Good Stewardship

Every time I hear the word I think of a dollar sign: Good Stewardship. Growing up I always thought this had to do with your tithes and offerings and making sure you were a good steward of your money - AKA giving your money to the church and generally not being selfish when the offering plate rolls around. It's like somewhere on the plate there was the engraving, "A good Christian gives abundantly because 'it all belongs to God."

How many times have you heard that phrase, "It all belongs to God." I can recall primarily hearing that phrase from those wanting to borrow money after spending their own on a new pair of shoes for themselves. Or there was that one time that I remember hearing that phrase roll off the tongue of a young mom as she overwhelmed her kids with loads of Christmas presents and filled 1 or 2 Operation Christmas Child shoes boxes. It all belongs to God.... is my life proving that?

Good stewardship.

I've been reading a lot lately (condolences to my sister who read 58 chapter books in a contest and failed to win the Nook prize). I've been doing some studying, as mentioned before, and generally filling my post-kid-bedtime time with some 10+ books while watching Matt's new football video game out of the corner of my eye. The themes are running together. The suggestions good, but a bit overwhelming at times. And the tones of the books range from "grab your torch and pitch-forks!" to "homeschooling is a preference." But one theme, sadly, has only arrived in one of the 10 homeschooling books I read( even though a good handful of them were "Christian" in nature) : Good Stewardship.

It's not the "Go Green because we're running out" good stewardship, but the "be thankful for what God has given you - cuz it's not yours" good stewardship. Yet it didn't stop there...

What about our time? We like to call it God's, but have we sat down and realised what we are communicating through our time?

What am I saying to Rachael through the time I spend Online verses the time she sees me doing house chores? (My husband's too nice to say an amen to that statement.) What am I communicating to my mom and Rachael and Abi when they see the green pool water out the window because I haven't made time to get to it yet? What about our overgrown weeds in the front flowerbeds? How about the wrinkled laundry? How about when we spend all day running around doing errands and we don't have time to play together? Now I'm not saying I'm a crazy slob who doesn't do house chores, but I am saying there is much to be said in how you spend your time.

This is not some big guilt trip. This is evaluation.

What am I communicating to God about how I value what He has given me?

What do I feel I deserve?
Should I feel I deserve things?

Matt and I spent some date night time together last night. It was nice to do something one-on-one that wasn't an adoption class. We've been trying not to stress out our family by leaving the kids with sitters 3 nights per week between the adoption classes and Wednesday church so we took a mild break from date nights and included the girls in our date nights for the past few weeks. We will be done with 2 per week adoption classes this week, but the value of knocking them out before Matt's schooling begins and between vacations was deemed higher than date nights. (Don't judge me, we exchanged adoption classes spent together for date night for 3 weeks. lol)

So last night we were talking about life and getting back on the same page and sipping couponed smoothies - mmmmmmmm. And we just talked about life and training up our kids in righteousness and serving the Lord and how it matters what we do to convey Jesus to our kids and whatever future kids God may add to our family. It was nice. Reaffirming. And right.

I think God is pleased with what we communicated through that use of our time.

And while we have more time and resources and actions and service to constantly be in evaluation of, it's not for the sake of being a super-Christian. It's for the sake of communicating clearly and deliberately that we are grateful and blessed and appreciative of God's provision, through time, finances, children, blessings. And we have been entrusted 2 children, thus far, to train in righteousness - that Christ would be exalted louder from under this roof.

Funny how when you think about teaching a child, God schools you.


Thank you, Jesus.