By Mother Laurie
"You give but little when you give of your possessions; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give ... You deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving."
Funny, when I put it that way, I can see that I do deserve to give. So much has been given to me that it should be a privilege to share what I have with others. Notice I said "should be". I'm not yet at the place I want to be with my own life stewardship. I tend to think I give away a little too much of my time, and not enough of my money.
Did you ever see the movie "Finding Nemo"? In one scene, a whole bunch of seagulls are perched on rocks or wood pilings, and when they spot a crab that surfaces, they all start to yell simultaneously "Mine! Mine! Mine!" I think I might feel a little like that myself-mine, mine, mine.
The reality is that it is all His, His, His. God has given us everything we have. That sounds awfully simplistic, doesn't it? Everything?? Really? Yup; everything.
"But I earned it," we might say, or "I'm in charge of it," or "Well, God gave it to me to take care of my family." These are all true, but what if we be- gan to let real biblical ideas sneak into our lives? What if we realized that God gave us 100% of what we have, but he only asks for 100.10 in return? Not much of a banker, is He? And while it sounds like I'm only talking about money, I'm not at all. My short list of abundance at the beginning of the article only peripherally includes fmance, but it is one of the strongholds of our lives.
So I worry about stinginess of spirit or time or talent as well as fear of poverty. I know that I spend a good amount of energy trying not to end up where I started in my life as a child in a poor family, but if I focus on that too much, I can miss what God is calling me to do now.
Good stewardship isn't just about being generousit's about our awareness of the abundance in our lives, and the way we honor God (and each other) in our giving. As we give, we spread His love around. When I was a child, hand-me-downs were one way that someone let me know God was taking care of me. They may have never known this, but I know it now.
In the book of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples and the crowd gathered with them:
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
Luke 12: 48b
How much have you been given? How much has been entrusted to you? How much of what God has given you is He asking you to give away? You deserve to give. You don't have to do it. People around you may even think you're crazy. But you and land God-know better-you deserve to give.
Parent resource note: Want to teach your kids about stewardship and tithing from a young age? Google the term "Giving Bank". It's a bank with three sections: one for saving, one for spending, and one for charity . You can work with your kids to determine the amounts, but it represents a visual and practical way to teach the concept of biblical tithing.
