Good Stewards
Continuing with the theme of stewardship from yesterday,
there is also much in the Bible that teaches us about being good stewards. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Moreover it
is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” and suggested that the
Saints are stewards of the “mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). Peter similarly wrote that we should be “good
stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). The Savior talked about stewardship in a
different way when said to His apostles, “And this know, that if the goodman of
the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and
not have suffered his house to be broken through.” He then explained this to Peter saying, “Who
then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his
household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when
he cometh shall find so doing” (Luke 12:39, 42-43). Here the stewardship seems to be simply being
prepared for the coming of the Lord—we should always be living in such a way
that if we must come before the Savior tomorrow we will be ready. The parable of the talents is likewise a
message about being good stewards. To
those who taken their talents that the Lord gave them and then multiplied them,
the Lord responded, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou
into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21).
This is of course symbolic of the stewardship we hold over the talents
and abilities and possibilities the Lord gives us in life—we are to take those
opportunities and use them and do good with them. In short, we are to be good stewards over our
own abilities.
In
the Old Testament, the story of Eli and his sons seems to me to be one of
stewardship. Eli had responsibility to
teach his two children but failed to do so adequately. The Lord said to him, “Wherefore kick ye at
my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and
honourest thy sons above me?” (1 Samuel 2:29)
The Lord subsequently told Samuel about Eli, “I will judge his house for
ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile,
and he restrained them not” (1 Samuel 3:13).
Eli was responsible for the temple where he ministered and for teaching
his children. He couldn’t control his
children, but he could cast them out of the temple for their adultery and not
let them continue to defile the Lord’s house—he was not the steward that the
Lord expected of him and he paid dearly for that. We likewise have stewardship over our
children to teach and train them to the best of our ability, giving them the
best chance to live as God would have them live. And one day like Eli we will have to come
before God and give an accounting of that most important stewardship.
I really like the following
description from S. Michael Wilcox of what it could be like on that day when we
must give our stewardship report for the way we cared for our own family. He said this about some images that played out
in his mind as he pondered his stewardships:
Into my mind came an image of a waiting room, much like the waiting
room in a doctor’s office. The walls
were lined with about twenty chairs, in each of which sat a man waiting to be
called through a side door. To my
surprise, when I looked closely at the men in the chairs, each one was me. There were about twenty Michael Wilcoxes
waiting there.
In a short time, the door to an inner room was opened. I knew the Lord was on the other side and
that I was going to enter into his presence for judgment. An angel came through the door, pointed at
the man in the first chair, and said, “Would Michael Wilcox, the husband of
Laura Wilcox, please come forward and render and account of his stewardship?” I watched as the first man rose, followed the
angel, and closed the door. He was in
the other room a long time and did not return to the waiting room.
In time, the door opened again, and the same angelic receptionist
entered. He pointed to the man in the
second chair and said, “Would Michael Wilcox, the father of Kirsten Wilcox,
please come forward and render an account of his stewardship?” The man in the second chair rose and entered
the judgment room. He also stayed there
a long time and did not return.
When the door opened for a third time, the invitation to enter was
extended to a man in the next chair. “Would Michael Wilcox, the father of Megan
Wilcox, please come forward and tender an account of his stewardship?”
The invitations were extended in sequence, relative to each of my
children. As I watched, the father of
Benjamin Wilcox, then of Cade Wilcox, and finally of McKay Wilcox entered the
judgment room.
I received the distinct impression in this pondering that if I could
answer well for my efforts in those first six chairs and the seventh, which was
Michael Wilcox, the son of Norma Wilcox, I could feel confident and calm about
appearing before my Father in Heaven some time in the future when the
accounting was real (“What the Scriptures Teach Us About Raising a Child”,
pg. 41-42).
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