Stewardship in our Daily Lives
I am Doug Nicholson and this is my wife Paige. We have been members of Holy Spirit Parish for the past 6 or 7 years. We have 4 children, Spencer and Tyler who are 12 years old and sixth graders, Julia who is 8, a second grader and very much looking forward to making her confirmation and 1st Eucharist next week and Stella who will be 4 on Valentine’s Day and finally gets to attend Holy Spirit School as a tiny tot with her brothers and sister.
Speak with Authority – as Jesus did in today’s Gospel………..
When our family brings up the gifts and recites the Stewardship prayer in front of you, the assembly, if you look closely, you may notice me blinking hard and looking up to prevent tears from spilling out when we recite “that these gifts from you Lord are meant to be nurtured, increased and shared”. I can’t imagine a more generous and loving God than the one who would entrust Doug and I with our children, these 4 incredibly precious gifts. We feel responsible for raising them to know God and to honor him by sharing their gifts with others.
We tell our children a lot – wear your coat, brush your teeth, be nice to your brother, do your chores, share with your sister, the list goes on and on. . .but, it is not what we tell them, but what we do and how we do it that is reflected back to us in our children.
Paige and I believe in stewardship, that God has been very generous in giving us time, talent and treasures and that these gifts from God must be shared with others. We have to make deliberate choices to not just tell our children they must be generous with others, but to live it out in our daily lives so that they learn by example what it means to be a good steward. Our kids can’t be told to be good stewards; they have to see it and are invited to participate in helping others. Stewardship is an attitude toward life that a child learns at home.
Our community offers many opportunities for stewardship. Each and every day we can go out and share with others in need. Taking names off the gift tree at church during Advent and letting each child in our family choose gifts for a child who may not otherwise receive anything for Christmas. Visiting the Rescue Mission to find children who need a toy or a coat and then taking those things back to the Mission so our children experience first hand the joy of giving as well as the good fortune to have a warm house to live in, plenty to eat and wear and fun things to play with. We make donations to Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army, those things we no longer need or fit us. The last couple of times we have had Garage Sales, we have set up the night before and then invited people we knew who couldn’t afford to buy new and gave them to the chance to shop and take what they needed at no charge. Spencer and Tyler have asked their friends to bring donations for the food bank to their birthday parties a couple of times instead of gifts for themselves. They are learning the attitude of stewardship.
Being involved in Catholic Engaged Encounter since just before we got married has strengthened our marriage and family life and provided many opportunities for us and our children to minister to others. When we aren’t presenting a weekend and are scheduled to help with something to keep the weekend running smoothly our kids want to go to Ursuline Center and help out. It may have something to do with the goodies on the snack table, but after a snack, they are energized enough to help put together weekend notebooks, set up the chairs and supplies for the weekend and help prepare and serve meals. When we do present weekends they help out by trying to be on their best behavior for Grandma and Grandpa, or their sitters. Our children see that marriage is important to us and even they can make a difference in the strength of future marriages by helping us with this ministry.
Being involved at Holy Spirit Church is important for our spiritual growth and also to our sense of belonging to a community and the responsibility that goes into helping that community. We have each individually and as a family chosen to be involved in the mass in a way that is meaningful to us and helps develop an attitude of stewardship. Stella checks in on the way to mass each week to find out what her job is. A couple of weeks ago upon being told that we were not greeting, or taking up the gifts or giving out bulletins (her favorite job) we were just going to mass to listen and learn, she responded with a loud “Oh bummer, I like to have a job!” We have helped decorate the church for Christmas for several years. One year we found out we would have to decorate the church on Christmas Eve Day because of the way Advent fell that year. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but Julia’s Birthday is on Christmas Eve and to give her some celebration time on the actual day of her birth we have a birthday lunch. We gave her the choice of doing her regular Birthday Lunch or decorating the church, she choose the church decorating. Spencer and Tyler are usually one of the first in for juice and rolls after mass. We signed up to help because we were there every week and felt a responsibility to participate in what we were enjoying every week. One Sunday they were of course the first ones in and there wasn’t anyone doing the coffee and rolls. They popped into the kitchen and took care of what needed to be done. One of the first times we ever helped, Julia was about 2. We thought she would be happy at the table with a roll while we cleaned up. As we were putting the chairs away, I looked over to see how she was doing. She was no longer in her chair, but I saw one moving across the floor. She had seen everyone else cleaning up and decided she better join in too. These are the things that help us to know we are on the right track, when our kids make decisions to serve without being told, sometimes without even being asked.
One of our biggest commitments to stewardship, and the one that keeps our faith and commitment in the forefront of our minds and our lives is our commitment to sending our kids to Holy Spirit Catholic School. We are blessed to have great choices for education in both the public and private schools in Great Falls. As a couple we felt strongly that we wanted our Catholic faith and values to be a part of our children’s lives each and every day. This requires a deep commitment on our part. Tuition is zapped out of our bank account every month, and there are regular opportunities to be involved in the classroom, to help with special projects and to help with fundraising and donate beyond just our tuition payment. We do our best to support and affirm the teachers and staff for being such a strong example of God’s love and care to our children. We so appreciate not only the excellent academic education they provide, but also the discipline, values and Christian ideals they provide and share with our children and in turn our family. School masses are one of the highlights of having our children attend Holy Spirit School. Seeing the kids from the smallest first graders to the eighth graders participate as greeters, lectors, cantors, gift presenters, ushers, and servers is an incredible opportunity for the kids, but also for each of us attending the mass to see how committed, faith-filled and talented children really are. Our school reinforces that attitude of stewardship in our kids that they are God’s gifts to us and they have so much to give back to their church, school and community.
We have committed to doing these things and more because we feel called by God to use the gifts he has given us to help others. Does this mean it’s easy, not always. Stewardship still involves sacrifice. As a couple and family we deal with the constant struggle to give all elements of our lives the right amount of time. Four kids, Doug’s busy job, a large extended family and a desire to be an integral part of volunteering in our school, church and community requires a constant balancing act. Sometimes it’s tempting to think maybe we can just write a check and be done with it. The financial part is very important, both to our family to share our physical gifts with the church and others and for those who are receiving it. But what we have found is that when we combine our financial gifts with our time and our talent - that is when we see the true needs, we see the good our stewardship can do and we really see all of the blessings God has given us. When we are open to him by sharing with others we feel his goodness and blessings wash over us and feel even more committed to giving back to God what he has given us.
Just a couple days before the church needed to be decorated for Christmas this year, I was asked if my mom and I could take it over. There was no way my heart was going to say no, but after I got off the phone and looked at my own mess of half completed Christmas projects, my mind began questioning what I had gotten myself into and how exactly I thought I was going to pull this project off. I was worried about who might help, what we were going to use to decorate and how we were going to make the church look special and worthy of the season. We called everyone we could think of who had said they would be willing to help and they all said yes, some people we didn’t even know wanted to help pitched in. When I worried about what we were going to use to fill this beautiful, but very large space, we found a lot in the church basement, and when that wasn’t quite enough, the Strom’s arrived with a truck full of trees and greenery that filled the space perfectly. Our kids again stepped up and helped, being able to play the drums, climb on the ledge behind the altar, run the little vacuum cleaner and set out Baby Jesus were certainly fun things to do in the church that made it more interesting and exciting to be a part of the decorating. Though I had to continually tell myself not to worry about what was going on at home, more people would see the church so that is where my focus should be, with everyone’s help, both the church and my home projects got done.
We also experienced the full effect of God’s many blessings this week when we chaperoned the middle school ski trip. From starting the day in the gym with a good morning prayer and the Our Father, to an excited group arriving to spend the day outside in the beautiful mountains with snow sparkling all around us. There was an incredible peace as we spent the morning skiing while the kids were in lessons and then an afternoon filled with smiles and laughter as we watched students of all grade levels and abilities pair off and join groups of other skiers and snowboarders. What blessed children these are to have teachers, parents and a community willing to provide them with such an opportunity. And what blessed parents we are. God has been so generous with us and it is our responsibility to show our gratefulness and give back to him.
We aren’t perfect, there are many areas we need to improve upon in sharing our lives in just the way God calls us to. But we do try to live faith-filled lives and lead our children by our example, not just on Sunday, but every day. When they know our gratitude for them, for our blessings, and for God’s generosity to us, the attitude of stewardship motivates their daily lives as well.
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