I must learn to label and tag my posts so that when I wonder, "Did I already write about that?", I can figure that out. I'm thinking a lot about stewardship lately and I may have written about it before, but I am going to write about it again!

Stewardship is often viewed as just being about money. We talk about that a lot at church and in our families. We listen to Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial (or both), we try to be mindful of the fact that the money belongs to God and we are simply keepers of it and need to use it in a way that is pleasing to Him. And we try to be careful through all of this process that we are not focusing too much on money and how we use it. Sometimes the budget and the stewardship process can jump in and become the idol that the money used to be!

I think that there is more to stewardship than just money and I am trying to be more careful about that. How am I using my time? Larry Burkett used to say that he could look at someone's checkbook and know what their priorities are. What about the Day-Timer? How much time to I spend on the computer each day? How much time to I spend in the kitchen cooking? (I love to cook but I am realizing the last few weeks that food has become too important to me) How much time is spent watching TV? How much time am I spending reading "fun" books? How much time am I spending with God? It's a little frightening when I start looking at things from that perspective. It is revealing to see where my time is going and be confronted with what my priorities really are (sometimes not what I would say my priorities are). There are things that have to be done each day; cleaning, laundry, cooking, whatever the work is for the day that God has put on your plate. Am I working efficiently to get these things done well, or am I dragging my feet and spending more time on a task than is necessary? I fuss at my son when I ask him to do something and it seems to take too long, but is that what God is thinking when He sees me doing the things He asks me to do? (probably not, because He is God and He is much more patient with His children than I am with mine!) How good of a steward am I really being with my time?

Coming soon....energy stewardship!