Stewardship, according to dictionary.com, is defined as ‘the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property’.
Stewardship within the Imagineering 2 a Better World realm is stewardship of all resources – people, property, organisation, finances, time, talent, etc.
Each moment of each day is made up of choices. For example, the simplest example for stewardship regarding your physical body is the choice of what goes in your mouth. If you overeat, especially with unhealthy food, and don’t do much exercise, the majority of us can reasonably expect to gain unwanted weight and not feel as energised as we would eating less and healthy food plus doing more exercise. An example of stewardship with your talent is to develop it, such as if you are naturally gifted as an artist, studying various art forms to understand the form, perhaps the history and evolution, as well as the expression, it is more likely you will be successful in your field. This could be as simple as knowing how to talk ‘the lingo’ of the particular industry you have chosen.
Stewardship of your finances must start with being real or vulnerable. What is your current financial position? One aspect of this is ‘Income minus expenses equals your future!’ (positive/profit, negative/loss or break even leading to loss over time) refer to previous article Ie unless it doesn’t, miracles do happen. However, I have found that even in miracles the old sayings still hold true. Miraculous windfalls give us another chance, a fresh start yet unless we know how to handle the unexpected bonanza, we will be broke again in a short space of time.
- To him who has much, much more will be required.
- He who is faithful with little, will be faithful with much.
- So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? (True riches here I believe refers mainly to divine revelation, wisdom, understanding, etc and witty inventions, which if acted on, may bring in income! True riches in another sense means people. Everything we do must come down to loving others.)
Stewardship with finances is partly about learning skills to handle money such as budgeting, practicing due diligence and making informed choices regarding investments, but is also about your mindset and daily habits.
More on your mindset and how to overcome unhealthy mindsets around finances in instalment 2 of this series on stewardship.