Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions? Why do many New Year’s resolutions include: diet, exercise, reduce screen time and save money? Because, we see each of these as ways to better ourselves and our life. While each of these things are good, there is no better way to better ourselves than to devote our time, talent and treasure to love the Lord and worship Him above all else in every aspect of our lives. Thus, stewardship is a great way to start a new year’s resolution!
After all, stewardship is not just a buzz word used to boost donations. No, stewardship is about using all the gifts God so generously gave us to the best of our ability to accomplish His will in our lives.
Living healthy, spending less time on our phone and saving money are actually great ways to help us be good stewards. Our time is precious and less time in front of a screen gives us more time to spend in prayer. We need our health to use our gifts and talents to serve the Lord. Saving money helps us be a good steward of our treasure.
Coming up with a plan to following through on a new year’s promise is the hard part. Here are a few tips to help accomplish resolutions of stewardship.
1. We make appointments to see doctors, why not make a daily appointment with God? We know our availability and God’s schedule is wide open for us. The only way to have a deeper relationship with Christ is to make the time to spend with Him.
2. Does your parish have a ministry guide? Check out the ministries your parish offers and see where you can put your talents to work to help others in your parish or community.
3. When was the last time we bumped up our weekly contribution to our parish? Calculate your donation and adjust your tithing to match the bonus you just earned at work is a great opportunity to be a good steward.
With God’s grace we can accomplish all our New Year’s resolutions and with resolutions to be good stewards we will be graced with a deeper relationship with God.
— Shannon Roh is the Executive Director of the Office of Development and Stewardship for the Archdiocese of Mobile.