Consecration

I love the way the Lord is always trying to teach us new insights-
things we need to learn that help us grow to be more like him.
I've noticed that when he works with me, I am often bombarded
with messages from a number of different places.  It's as if he is
saying , just in case you don't get the message here, I'm going to give
it to you again and again.  I must be a slow learner.  After I've been
on what I like to call a "rabbit trail" of learning, I can look back and
see how he's accomplished with me, what probably would only have
taken one lesson for someone else.

A few months ago, I felt some quiet whisperings from the spirit
that there was an area of my life that could use a little work.  It
was really quiet and I heard it, but I didn't pay it a lot of attention.
I picked up a book that I have by Christian author, Elizabeth George,
about being a godly woman.  I like to read through it every year or so.
It's incredibly motivating to me.  There were a couple of chapters in
the book that addressed this same area in which I was feeling the need
to grow.  I made some notes and moved on.   Later in the week, while
I was riding in my car, I was skimming some stations on the radio and
a speaker on the local Christian station caught my attention.  It was really
good - so good in fact that I came home and downloaded the rest of his
messages on this subject onto my ipod and listened to them as I walked
in the mornings. The really interesting climax to this whole learning
adventure was when I received an assignment to speak in Sacrament
meeting in Brevard ( this is one of the things I am asked to do with my
calling as Stake Primary President)  and of course the topic was the same
thing I had been focusing on for the past month.  I just had  to smile.
Okay Lord, I get it!  I need to learn a little more about consecration.

Money is what the Lord uses to teach us the beginning lessons in
consecration.  In this world in which we live, money is one of those
things we all have to deal with.   We work to earn it, we use it to
buy the things we need and lots of things we want.  It can bless our
lives or it can be a source of trial and sorrow.  Most of us feel like we
could use a little or maybe a lot more than we have.  I don't know
anyone who feels like they have too much.

We've been taught that it isn't polite to discuss money in public.
We shouldn't ask people how much money they make or how much
they paid for their car or their home.  How people choose to spend
their money is their business and and not ours.  But money is discussed
quite a bit in the scriptures and we hear it taught by our leaders from the
pulpit.  So how people use their money may not be our business, but it
seems it is the Lord's business.  He cares how we view money and how
we choose to use it, because it says a lot about the condition of our heart.
And the Lord is all about working on the condition of our hearts.

I heard this story told by Chip Ingram ( the minister on the radio) ,
that helped me to have a paradigm shift regarding money and stewardship.
He said, when he was the pastor of a church, one of the members came to
him and asked him if he would be willing to make a little deal with him.
This gentleman was getting older in years, was a successful businessman
in Dallas and had acquired some wealth.  He wanted to do some good -
to help others.  He asked his pastor if he would help him be a blessing to
others.  He had the desire and the means to give, but he didn't always know
the needs.  The minister was in a position to see lots of needs, but didn't
always have the funds to help people.  The businessman gave a checkbook
to the minister with a substantial balance.  He was to anonymously dispense
of the money as he saw a need, saying only that it was a gift from God.
Once a quarter, the businessman would meet with his minister over lunch
and they would talk about the way the money was being used.  He would
tell of the single mother who was struggling to pay her bills or the family
whose father had lost his job and were in danger of losing their home.
The businessman was thrilled to know that he was able to help many
people and the minister was thrilled to manage this man's discretionary
fund and then give an account of how the money was being used to bless
the lives of others.  I think this is as amazing story of generosity and
a vivid analogy of the proper way we are to handle money.

But wait it isn't just about money.  All that we are, and all that we
have belongs to God and has been temporarily entrusted to us
to manage according to His  wishes.   Just as this minister managed
his friend's benevolent giving and then gave an accounting for how he
had used the money , the Lord gives us time, talents, relationships and
resources and we are to manage all of it for him, as he would have us
to do and then we are to report on our stewardship.
If we woke up each day and asked our Heavenly Father how he
would have us use the time that he has given us, the money that he
has given us, the talent he has given us, then our days might begin
to look differently.  And what if at the end of each day, as we said
our prayers, we reported back to our Heavenly Father our stewardship
with those gifts-  how we used our time,  how we treated our husband
or children (that He has given us), our money, how we treated out
bodies, etc.,  would it begin to make a difference?  I think it might.

When we view our money as the Lord's, rather than our own,
it becomes easier to understand his plan for teaching us to be
good stewards.  The first thing the Lord would have us do after
He blesses us with resources is to give some of it back to him.
We know this principle as tithing and it isn't a new concept.
It is one of the ways we witness our faith in Him and our
obedience.  It prepares us to live the higher law of consecration -
to give all our time, talents and resources to the Lord, because
remember - it's all His anyway. Paying tithing can be hard at times
 and requires faith.  When we have bills to pay and groceries to buy,
writing out a check for tithing doesn't make sense.  But I can tell you,
it works.

When Mark and I were newly married we had the opportunity
to put this principle to the test.  We lived thirty minutes from our
church building.  We had a very old car that was always breaking
down and we had little to no money.  Mark was working a minimum
wage job, I was a waitress in a steakhouse and we literally had no money.
I keep repeating that, because I want you to understand that we had no
money.  But as we began to step out in faith and try this principle of tithing
we were definitely blessed.  Sometimes I believe we made it back and forth
to church on fumes, because the gas needle was always on E.  The car
never broke down when we were on the Lord's errands.  It was a time
of great spiritual growth for us.  Less than a year later, Mark received
a promotion with the company, we moved to Vermont and continued to
be what most people would call poor - but we never went without anything
we needed and this job offered him the training that later led to his opening
his own company.  The Lord doesn't say that we will become rich when
we pay our tithing, but He does say that he will pour out blessings.
Those blessings come in a number of ways.  We have learned that to be true!

I've also learned that tithing is the minimum.  As the Lord blesses us,
we should have the desire to use those blessings to bless others.  Could it
be that God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise
my standard of giving?   We are so blessed and everyone I know is so
 blessed.  Yet, there are many people who would benefit from an increase
in  my generosity.  I often wonder what more I should be doing and I
remember this quote from C.S. Lewis on giving.   He said,

 "Giving to the poor is an essential part of Christian morality. I
do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I'm afraid the
only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  In other words, if our
expenditure on comforts, luxuries, and amusement, is up to the standard
common of those with the same income as our own, we are probably
giving away too little.  
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are
too small. There ought to be things we'd like to do but cannot do because
our charitable expenditure excludes them."

Well, I can tell you right now, I have a long way to go before I can
say I'm being pinched or hampered.  But it has me pondering.
C.S. Lewis' writings are good for that.

In the twenty first chapter of Luke we learn from the widow in the story
that what counts is not what we acquire or give, but who we become in

the process.

"And he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the
 treasure.  And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither
 two mites. And he said, 'Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor 
widow hath cast in more than they all; For all these have of their 
abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury
hath cast in all the living that she had."  

                                                             Luke 21:1-4

Penury means extreme poverty.   I looked it up. I don't give of my
extreme poverty, do you?    It seems the Lord is interested in some
sacrifice on our part as we give back to him.

Generous living begins with the "training wheels" of money and
possessions and graduates to making our "very lives" - a gift to God.
This includes giving our time, our talents, our relationships, our families
and our possessions back to the one who gave us all of them in
the first place.

I can remember an aha moment I had regarding what I thought was
"my time" a few years ago.  I almost had that last child out of the house.
Most of my friends were already empty nesters and I was coveting their
lives of freedom from constantly being on the beck and call of their children.
I was ready to have a life of my own (whatever that meant).  One day as I
was riding home from dropping my daughter off at school and thinking about
all the things I had to do that day (most of which involved my daughter), I
caught myself thinking how nice it would be to have all the children raised
and start living my own life.  How nice it would be to wake up one morning
and not have my day dictated by children, but to be able to do whatever I
wanted.  This was one of my more selfish moments!  The spirit quickly spoke
to me and said If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ and have given your 
life to him, then your  life is never your own to do with as you please.
Wow! That was a teaching moment that I haven't forgotten.  Now that I
am in that stage of life of which I was dreaming, I'm trying to figure out
what the heck I'm supposed to be doing, but I  try to remember this lesson
and the question now isn't "what do I want to do with this day?"  but
"Lord, what do you want me to do with this day?"  My time is time that
He has given me and I have to answer to him how I use it.

I 'm learning that our hearts always go where we put our money, our time
and our talent.  So I'm asking myself a few questions:

*Where is my heart right now?
*What do I need to do differently to be a good manager of the
    blessings that the Lord has given me at this time in my life?

I appreciate all the things that the Lord has been teaching me about
consecration, but with knowledge comes responsibility.  Now, what
am I going to do with what I've learned?   I think if I listen, He will
tell me.

*Goal #22 - Study the New Testament
* Goal #44 - Give 50 hours of service