V is for Virtue Proverbs 31 Mother Daughter Lesson4

Session 4:  V for Virtue

 

1.  Icebreaker:  Have 2 sacks of costumes, kitchen items etc.  Teams have to put together a short skit and present it.

2.  Teaching:  Virtue

    What is virtue:  Defined as moral excellence; goodness, righteousness.

   2 Peter 1:5-9 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith VIRTUE, to VIRTUE knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

 

When I think of “virtue”, I think of just a life that walks in excellence and strives to always please God in all things.  Not just when it’s easy but always.  A life that is holy, and that when she makes a mistake, she runs to God asking for forgiveness and asking Him to continue to make her more like Him. 

Example:  Doing what is right even when it doesn’t matter to anyone except God.  Give a personal example

Listen to the Spirit of God within you.  Obey in the small things and He will honor you to be over bigger things.

Let’s talk about a woman in the Bible who lived a morally excellent life…Ruth

She was from Moab.  She married a man that was from Bethlehem and his brother also married a girl named Orpah.  They lived about 10 years in Moab with their husbands and mother in law named Naomi.  They died and the women were all still alive.  Naomi decided she is going back to Bethlehem and the girls can stay in their hometown and just marry again. 

Ruth decided that she would stay with Naomi.  She said…Read Ruth 1:16, 17.  So they went to Bethlehem and Naomi was kind of sad and grumpy about her life. Ruth decides to do something to get food for them.  She asks if she can go gather the gleanings of the field (explain).  So she gathered the leftovers to take home for food.

As she is doing this, Boaz comes along and is observing his fields.  He notices Ruth 9when you walk in moral excellence the world will take notice).  He speaks with Ruth and tells her to not go to any other field and that he has told his workers to not bother her and that she can have fresh water whenever she is thirsty. 

Ruth is surprised that he is so nice to her, a foreigner.  We walk in the favor of God when we live a virtuous and morally excellent lifestyle.  He even asked her to eat with him and Ruth saved some for Naomi!  She had a pure heart. 

Boaz goes on to tell his workers to leave extra gleanings for Ruth.  When Ruth brings her grain home, Naomi is extremely surprised by how much she has gotten and asks whose field she went to and who took notice of you.  Ruth explains that it is Boaz and Naomi is thrilled and realizes that God’s hand has been in all of this.

She goes on to glean until the end of barley harvest then wheat harvest.  Do you think Boaz was watching Ruth during this time? Absolutely!!

Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is part of their family.  Back then, it was the family’s responsibility to care for women whose husbands had died.  Many would marry them so that they could have children and continue the family.  Since Boaz is part of the family, it is the first place they should go for Ruth to marry.

Naomi tells Ruth what to do and she goes to Boaz whiles he is sleeping and uncovers his feet.  Some say that this was to wake him, perhaps.  For whatever reason, he does awake and she asks that he cares for her now.  Boaz is so very honored because she came to him instead of some young punk kid in Bethlehem.  He says..

Ruth 3:11 Any now, my daughter, do not fear.  I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. 

How did the town know she was virtuous?  She lived a life of moral excellence and goodness by caring for Naomi and honoring other before herself.

Ruth went on to marry Boaz and have a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David. Ruth was the great grandmother of King David.

Many, many years later, Jesus came from this family line.  There are no limits on what God can do through you when you choose to live a virtuous life.

Ruth was very responsible.  She was thorough and orderly and things were done in a timely manner.

She could’ve said, “I'm too tired and do not fell like going to the fields today.  But would she have had anything to eat? NO

What if she would have said I’ll do it later?  Just let me finish this TV show.  If she would have, all the gleanings would have been gone from the fields.

Read Prov 31:10-end

Look at all that she does in the home.  That is what we are doing this for with you girls.  That you all will grow up to be virtuous women who love God with all their hearts and love and care for your families with all that is within you.

Object lesson:  Virtue is what is on the inside of us.  (2 milk jugs with picture of two different faces of pretty ladies)

Look at this lady (milk jug) she is pretty on the outside but what is on the inside?  It is what is on the inside that counts.  It eventually spills out.  (Let them smell the spoiled milk or vinegar, something that stinks) 

 

Let your heart be full of virtue and moral excellence so that it leaves a pleasant fragrance wherever you go.  (Smell other jug with perfume)

 3.  Spotlight of Honor

 4.  Cooking project:  Make pizzas out of biscuits/tomato paste, cheese, pepperoni, and pizza cookies with icing and sprinkles and fruit. 

 5.  Snack:  Eat the prepared snack.