Part 2 - Good Stewardship (Managing Our Lives) Series

Stewardship

September 23, 2018

When I’m done with my career as a coach, and someone mentions the name of a kid I coached, I do not believe I will remember if they made a game winning shot, scored the winning touchdown, or missed the shot or tackle and we lost. When someone mentions their name, I will remember their character. I will picture them and remember if they were a good, a hard worker, a person I trusted - - - OR a not so good person. I will remember their attitude and their impact upon others.

It will be the same with each of you, and it will be the same with me. Our first thoughts won’t be our deeds, but they we will remember the spirit, the heart, the passion, the grace, the mercy, the power, the hope, ultimately . . . we will remember the power of love - - - or the lack of love and these other virtues.

When people talk about you, and they will . . . what will they say? My mother in law gave me a shirt a long time ago that I love wearing.

The front says . . . NO REGRETS

The back says . . .LIVE YOUR LIFE SO THE PREACHER WON’T HAVE TO LIFE AT YOUR FUNERAL. - 2 TIMOTHY 4:7

Don’t you love that shirt. What’s great is that it’s true! That’s how we should live our lives.

Stephen Covey, is the author of the popular book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He believes that thinking about what people will say at your funeral can help you to have purpose in your life. He believes asking questions such as ~

How would they describe your character?

What accomplishments would you want them to mention?

How would you like them to describe you as a fellow worker, or spouse, or sibling?

How would you want them to describe your generosity?

Would they mention how you made a difference in the world?

How would you want them to describe your relationship with Christ?

Those are tough questions to ask and to think about.

He believes asking these will help you make plans for the future so that you don't find yourself looking back on your life and having too many regrets.

We’re in week 2 of looking at STEWARDSHIP and what that means in our lives. As a reminder, stewardship is an overly Christian word which simply means - being a manager of something.

For our purposes, good stewardship means - we are good at managing our lives. If we can’t manage our own lives, it becomes pretty evident to the rest of the world and the power of our witness, our testimony to the world is diminished.

It seems each week I receive emails about time and stress. This week I received an email from Michael Hyatt, stating ~

Before you finalize your busy schedule for this week, listen up ...

This week I’m hosting a FREE webinar called, The Busy Person’s Guide to Achieving More Without Feeling Overwhelmed, where I’m going to teach you 5 methods to get ahead while not sacrificing your free time.

So, there you go. Another method to try and get ahead and not feel overwhelmed.

Too often we find people who go about life

Focusing solely on the future, that they miss out on today. OR

they are so focused on today, that they don’t plan for the future.

The Bible warns against both. But there is a happy medium, a balance can be achieved. We can live today as if it matters for eternity. Every day of your life has eternal significance. We don’t often recognize it, we often miss out on it, but what you do today will make a difference. We don’t always recognize or believe that we can make a difference in the world which is impactful. It happens, but we might not be around to see it.

In Proverbs 14:8, we read ~

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. – Proverbs 14:8

The point is that if we are to be prudent, which means we are being careful and taking care of our business, then we can determine the proper course we should take. Now, that’s not just our working things out, but using God’s wisdom to help us.

We can’t change what happened yesterday. But we can certainly learn from our yesterday’s, from our successes and defeats. You see, today is yours. We have the ability to take charge of this day and begin to do things which will help us be good stewards of what God has given us.

One of the first things we can do is pretty simple, but we really don’t do it. Decide what type of person you want to be - - - who is God calling you to be - - - then, make it happen.