Ruth 1: 20-21
Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
Its very difficult to be positive when things do not work out.
Life has been hard on Naomi. She left her hometown for a seemingly better place but instead encountered a worst state of life and had to return eventually when things didn't work out. In her context, she witnessed the death of her husband and two sons.
In the hardest of time, joy is often sucked out and how easy it is to fall into a state of bitterness and offense. For a short-tempered, critical person, I can attest to it. However, the journey only gets more difficult when we close up and look at life negatively and everything irks us. Things only spiral out of control into a worser state as we allow bitterness to consume us.
I always say, emotions come and go. However, the most key is the fact that the Lord prevails. I'm grateful that the story of Naomi ends in joy because it testifies of God's goodness as our redeemer even when we proclaim bitterness in our life's affliction.
M.
