I really appreciated this Stewardship Moment given by Becky Roberts at our Laity Sunday service last Sunday (from a Church Programs for All Seasons):

I am much like Adam – accepting the blessing with ease, but finding some difficulty in recognizing responsibility.I am often like Cain – ministering in a way that seems acceptable to me, rather than in the manner mandated by God.  

I am often like Esau – organizing my priorities foolishly.  

I am somewhat like Moses – perfectly content in the background, appealing my lack of skills, suggesting that someone more fitting be found.  

I am somewhat like Jonah – running from my assignment because I may look foolish in its performance.  

I am much like David – mercurial in my appeals, swooping from mountaintop exultation to the valley of despair, from “My soul doth magnify the Lord”, to “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  

I am sometimes like Solomon – asking for wisdom, then going my own way.  

I am often like Gideon – asking for a sign… and then for another…  

I am much like Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah – entertaining petty – if fleeting – moments for jealousy.  

I am like Naomi – allowing bitterness to tinge and change my whole life.  

I am somewhat like Zachariah – though preaching God’s power, not quite believing a miracle in my own life.  

I am much like Thomas – doubting what I yearn to believe.  

I am often like Peter – denying my association with Christ, if only by saying nothing.  

Lord, make me more like you.  

Once we acknowledge God’s gifts to us and recognize our responsibilities as stewards, we must nourish all that has been given – the bountiful, beautiful earth, other people, and our calling.  The responsibilities of stewardship are weighty and often difficult.  We can’t afford to be unobservant or uninvolved.  Perhaps one of God’s greatest disappointments is when we employ our gifts in ways that deny Him rather than acknowledge Him.