As school starts, have you thought about what it would be like to go back? Perhaps the secret to having childlike faith is to remain a lifelong learner. What if you decided to learn stewardship from children? While the first biblical example to reflect upon might be the actions of a young boy to give away his five barley loaves and two small fish (John 6:9), there are other children that can inspire us to learn to give whatever we have. For example, a little girl gave advice and empathy to her captor (2 Kings 5:2-3) while some other unnamed children gave Jesus praise (Matthew 21:15-16).
Have you asked a child what it means to give what he/she has? What kinds of treasures would they give? To whom would they give? How could they give regularly and consistently?
Why not learn from a child? We never stop growing, but sometimes we forget that we can learn from anyone or anything God places in our lives. Perhaps you are looking for a way to teach children stewardship when it might be interesting to see what they can teach you.
According to research, we remember 20 percent of what we see, 30 percent of what we hear, 70 percent of what we do, and 90 percent of what we teach. If we let our children teach us, they’ll learn more and together we can then go and practice what we teach.
Just as school starts, we are in our own learning transition at The Stewardship Foundation. After twenty-five years of service, Kathy Lemkelde has just retired. Her heart has been with stewardship, and she feels she can continue her call as a volunteer with children in her local church. I know she also looks forward to learning from them with great joy and openness. We wanted to honor her this month by writing about children and her passion for stewardship and teaching, while thanking her for the many examples of stewardship she has given all of us throughout the years.
Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church
