Ask any horse or dog to describe the greatest gift and you’ll get the same answer; a forever home and the love of someone special. But that’s not always possible. Trainers welcome horses into their barns and send them home. Foster children move in and move on.
Lives, health, and financial circumstances change. Whether a horse, child, or automobile stays with you or one day moves on, you’re accountable for being a good steward.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff” doesn’t work with parenting small children. They only work in small stuff. They aren’t making company decisions. They are deciding whether to use a crayon on the wall.”
Bill Klein, The Little Couple
Stewardship Quotes and Commentary
Every person, horse, dog, cat, or other critter should benefit from time spent with you or in your care. Stewardship doesn’t prefer any particular philosophy of training or horse-keeping.
Stewardship of Animals
Good stewardship doesn’t endorse one feeding program over another, farrier or trimmer, bitless over bridle, or box stall vs. pasture accommodations. What it requires is attention to the health, emotional state, and needs born into every equine spirit. Stewardship lasts from the first minute to the last.
“Whatever you do to the animals, you do to yourself.”
― Ben Mikaelsen
Worthy leaders look for the slightest sign of anxiety, aggression, or imbalance in those they care for. Elevation in any of these emotions signals a problem in stewardship. Stewardship lasts from the first minute until the last.
Maintenance Never Ends
“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte [assistant].”
― Vera Nazarian
“Caretaking is the utmost spiritual and physical responsibility of our time, and perhaps that stewardship is finally our place in the web of life, our work, the solution to the mystery that we are.”
― Linda Hogan
Stewardship Perspectives
“Money is not the only commodity that is fun to give. We can give time, we can give our expertise, we can give our love or simply give a smile. What does that cost? The point is, none of us can ever run out of something worthwhile to give.”
― Steve Goodier
“I love the quaint saying of a dying man, who exclaimed, “I have no fear of going home; I have sent all before me; God’s finger is on the latch of my door, and I am ready for Him to enter.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Your Role as a Steward
“Nothing belongs to us,’ Mrs. Tynte-Irvine would say in her rarefied English-Scottish accent that indicated a bygone elegance and nobility. ‘We’re only caretakers of what is.”
― Eric Motley
“Discipline is not about the rules, it is about respect.
Its respect for those around you, the things you own and for yourself. Discipline is part of being a steward.”
― Janna Cachola
Your Stewardship Grade
Everyone I know who professes Jesus Christ as Lord hopes to hear these six words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
You are the master of your realm; of the people, animals, and stuff God gives. None is provided carelessly or without evaluation. Only stewardship excellence earns your “Well done.” Being a master isn’t a position of rule, but of responsibility.
“A faithful steward loves God first.”
― Laura W. Watts
“If you want your prayers answered, you get off your knees and do the one thing you’re praying someone else will do for you.”
― Shannon L. Alder
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
Matthew 25:21
I count twelve quotations. Here’s one more, “To whom much is given, much will be required.” (Luke 12:48)
Stewardship — it’s an adventure.
Related post: Faithful Stewardship
Related post: Unexpected Stewardship Challenges
