Welcome to Part 2 of this week's podcast.

Okay, let's transition over to the book of First Samuel.

I read this in the Church's Come Follow Me manual.

We've talked about Ruth and Naomi, but it says also,

can you see yourself in the story of Hannah?

Maybe, like Hannah, you long for blessings you have not yet received.

Ponder what messages you can learn from the example of this faithful woman.

I'm excited to talk about Hannah with you, Gay, and to share about her.

So, as I mentioned earlier, right, we've got two books here who are starting with very ordinary women,

but who in distress because of their barrenness.

With Naomi, it was because her children had been taken from her.

But with Hannah, it was because she hadn't been able to conceive and bear any children.

There are plenty of women who experience this today.

And as an outsider, you can think you've got a husband, you've got, or whatever.

But this is a reminder of the very, very real and very, very deep emotional burden that infertility can have on a woman.

And especially in the ancient world where men had more wives.

They could get their children in other means, but for a woman not to have children, was absolutely devastating.

I think of Rachel in Genesis 31 when she's the depth of her cry out to Jacob when she says,

give me children or else I die, right? Again, you've got to feel what those words are and what it means for somebody to be in this kind of position.

Because marriage and children was what gave women their sense of status and worth in the ancient world.

So even though you've got someone here with Hannah who is married and she has a husband, and that's good.

But even that doesn't compensate for the loss of not having a child.

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