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Way #12: We take care of what we have, using it responsibly.
Memory Verse
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." Luke 16:10
Many areas of life can become training grounds for our children. One area Joy loved learning responsibility in was gardening. When she was a small child, I brought her with me into the garden when I planted roses, cultivated irises and daffodils, and made our yard as beautiful as I could. Though it is very hard to grow plants and flowers at 7300 feet altitude and on the rock base of our land, I have attempted to grow many different plants. I love flowers and am determined to keep trying until I make the perfect garden!
Each year I would take my children with me and have them do the work by my side. Because we were blessed with a home and an expanse of land around it, I told them it was our responsibility and privilege to make it as beautiful as we could. These days, Joy is still inclined to plant her own garden each year because she gained an appetite for creating beauty through me training her to be a steward of our home and garden. When she returned from college over the years, one of the first things she would do each summer was to buy herbs, tomato plants, and a few cutting flowers to plant. The training and breathing into her of these appetites have formed a pattern in her heart for being a steward of beauty.
So it is with other areas. Reaching out to our neighbors to love them and share God's love with our children in tow gives our children a sense of stewardship for ministry. Giving them a jar to save their loose change in eventually means a whole jar-full, that they can then give to whatever mission strikes their hearts.
Counseling our children a million times to make peace with a sibling or helping them learn to work hard with the family to ready the house for out-of-town company builds a self-image that says, “I am responsible to be faithful to serve others.”
How can you bring your children into the areas you faithfully cultivate and steward today? As you train them to be faithful in their small corner of the world, their capacity and stewardship will also grow as they become better prepared for all that God will call them to as world changers for his Kingdom. Caring for everything God has given us is the foundation for all of this.
What you teach, model, and practice for your children is what they are most likely to value when they grow up. Give them small ways to be faithful in your home, so they can become strong in exercising bigger stewardship muscles when they are adults.
Faithfulness does not happen all at once, and none of my children were perfectly faithful—it takes time to come to understand a concept, train it, explain it, and model it. Each person grows imperfectly, but it is a growing towards the ideal. When we see that they have a sense of their own personal call to be faithful, then we know they are ready to extend mature wisdom in making “faithful” decisions in their own personal lives.
How will you help your children develop a heart for care-taking, today?
