This creates emotional turmoil for many women, making it difficult to wait with contentment. Postpone talk of a future together, marriage, or what kind of home you want, until engagement. Do not encourage talk of things that \u201cmight be,\u201d but rather encourage words and actions that develop the present friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let us not fall into ditches of discontentment by allowing every Jim and Jack to mess with our hearts.\u00a0 Don\u2019t become too desperate so as to fall prey to their schemes. \u00a0\u00a0Let us guard our hearts because out of them springs of water will flow.\u00a0 Let us wait for what God has in store for us for Proverbs 10:22 says \u201cthe blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
LET\u2019S PRAY<\/b><\/p>\n
Father, we thank you so much for you love us so much that you want us live a life that is full and content.\u00a0 Jesus came that we should have life in abundance.\u00a0 However, we also let the enemy use others to come and steal, kill and destroy the joy and contentment that you died for us to have.\u00a0 Help us to take back this joy so that we may wait patiently for what you have for us.\u00a0 In Jesus Name Amen.<\/p>\n
YOUR ASSIGNMENT<\/b><\/p>\n
A contented woman has the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing life on her terms. Are you a contented woman? (Read Judges 21:25, Luke 1:38, and Matthew 26:39.)<\/p>\n
Be Blessed,<\/p>\n
Jackie<\/p>\n
___________________<\/p>\n
For the “Lady in Waiting” Bible Study, you will need the book, your Bible, pen or pencil, a highlighter and a quiet place. You can order the book right through our website by clicking the “sign-up here” button at the top of our webpage; which is also where you can sign up to participate in this awesome bible study!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThen Naomi said, \u2018Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today\u2019\u201d (Ruth 3:18 NIV). Wouldn\u2019t you want to have a mother-in-law like Naomi on your side to give you words of wisdom when it comes to matters concerning marriage?\u00a0 Especially when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,147,257,292,425,544,545,579,593,628,658,707,723,724,809,916,921,1047,1110],"class_list":["post-4252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-singles","tag-bible","tag-bible-study","tag-contentment","tag-debbie-jones","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jackie-chingawale","tag-jackie-kendall","tag-judges-2125","tag-lady-in-waiting","tag-luke-138","tag-matthew-2639","tag-naomi","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-online-bible-study","tag-proverbs-1022","tag-ruth","tag-ruth-318","tag-teens-online-bible-study","tag-waiting","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-16A","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8339,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions\/8339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}