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Showing posts from May, 2021

Ownership

 "And whoso is found a faithful, a just, and a wise steward shall enter into the joy of his Lord, and shall inherit eternal life." -Doctrine and Covenants 51:19 I love the idea of stewardship. I love the idea of understanding that you have the responsibility to take care of something.  One of my favorite illustrations of stewardship comes in WALL-E. The humans have lived an easy, boring life for hundreds of years, and there is really no reason for them to change. But the captain learns more about Earth and realizes, "We have to go back." They need to go back because it is their responsibility to take care of the Earth. And then, in the credits, you get to watch them taking care of the Earth. It's so neat. It's hard to explain the empowerment that comes from feeling a sense of stewardship. I felt it a bit when Kevin was the building coordinator of our church building in Michigan. In that temporary calling, he was in charge of making sure people knew how to cl

Consecration and the Fish Farm

 "And let every man deal honestly, and be alike among this people, and receive alike, that ye may be one, even as I have commanded you." -Doctrine and Covenants 51:9 It was the 19th century, and a young religion on the American frontier was figuring out how to take care of its members. Actually, it was 2007, and I was in seminary studying the Doctrine and Covenants. We had reached the sections about the Law of Consecration, and our teacher had concocted a game to make it more applicable to us.  Our class was in charge of a "fish farm." It didn't involve real fish, just graphics and spreadsheets. The purpose of the activity was to end up with as many fish as possible. Each day, our teacher would show us how many fish there were in the pond. If we left the fish alone, they would grow up and reproduce. If anyone hoarded the daily allotment of fish, the supply would dwindle. (I don't quite remember how all of this worked, but it made sense back then. I hope it m