Adult Lesson Plan: Ruth;1 Samuel 1–7

OPENING (2–3 minutes)

Ruth and Hannah sit on opposite ends of the social map. Ruth is a foreign widow with no legal standing. Hannah is an Israelite wife inside a functioning household, yet her heart breaks in a way that makes her feel powerless. Come, Follow Me frames their shared experience with a line that sounds like real life: “Sometimes we imagine that our lives should follow a clear path from beginning to end… And yet life is often full of delays and detours that take us in unexpected directions” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026).

Put a question on the board that refuses easy answers: When life takes a detour, what counts as faith, staying put and enduring, or moving forward into the unknown? Ruth moves. Hannah stays. Both become holy.

SCRIPTURE EXPLORATION (15–20 minutes)

Begin with Ruth’s choice. The manual points us to Ruth’s crossroads: “Ruth was not an Israelite, but she married one, and when her husband died, she had a choice to make. Would she return to her family and her old, familiar life, or would she embrace the Israelite faith and a new home with her mother-in-law? (see Ruth 1:4–18)” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Invite the class to read Ruth 1:4–18 looking for verbs of covenant loyalty, words that show attachment, commitment, and identity. Then ask: What does Ruth risk by tying her future to Naomi’s? What does Naomi risk by letting Ruth come?

Move to Ruth 2:12, because Come, Follow Me gives us a phrase that interprets Ruth’s inner life: “Consider how you have ‘come to trust’ the Lord (Ruth 2:12) during your difficult times” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). The phrase “come to trust” suggests a process rather than a personality trait. Ask the class to notice how Ruth’s trust is not abstract. It shows up in choices that place her within the Lord’s covenant people and within the reach of covenant care.

Shift to Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1–10. The manual names her emotional landscape without softening it: Hannah “could not [bear children], and that left her ‘in bitterness of soul’ (see 1 Samuel 1:1–10)” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Have the class read 1 Samuel 1:1–10 and look for how scripture treats grief and longing. Then ask: What do you learn about God from the fact that Hannah’s pain is recorded and not edited out? What do you learn about discipleship from the fact that faithful people can feel “bitterness of soul”?

Now take a careful turn to 1 Samuel 4–6. The manual describes a spiritual mistake that still feels modern: “When their enemies attacked, the Israelites apparently thought that simply possessing the ark of the covenant would protect them” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Read 1 Samuel 4–6 with that sentence in mind and ask: What does it look like to treat holy things as a substitute for trusting and obeying God? The manual adds an important backdrop: “Note also the unrighteous actions of Eli’s sons, who served as priests in the tabernacle, in 1 Samuel 2:12–25” (same manual section). Let that sit as a sobering reminder that religious proximity and spiritual power are not the same thing.

End this exploration with 1 Samuel 7. Come, Follow Me asks, “What do you learn from Israel’s efforts to regain the Lord’s protection in 1 Samuel 7?” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Put the question to the room and let people answer from the text: What changes? What actions show real turning to the Lord, rather than carrying the ark like a lucky charm?

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSION (10–15 minutes)

Ruth and Hannah teach a doctrine many adults need permission to believe: the Lord works with real people in real constraints. Come, Follow Me states the promise plainly: “But everyone who turns to the Savior receives His help and guidance” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). That sentence does not guarantee a specific timeline or outcome. It guarantees the Savior’s help and guidance to those who turn to Him. Let the class wrestle with what “help and guidance” can look like when the external situation remains hard for a season.

Then bring in redemption as covenant action, not sentiment. The manual frames Ruth’s crisis in concrete terms: “In Israelite culture at the time, a woman without a husband or sons had no right to property and very few ways to earn a living” (“Jesus Christ can turn tragedy into triumph,” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Ruth’s story is not a generic encouragement poster. It is about the Lord providing a way within covenant structure, and about Boaz acting as a redeemer: “How did Boaz redeem Ruth from her desperate situation? (see Ruth 4:4–10). How were both Ruth and Boaz like Jesus Christ?” (same manual section). Ask a question that forces specificity: In Ruth 4:4–10, what does redemption cost the redeemer? What does it restore to the vulnerable? Then ask the class to connect that to the Savior without drifting into vague language: What does it mean that Jesus Christ redeems people who cannot restore themselves?

Now link Hannah’s worship to a mature kind of joy. The manual anchors the week’s title in Hannah’s own words: “you can learn to say with Hannah, ‘My heart rejoiceth in the Lord’ (1 Samuel 2:1)” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Read 1 Samuel 2:1 aloud and ask: How does rejoicing in the Lord differ from rejoicing in circumstances? What kind of spiritual work has to happen inside a person for that sentence to be honest?

Finally, take revelation seriously, because 1 Samuel 3 refuses the idea that spiritual sensitivity is automatic. Come, Follow Me says, “Samuel had to learn how to recognize the Lord’s voice” (“I can hear and obey the voice of the Lord,” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Then it gives a list of passages as “guidelines that can help a person recognize the Lord’s voice” (same section): 1 Kings 19:11–12; Luke 24:15–32; 3 Nephi 11:3–7; Doctrine and Covenants 6:22–23; 8:2–3; 9:7–9. Ask: What do these passages suggest about where revelation lands, and how it feels? Which of those descriptions matches your lived experience?

Bring in President Russell M. Nelson’s assurance as quoted in the manual, and let it stand as a doctrinal anchor rather than a pep talk:

“Does God really want to speak to you? Yes!” (May 2018, Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” as quoted in Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026)

Then ask two questions that invite honest experience rather than polished answers: When have you mistaken the Lord’s voice for something else, and what helped you sort it out later? When the heavens feel quiet, what practices keep you turned toward God anyway?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION (5–7 minutes)

Adults live with detours that do not resolve on a tidy schedule: a marriage that needs long repair, a child who struggles, a job that vanishes, a body that changes, a hope that delays. Come, Follow Me gives language that respects that reality: “Of course, not everyone who prays for a child receives one, and not everyone whose spouse dies remarries” (“June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). The application comes in the next line: “But everyone who turns to the Savior receives His help and guidance” (same source).

Invite the class to choose one of these two questions and sit with it quietly for a moment before anyone answers out loud. Where do I need guidance more than I need an immediate fix? What would it look like this week to “come to trust” the Lord in that place (Ruth 2:12, referenced in the manual)?

Then connect to obedience in 1 Samuel 4–7. The Israelites wanted the Lord’s protection without the Lord’s lordship. Most of us do that in smaller, respectable ways. Ask: Where do I treat spiritual things as talismans, church attendance, a calling, a routine, rather than as a relationship of trust and obedience? Come, Follow Me states the principle directly: “To receive the Lord’s help, I need to trust Him and obey His commandments” (“To receive the Lord’s help, I need to trust Him and obey His commandments,” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). Let that sentence do its gentle work.

Finally, make Samuel’s practice usable. The manual says, “Like all of us, Samuel had to learn how to recognize the Lord’s voice” (same revelation section). Adults can adopt a simple posture this week: when a prompting comes, pause long enough to ask whether it aligns with the Lord’s commandments and whether it settles into the “mind and heart” language referenced in Doctrine and Covenants 8:2–3 (listed in the manual). No theatrics, no chasing signs, just steady discipleship.

CLOSING TESTIMONY & INVITATION (2–3 minutes)

Ruth shows covenant loyalty on the road. Hannah shows covenant loyalty in the temple precincts. Samuel shows covenant loyalty in the quiet hours of learning God’s voice. The Lord meets each of them where they are, and He leads them forward.

Carry one question into the week: Where can I turn to the Savior for help and guidance, even if the detour remains for a while? (“But everyone who turns to the Savior receives His help and guidance,” “June 1–7. ‘My Heart Rejoiceth in the Lord,’” Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026).

I bear witness that God speaks, and that President Nelson’s assurance is reliable: “Does God really want to speak to you? Yes!” (May 2018, Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” as quoted in Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026). As we turn to Jesus Christ inside our own constraints, He redeems, guides, and teaches us to rejoice in the Lord, even while the road still runs ahead.