I’ve decided to start doing a weekly series as well as my regular blog posts. It’s all based around one of my favorite proverbs: “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds; for richers are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.” -Proverbs 27: 23-24

A farmer’s job is to watch over his flocks, his herds, and his crops. A good farmer examines them, inspects them, and knows their status at any given time. A bad farmer neglects these little duties. He had no idea if his cows are healthy or not, or whether his crops are growing properly. He just hopes they are when he needs them. The good farmer watches and plans.

Very few of us today are farmer, shepherds, or anything like that, but we all have something. With this series, I want to encourage and challenge you to diligently watch the state of your…what? What do you have that needs watching?

Nothing lasts forever, but nothing lasts very long without management. Bank accounts are quickly emptied, Children run wild, a house becomes infested, a body is destroyed, and our very lives collapse around us.

Obviously, this will be a more Christian series, but I hope my non-Christian followers can glean something from this, too. You don’t have to be a Christian to follow these principles or understand the benefits, so I invite you along, too.

This will be a Monday series, but I’ll probably put in the first entry tomorrow or Wednesday just to get a head start, then go to every Monday.

These posts will briefly cover managing…

Your money

Your body

Your home and possessions

Your job or business

Your time

Your talents and abilities

Your spirituality

Your family.

There may be more topics if I think of any, but these were the big eight that came to me.

These first seven are actually the ones that originally came to mind because these seven (money, body, possessions, work, time talents, spirituality) are all about managing YOURSELF. We live in a world that says other people should live our lives for us and we sit on the sidelines while our own lives pass us by, and that’s not the way to live life more abundantly.

God has given you a something, whether it’s a lot or a little, he has given you something. As Christians, we are stewards of these gifts, whatever they are, to plant them and invest in them and make them grow.

The last one, family, obviously extends beyond ourselves, but there is way too much to say on that topic, so I’ll be briefly covering a few things. While I can’t say all that can be said, I wanted to say something on family because they, too, are our charges and need to be run properly and smoothly in love and grace, not to be abandoned and hope for the best.

This series is also based on the parable of the three workers (or the minas) in Luke 19:11-26). In summary, a master gave each of his three servants a good sum of money. The first two did business with them and their money grew tenfold and fivefold, respectively. The master was very pleased and put them in charge of something much bigger. But the third worker did nothing but hide his money because he was afraid his master would be angry if he lost it. And indeed, the master was angry that his servant had been so lazy with what he was given and took back the money and gave it to one of the other workers because they had been more faithful.

It’s a parable of faithfulness of what we have been given. “Everything in the heaven and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.” -1 Chronicles 29:11. We are the stewards, the caretakers, of what God has given us, and I want us to be good stewards, to take what we are given and help it to grow with God’s help. God charges us to be faithful with what little we have, and once we do that, he will elevate us to something greater because we can be trusted to manage it well (Luke 19:26).

So, there you have the “why” of this series, and I’ll be getting into more details of the “what” and “how” over the next couple of weeks. I hope to see you along for the ride!