Stewardship Development

How we nurture relationships is a very important part of our role as stewards of all God has given us.

When asked what was the most important commandment, Jesus responded as a good Jew quoting from Deuteronomy: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. And the second most important commandment, he said, is to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Those two statements about relationship with God, others, and ourselves are packed with stewardship implications!

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Relationship with God Requires Your "Everything!"

In an explanation of the Shema, this passage from Deuteronomy, a modern rabbi suggests that loving God with all our strength means we should not love money or property more than we love God. The word for strength could also mean "measures," suggesting that we are to love God regardless of how much we have materially, because God gives what is best for us.

In Mark's and Luke's gospels, Jesus adds the words to love God "with all your mind," too! If we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we are loving God with everything we are. That gives us a guide, as good stewards, to make every other decision and choice based on that primary relationship with God!

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Loving Others as We Love Ourselves

Jesus' astonishing statement that we are also to love others as ourselves has wonderfully circular wisdom. The words have a similar ring to the golden rule, to behave toward others as you would have them behave toward you. At the same time it assumes that, to love others, one must first love oneself. Only then are we able to best love others.

That requires good stewardship of self, caring enough for ourselves to:

• eat healthily
• drink lots of water
• dress comfortably
• exercise our bodies
• keep ourselves clean
• rest and sleep appropriately
• enjoy the gifts of everyday life
• spend time with friends and family
• engage in activities that bring us joy and meaning

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Stewards of Relationships in Families

Does your family spend time during the week praying together, sharing meals, or going to church together? (See suggestions for Graces and Prayers.) If these times have been a meaningful part of family life from the time children are small, they will continue to be significant for older youth who have been respected members in an ongoing conversation, rather than recipients of parental lectures.

As young people become busier, though, it is difficult to find this kind of quality family time. Our family discovered that, apart from meals, time in the car- to and from school, music lessons, and other activities- offered some of the best opportunities for conversation.

Relationships in families of two or more people- partners, siblings, or parent(s) and child(ren)- need to be nurtured with regular, meaningful time together. In your family conversations, use some of these points to talk about the values that hold you together:

• What things do we (as a family unit) think are important?
  • How do we show that?
  • How does the way we spend our money and time reflect that?
  • What might we do differently to faithfully live out what we say is important?
• What do we think Jesus meant when he said to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength?
  • What would that look like?
  • Ask each family member to think of specific examples in your family.
• As Christians who follow Jesus as our guide, what would it mean for us to love God with our "everything"?
  • How would we do that?
  • What would it mean to make all our decisions based on our love for God? (Use specific examples!)
  • How would our lives be different from how they are now?
  • How would we feel about that?
• Check out with each other how well we think everyone shows love for him/herself. (See the stewardship-of-self checklist above and add to it.)
  • Each might do a self-assessment first, then compare notes with the others.
  • Where is there room for improvement?
  • How can we support each other in doing that?
• How might we be better stewards of this family relationship?
• How might we be better stewards of our relationships with others outside our family?

Sounds like a project for some conversation on a daily walk together. That would both nurture the relationship and be a way to encourage each other to practise care of self through daily exercise!

Families that are scattered geographically might carry on the conversation by e-mail.

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Good Stewards of Adopted Relationships

One last thought on being good stewards of family relationships relates to adoptive families. An adopted child's care of self may involve a need to discover birth parents. During this process, support and understanding from adoptive parents is needed more than ever. This does not negate the adopted child's valuing of all that her or his adoptive family has meant and will continue to mean. In both "letting go" and also actively supporting the adopted child's search to find his or her biological roots, adoptive parents continue to be good stewards of the relationship.

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Stewards of the Earth

Finally, both of the most important commandments left to us by Jesus-loving God with our "everything" and loving others as ourselves-involve care of the earth.

• How we carry out our role as stewards of the earth is a significant part of our relationship with the Creator. Treating the earth with care shows respect for the Creator.
• Our relationship with others also includes relationship with all creation, the earth, and everything on it. And our care for ourselves requires taking good care of our earth home.

Spring and summer are wonderful times to practise good environmental stewardship. Adapt some of the questions above to apply to your relationship with the earth. While your family talks about how to relate as good stewards of the earth and the environment, invite them to make concrete plans to implement their ideas. As you have fun doing it together, you will also be practising good stewardship of your family relationships!

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Barbara Fullerton, Stewardship Development