You Biblical
principles about handling money: Stewardship Biblical
principles about handling money: Stewardship Psalm 24:1
tells us ‘The earth is the Lord’s and
everything in it, the world and all who live in it.’
We believe that don’t we? But, do we act it
out? We live
in a country where money is a god to millions. (More than
60 percent of us do the lottery each week, if you doubt
this.) It is the same right round the world. Maybe
this is why there is so much in the Bible about money! As
Christians, we need to be extremely careful with our
priorities. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 “You
cannot serve both God and money” and in Luke So, as
Lent begins, why not ask yourself these questions? * Does my
lifestyle reflect my Christianity or does it say more
about our consumer culture? It can
help here to meditate on 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 “Yours,
O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven
and earth is yours…Wealth and honour come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.” So how
long can we as Christians go without using the words
‘my’ or ‘mine’? We live
in the fourth richest country in the world. As such we
have been blessed with so much. Yet we frequently
complain and want more. For example, we want a greater
choice of food - and then throw one-third of it away. Let’s
be the generous stewards that God wants us to be! Do you
have children or grandchildren for example? Then get in
touch with a charity like Compassion or TearFund and
sponsor a child in the Developing World of the same age.
You can feed and clothe such a child for £15 a month. Is
there a need within your church? Do whatever you can to
meet it. ‘Self’
is the rudest four-letter word I know. Generosity is a
great gift and should be uppermost in the minds of a good
Christian steward. When you get to heaven and hear those
words “well done, good and faithful servant”,
you’ll be so glad you did! For more
details about stewardship resources contact www.creditaction.org.uk
and www.stewardship.org.uk. Children
know a lot about love This
question was posed to a group of 4 to 8 year olds. "What
does love mean?" The answers they got were broader
and deeper than anyone could have imagined. * When my
grandma got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint
her toenails anymore. So my grandpa does it for her now
all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too.
That's love. Rebecca - age 8 * When
someone loves you, the way they say your name is
different. You just know that your name is safe in their
mouths. Billy - age 4 * Love is
when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving
cologne and they go out and smell each other. Kari - age
5 * Love is
when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your
chips without making them give you any of theirs. Chrissy
- age 6 * Love is
what makes you smile when you're tired. Terri - age
4 * Love is
when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a
sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.
Danny - age 7 * Love is
when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of
kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My mommy and daddy are like that. They look gross when
they kiss. Emily - age 8 * If you
want to learn to love better, you should start with a
friend who you hate. Nikka - age 6 * Love is
when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and then he wears
it everyday. Noelle - age 7 * Love is
like a little old woman and a little old man who are
still friends even after they know each other so well.
Tommy - age 6 * During
my piano recital, I was on stage and I was scared. I
looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy
waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I
wasn't scared anymore. Cindy - age 8 * My
mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone
else kissing me to sleep at night. Clare - age 6 * Love is
when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken. Elaine
- age 5 * Love is
when your puppy licks your face even after you left him
alone all day. Mary - age 4 * When
you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and
little stars come out of you. Karen - age 7 * And the
winner was a 4 year old child whose next door neighbour
was an elderly man who had just lost his wife. When the
child saw the man cry, the little boy went over into the
man's garden and climbed on top of the man's lap and just
sat there. When the boy's mother asked him what he’d
said to the neighbour, the little boy said, "Nothing,
I just helped him cry." Stressed
out? Reach for those needles… Are you
stressed out? Forget yoga or jasmine tea. Reach
for your knitting needles! Knitting
is soaring in popularity - so much so that in It is
little wonder – knitting enables you to make the
most of all those spare moments when your hands are free:
commuting, spending time with friends, watching TV.
The exercise is relaxing and best of all, you have
produced something beautiful and useful at the end of it
all. One
missionary society that would always welcome your woolly
hats is the Seamen’s Christian Friend Society, 48
South Street, Alderley Edge, Cheshire SK9 7ES. www.scfs.org.
Their port missionaries give the hats out to foreign
seamen all over the world. When
did you last actually TALK with your spouse? One in
five couples goes through the week barely talking to one
another, according to a recent survey. Nearly one
third of people work ‘9 to 8’ instead of ‘9
to 5’ and when they do get home, half spend at least
two hours of every evening in separate rooms, putting
children to bed, doing household chores, watching TV, or
talking on the telephone. It all
means that millions of us simply ‘exist’
together, rather than live together. This despite
the modern striving to achieve ‘a healthy work-life
balance’. Two
thirds of people questioned said that more time together
in the early part of their evening would benefit the
state of their relationship. The At
Home Society, which commissioned the survey, has
suggested seven ways to ‘recover the evening’
together. 1. Always
change out of work clothes once at home. This marks the
end of the working day. Now
even our dogs are stressed! You may
think your dog has it easy – snoozing at home all
day while you are at work. But actually, all that
isolation can cause your Fido great anxiety. Roger
Mugford, a therapist who heads the Animal Behaviour
Centre in Research
has shown that a dog’s heart rate can double when an
owner first leaves home and will then slow dramatically
as the dog becomes miserable. Experts suggest
various solutions, such as taking the dog to work with
you, taking it to a day-care centre, or arranging for
someone to come in and play with it during the day. Of
course, even when you are at home with your dog, it may
still get stressed – by picking up on YOUR anxiety!
“Dogs are very sensitive to their owner’s moods
and pick up on when they are unhappy, unwell, or under
pressure,” says Chris Price of Direct Line Pet
Insurance, which conducted the survey. “Sadly,
it seems that this empathy can lead to them suffering
from stress themselves, and requiring treatment for
conditions such as diarrhoea, vomiting and loss of fur.” Nearly 25
per cent of the 1,100 people surveyed admitted being too
busy to walk their pet every day. Vets recommend at
least two daily outings. Granny
retired? You’ve got to be kidding…. The idea
that grandmothers retire into an unburdened world of
gardening and tea-drinking, golf and knitting is no more
than a pleasant fantasy these days. Instead,
as many as one in three is doing the school run and the
majority of child care for her own children. The
granny nannies not only care for their grandchildren,
they may even provide comfort for elderly relatives of
their own – and hold down a part-time job at the
same time. However,
the move towards older parenthood, and in turn, older
grandparenthood, means that grandparents will be less
able to help out in the future. Breaking
up isn’t so hard after all – by text Here’s
a sign of the times: Dear John letters are out,
apparently; nowadays nearly one in ten of us has finished
a relationship by text message instead. Nine per
cent of us have dumped a boyfriend or a girlfriend by
sending a SMS (Short Message Service) from our mobile
telephones, according to a recent survey by Sicpa, a
Swiss messaging services provider. We also
send love letters by text, argue with our partners by
text, and even stalk people by text. Perhaps
the real love affair is with our mobile phones and
texting itself! “It is becoming an integral
part of the way we communicate and relate to each other,”
says Sicpa. The
secret life of a busy mother Not many
years ago lonely mothers would head for each other’s
homes or to the local toddler group for coffee, sympathy,
advice and general camaraderie. These days, many
simply switch on the computer. For many
busy mums, parenting message boards and discussion groups
have become their new best friend/mother-figure/health
visitor/school teacher lumped into one. Online
they discuss everything from what to do with a lamb shank
to how to get a stain out of a carpet, to finding cheap
flights to One young
mum explains the attraction: “I can log on to
a parenting site any time – when the children are in
bed or watching TV – and ask for advice or
reassurance on things I’d feel stupid asking a
health visitor or that my friend does not know the answer
to. Or – I can just log on for a good gossip.
It ticks all the boxes in terms of what I need.” Some
sites are getting over five million hits a month. Mums
talk each other through tonsillitis, homework, names
labels that won’t wash off, teething, bed-wetting
and even bullying. One mum admits: “Occasionally,
I just read what others have written and realise my life
is not so bad after all.” Six
popular parenting sites: www.babyworld.co.uk;
www.babygreenhouse.co.uk; www.mumsnet.com; www.badmothersclub.co.uk;
www.forparentsbyparents.com; www.ukparents.co.uk
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