What’s love got to do with it?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like love stories. I hate watching romance movies or reading romance novels. This means that when I heard people describe the book of Ruth as being a “love story”, I was turned off by the book. I have read this book a number of times, but the other day God blew my mind using this book that I had written off as “just a dumb love story”.

This time when I read this book I focused on Ruth’s character. I encourage you to read through the story and look at her personality and take note of the positive traits that she displayed. I noticed 4 distinct things about her character: she was faithful (she kept her word to Naomi), she had integrity (she was of good repute throughout the community), she was diligent (worked all day gathering grain), and she was submissive to the authority in her life (she followed Naomi’s instructions in regards to Boaz). After reading through the book I realized at the end that Boaz demonstrated the exact same traits. He was faithful (he did what he promised Ruth he would do), he had integrity (was respected in the community), he was diligent (he checked on his land and workers and rose early in the morning), and was submissive to authority (he followed the social customs before agreeing to marry Ruth).

I was told a few years ago by a dear friend of mine to make a “man-list” that includes different traits that I find desirable in a man. Now, after many, many revisions, I feel like I know a number of specific character traits that I would like in a man. As I was reading through the book of Ruth I was thinking “yes, diligence is a great trait in a man”, but then I asked myself “do I display that trait that I find so desirable?”. It’s one thing to know what you’re looking for in the opposite sex, but are you the type of person that someone else is looking for?

From this story we can see that Ruth attracted Boaz because of her character. He held himself to a high moral standard, as did she. If you want a spouse who has strong morals, you have to first be a person of high moral character, even when “no one” is watching. If you seem to be attracting “all the wrong people”, first take a look at what you’re projecting, and make changes accordingly.