Tonight Heather and I went to hear David Walsh from the National Institute on Media and the Family speak. The two premises from which he spent two hours planting seeds of wisdom and understanding in his audience were these:
1. The culture for raising children today is much more difficult now than it was 20 years and more ago. This is because the culture now is centered around more, fast, fun, and easy. Parents today have to work harder to do number 2...
2. The key to raising successful children is teaching them to say no to themselves. A child can begin to learn to say no themselves around the age of 2. They will grow in that ability until their adolescent years when brain development causes many great excuses for that ability to shrink before it grows again into the early 20's.
I would argue that ability to tell themself no has still not developed in many 30 year-olds I know.
More to come from Mr. Walsh...

Stewardship. The word is invoked much this time of year as churches develop their budgetary plan for the coming calendar year. Parishioners sometimes literally, but most often proverbially, roll their eyes as the word creeps into sermon titles, announcements and temple talks.

The word stewardship does not belong in any agnostic or athiestic setting. Stewardship is a focusing of how we use our resources in honoring and serving God. A woman I used to work with was a staunch agnostic. Her argument to the Christians she worked with was that she was as good a person as we and if there is a God and a heaven, that He would be just as likely and in come cases more likely to take her there as many of us Christians. She would argue that she is a good steward of her resources by giving 10% of her income to charity (mostly environmental, arts, and liberal social causes). She considers that as worthy if not more worthy than those Christians who struggle with don't quite tithe.

Her argument falls flat on many levels, but one such level is the common notion is that stewardship focuses on only the giving of 10% or the first fruits to others. Stewardship is not that bland, or that simple. Instead, stewardship is how we honor God by what we do with the resources He has provided us.

The giving of our first fruits or 10% of our income is done in appreciation for what God has given us, but more importantly, a recognition that all He gives us is his and not ours. The 10% is the least we can do--and I will argue here, just the start.

Stewardship does not stop at the 10%. Stewardship is instead how we use all of the resources God has provided us. What we do with the remaining 90% is as important to God as it is a barometer of our faith and trust in Him.

Two examples to help illustrate this point. In the news recently have been stories of ministry leaders engaged in fraud, affairs and deceit. In all of these cases it can be documented that the leader tithed to their congregation and gave offerings to their church above the tithe and gives to other nonprofits out of the remainder of their income. Judged solely on what they did with their 10% and even beyond, they satisfy the expectations God has for them. But it's what they did with the remainder of the money and the other resources God has provided them such as time, talents and belongings that send them fall short of the goal.

Going back to the woman in the earlier example. She has impeccable character, never having engaged in any immoral activity. She would argue that she "sins" less than most Christians she knows and lives a more wholesome life than they do, and she's probably right. She is a good person, but she is not a good steward because she isn't using what God has given her to worship Him and honor Him.

Stewardship is our using all of the talents, time, belongings and other resources to honor and serve the great God that gave them to us. We worship Jesus by what we do with the 100%, not just the 10%. In the end, churches preach stewardship the entire year round, despite the word only showing up this time of year.