Contentment in a Season of Waiting for Marriage
He turned thirty-four alone at another wedding, the fourth one that year, standing at the edge of a dance floor watching two people he loved begin a life he had hoped for himself for longer than he wanted to admit out loud. Nobody at the reception meant…
When You Feel Called to More But Life Only Allows for Less
He used to imagine himself leading something larger, a ministry, a significant career, some visible expression of the calling he had felt pressing on him since his twenties. Instead, most of his days now involved changing diapers, managing a modest job…
Teaching Teenagers Stewardship Before They Leave Home
He handed his daughter her first debit card the week before she left for college, walked her through the app that tracked her balance, and felt a familiar unease settle in his chest. Eighteen years of raising her, and somehow the actual conversation…
Money and Marriage: Stewardship as a Shared Practice
She found the credit card statement by accident, tucked under a stack of mail neither of them had sorted in weeks, and felt something cold settle in her stomach before she had even finished reading the total. Not because the amount was catastrophic, but…
The Stewardship of Attention in an Age of Notifications
He sat down to pray one evening and reached for his phone twice before he even started, once out of pure habit, and once, he realized afterward, specifically to avoid the discomfort of sitting still with nothing to look at. Neither reach had a real…
What Does Proverbs 31 Actually Say About Time? It Is Not What You Think
She read the passage again on a Tuesday night, the way she had read it dozens of times before, at bridal showers, in Bible studies, printed on a plaque hanging in her own kitchen. A wife rising before dawn. Working late into the evening. Managing a…
What Does It Mean to Be a Good Steward of Your Time? A Practical Answer
She learned the phrase in Sunday school as a child, drawn on a board with a picture of a servant burying a coin in the dirt. Be a good steward, the teacher said, and everyone nodded, and nobody, as far as she remembers, ever explained what that actually…
Christian Financial Stewardship for People Who Feel Behind
He did the math on a Sunday night, the way he always seemed to, and the numbers came out worse than he had hoped, again. Rent, a car payment, a stack of student loans that never appeared to shrink no matter how much he sent toward them, and a savings…
Why Saying No Might Be the Most Faithful Thing You Do This Year
He said yes to the committee before he had even finished reading the email. It was a small thing, he told himself, just one more meeting a month, and besides, someone needed to do it, and he did not want to be the person who let the church down. Six…
Time Is Not Yours to Spend Carelessly
Someone once described a wasted afternoon as money burning in her hand, and she could not put it out fast enough to save any of it. That image has stayed with people for a reason. Most of us do not think about our hours that way, but we think about our…