Today, my good friend Lois Richer shares her thoughts on Ruth, the grandmother of King David and her latest Love Inspired. Here’s Lois:

“Thanks for inviting me to blog, Lyn.

A very strong woman in the Bible whom I’ve always admired is Ruth. Losing a husband would be decimating, scary and painful. The future would be terrifying. But still Ruth refused Naomi’s admonition to stay where she was. Imagine leaving home with your mother-in-law!
Naomi must have been some kind of a mother-in-law because Ruth was determined to stick by her side. I’ve always loved Ruth’s famous response. ‘Don’t ask me to go back anymore. Wherever you’re going, I’m going. Whoever you call family, I will, too. Your God is mine. I’ll stick so close that when you die, I’ll be buried beside you.’ (Paraphrase mine.) After those amazing statements, Ruth even invokes God to help her keep her vow, a God she only knew through her husband’s family! What a powerful faith she must have had to trust this new God.

But Ruth’s strength survived more than the long journey to a foreign place, or the people Naomi had once called family. Once they were ‘home’, Ruth had strength enough to plan for their daily needs. She didn’t hesitate or avoid the rough and heavy job, but went out into the fields to gather the bits that were left for the poor and hungry. Humiliating? Embarrassing? I’m sure Ruth felt that and more, but she kept going every day, picking up as much as she could so the only family she had left wouldn’t go hungry. How hard it must have been for Ruth to accept that this was her life now, that she wasn’t a protected wife any longer, but alone and responsible for another mouth. And yet she accepted her life with grace, dignity and strength.


Olivia Hastings, the heroine in my April Love Inspired, TWICE UPON A TIME, is just such a strong woman. A psychologist for a kid’s radio talk show, Olivia devoted herself to helping children find solutions for their problems until her husband and child were murdered. Olivia clung to her faith, left home and friends behind. But she couldn’t, wouldn’t, give up her desire to help children. When an abused teen struggles to break free of her brother’s manipulations, Olivia refuses to give up, even though it means risking her new love for Reese and his adorable kids.
Ruth and Olivia–two strong women who drew on God to see them through their trials.”

Thanks, Lois and Happy Easter!