While many people think of stewardship as being only about time, talent, and treasure, it really is also about the love of God and our love for him. As we grow in our knowledge of God, we grow to love him for the good things he has given us—most importantly his love but also all the people and things we have been given, from our families and friends to our work and material possessions. As we grow in our love for him, our desire to give that love back and to serve him as he serves us also grows. This can be expressed with the core values of identity, trust, gratitude, and love.
Identity
Our Christian identity is founded upon the basic idea of God as Creator. He created us in his image and likeness out of love. This means that we have human dignity, but it goes beyond just that. We are created by God for God. In a very real way, we are not our own. We belong to God. Thus, we can truly profess, “I am a child of God. I belong to God.”
Scripture makes this clear. St. Paul tells us, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us of our universal longing for God. It says, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God for God (CCC 27).
We are also created for God’s purposes. Our mission is to love and serve him in this world and the next. God’s love for us is far beyond our imagination. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His Only Begotten Son….” God loves us so much that he gave us his Son and continues to give us himself every day in the Eucharist. This brings us to our mission: to love and serve God. Love motivates us to give ourselves and everything we have completely to God as he gives himself and everything he has completely to us.
If “God is love,” as the First Letter of John tells us, and we were created by God for God, we were created by love for love. Our identity is ultimately one who loves and is loved infinitely.
Trust Because God created us out of love and wants our love in return, and because our primary identity is that of children of God and heirs of his kingdom, everything is just the way that God desires it to be at this very moment—even if that is hard to believe. We can trust that he has a plan and that plan is going well, as planned. Yes, evil is real and causes pain, suffering, and death. But God has a plan to bring about life, and it’s happening right now. Mysteriously, God brings about good even from evil. All we have to do is trust. God provides everything we have. Our ability to be a provider is, in itself, a gift from God. He gives us everything we need.
Our trust in God is based on the belief that we are children of God and that we are powerless to save ourselves but need God for everything.
This trust comes out of our sense of identity: “I don’t create all this; God does, and he provides it to me.” We can sometimes think that we’re causing things to happen and can begin to trust in ourselves, but as we surrender our wills, we realize it is God who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We go back to the understanding that everything we are and everything we have comes from God. That is the basic understanding of trust. We trust God that there is something greater than ourselves going on—and it does take faith to believe that God really will provide.
Gratitude
When you realize that God will provide and has given everything as a gift, gratitude is born.
The greatest gift is our relationship with loved ones. People are more important than things. We come to accept that God has given us just what we need. God’s way of providing is for our own good. Our detachment from material goods places them in their proper perspective. We appreciate them for what they are: gifts.
With gratitude we appreciate what we already have. It changes our focus. It’s like taking a 180-degree turn. We begin to realize the incredible gifts we have instead of being filled with covetousness, with avarice, or with a desire for more. It helps us understand that, by and large, we already have everything we need and don’t need to have everything we want. In , we recognize that we are truly blessed.
Everything we have is a gift. There’s a relationship of giving and receiving that is very important to stewardship spirituality. God gives and we receive. Then, on our part, we learn how to give. Just as God gives us everything, we, too, need to learn to give as a part of this spirituality. We cannot just think thankfulness; we have to demonstrate our thankfulness through our actions.
How many of us would allow someone to do a good deed for us and not desire to give something in return? How often does someone treat another person to lunch and the receiver reciprocates sometime in the future? Or, if a neighbor shovels the snow off our driveway, would we not want to help him in return, even if it is just by bringing him cookies?
How much more should we desire to give of ourselves for the benefit of God and his kingdom, the Church, in light of the many blessings that he has given us?
Love Because we are children of God who trust in him and are grateful for his many gifts, we love God. How can we not love a Creator so good and loving as our Father in Heaven! As God loves us, we love God. Love is the requirement of a Christian. It is not optional.
The love we have for God is manifested in placing nothing before our relationship with him. Our first priority is God. We don’t let other things get in the way. Everything we are and everything we have been given is a gift from God, and we are stewards of those gifts.
Just like in any loving relationship, if all we do is receive and never give anything back, it isn’t really love; we must also give back to God. Of course, we as fallen beings seek to love God well but fail time and again. However, that shouldn’t keep us from trying to seek him and grow closer to him through our gift of self.
There are a number of things we can give, but we categorize them as time, talent, and treasure. Sometimes we think giving is optional, but it isn’t. Love requires us to give; it’s part of loving.
First, we give of ourselves through our prayer, our time at Mass, our assistance of those who need help, and the many other ways we can give of ourselves to others. Second, we use our skills and talents to benefit our families, neighbors, and others that need our skills and abilities. Third, we give of ourselves through our material blessings, such as our wealth, our belongings, and other gifts.
A great analogy is that of marriage—the lifelong relationship of love in which each spouse gives of themselves to their beloved. We give 100 percent of ourselves to our spouses. How much more should we give to God and his children?
While it is tempting to think of these core values in numerical order, we must realize that they can and do exist simultaneously and that we are constantly growing in all four.
Our relationship with God is ever changing and developing. During the season when we focus more completely on the spirituality of stewardship. I would encourage you to think about where you are in your journey of love to our Father and to try to take a small step forward in your growth. How can you grow closer? Can you pray more? Do more? Give more? All three? Take an honest look inside and see where the Lord is calling you to grow this season.