STEWARDSHIP
FOR TODAY’S WOMAN – THE MOTHER
I’m continuing to share something
from the book, Stewardship for Today’s Woman written by Helen
Kingsbury-Wallace. As a reminder, it was written in 1960.
In my last two blogs, I spent time
discussing the chapter titles, The Career Woman and The Wife. Today’s chapter
is titled The Mother.
This was another one of those chapters that I
was not looking forward to. As someone who was never able to have children, I
assumed that this chapter would spend its time explaining that the purpose of
all women is to be a mother and…I was right. It did, on the face of it spend
its time explaining the importance of the mother in a child’s life and the
importance of the child in the mother’s life.
However, when I let the discomfort
fade a little, I did pick up on a few other things.
1.
The
book talks about how stewardship in a family changes when someone new (a child)
joins the family. I like that concept, not just as it relates to a family when
a child is born, but what if we look at it as stewardship changing when someone
new joins a church or community?
2.
“Children
are influenced by actions rather than by exhortation.”[1]
Of course, this book is spending time explaining how children learn by seeing
what their parents do, not just what they say. The walking the walk concept. I
think people in our churches learn from what our leadership, lay and clergy,
are doing.
3.
“As
the child grows, so do the opportunities for teaching Christian stewardship. In
all too short a time the child has left the charmed circle of the Christian
home and is finding that school, friends and the outside world…”[2]
I think our churches need to take this thought seriously. Children are learning
at home, of course, but they are learning at church. Sunday School is
important, but, for many of our churches, if there are children, and Sunday
School exists, after a few years, the child grows and no longer is “learning”
from us. What if we found ways to connect with children, whether it’s official
Sunday school, or packets of information, or Bibles, or mentors, or prayer partners?
There are many opportunities that our churches should consider.
I
have served and worked with churches that are focused on getting more children/
youth into church but are not focused on providing anything for them. “We’ll
worry about youth group later”. “We’ll start Sunday School when kids come and
stay.” But if someone comes into your church and there’s nothing, why would
they come back? Think about it!
We need to focus on how, why, where
and when children are learning. It’s not JUST left up to the parents; ALL of us
need to participate!
I will continue my review of this book in next
month’s blog.
Please
feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you found this interesting.
