Stewardship: Handle With Care
When I was in high school my room used to be a mess. For the record, I traveled a lot and spent most of my Thursday – Saturday running like a gazelle around an eight-lane circle. I was an A-B student, I had a number of responsibilities at home, and a job my senior year as a Physical Therapy Technician, might I add. So, keeping my room clean was out of the question. But my mindset shifted once I got to college. My roommate was a neat freak and super clean. There was no way I was going to allow her to outdo me! I began to work hard on keeping my side of the room clean no matter how tired I was, by cleaning my side of the room every night.
Over the years, I have grown so accustomed to cleaning up before I go to bed that I can’t even go to sleep if there are dishes in the sink. Now don’t get me wrong. Sometimes when I’m extremely tired, like fall asleep while watching a movie tired, I will leave my kitchen a mess, but not often.
In that same year, of my freshman year of college, I began to notice how one of my Godmother’s houses was spotless. Everything to this day has its place. Everything shines as if it were purchased from a fancy furniture store, like yesterday. And no matter what day I go over there, unannounced or announced, her home is squeaky clean. I asked her one day, why and how she kept her house so clean. She said I keep my house clean out of gratitude, reverence, and love for God. I was a little caught off guard and was like wait! What?
My Godmother explained there are many ways to honor and show gratitude to God for the things He blessed her with was to be a good steward over those things. My Godmother felt, even though everything she had was a blessing from God, at the end of the day all of it belonged to Him. Thus, she wanted to be a good steward over those things. It completely blew my mind. She further explained, being a good steward doesn’t just mean being a good steward of your money. You are to be a good steward over all things.
As she continued to be a good steward over the things God had entrusted her with, she began to realize she was being blessed with so much more than just material things. I thought to myself, that’s it? That’s all? That’s kind of legit simple. The Bible even tells us if we are faithful over a few things we will be given much more (Matthew 25:23).
Since then, I have taken on the mindset of stewarding the things I have been blessed with. In fact, when my first car died on me (it was a Ford Focus) the assumption was I did not take proper care of the car. Although, I really did. I got oil changes and tire rotations like clockwork. I always washed my care and vacuumed it out every weekend! That was the cleanest white Ford Focus in town. When my car died, I was a little mad because I knew I had taken really good care of that car and did not want to have to pay a car note.
I visited several dealerships looking for a new car and just could not find anything I liked. Then one day my friend and I decided to go look for cars, because they needed one too. While at the dealership, I felt the urge to look at the used cars. I didn’t want to because my first experience was horrible with a used car! Why would I want another used car?
Anyway, I followed the prompting to check out the used cars and low and behold I found Goldie! A 2004, Golden, Volkswagen Passat. I was so excited about this car. It was fully loaded – leather seats, seat heaters with a cassette tape and CD player. Which meant I could rock out to Michael Jackson, a gift from a seasoned friend. Goldie also had a sweet sound system and tinted windows for under $11,000, with only 45,000 miles. I must admit I was a little skeptical at first. I asked the car dealer if there was something wrong with it, for it to be so cheap? He said there was nothing wrong with it. Turns out the car was a trade-in. The owners were retired, and didn’t really drive much.
When I got home that evening I told my Dad about the car and he said we needed to get up and get to the car dealership right when it opened if I really wanted the car. Had we been literally 5 minutes late, my blessing who have been sold to a couple that wanted the car too. I was even being pressured by their car salesmen to hurry up and move on to the next car, but both my dad and the car dealer told them they had to wait. I was in the process of making my final decision on purchasing the car. It was a wild day, but I got my blessing and it was a beauty!
From that day on, I was committed to being intentional about stewarding my blessings well. I have not only received many blessings by doing so, but I have grown deeper in my love for God by just wanting to steward what He has given me. I mean how else would you repay God? Being a good steward is my way of showing my gratitude and love for who He is, what He has done, and what He will continue to do. Plus, it brings me great joy to do so.
I want to encourage you, or even challenge you -if you don’t already do this – the next time you are blessed with a home, place to stay, a car, a job, a relationship, friendship, parenthood, etc. Take special care of it and steward what you have been given. Not only will you experience a deeper love for God, but you will be blessed beyond material things.
Until next time, be encouraged!
