Episode 810 Stewardship is Freeing
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode 810 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Travis Ross, or
[00:00:06] Travis Roser: [00:00:06] the author of you Inc. The step-by-step guide for finding the business within you. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
[00:00:23] Having the ability to really find your gifts and calling is a key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast by my friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:41] Scott Maderer: [00:00:41] And if you're spending money that you don't have in sacrificing the future for the present. Recognize that by definition, that's not a stewardship mindset because you're actually betting on the future and we're called to live in the present. Sure. We're called to plan and prepare, [00:01:00] but we're not called to gamble on the future.
[00:01:04] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling. And the inspired stewardship podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:37] In today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why stewardship as a mindset helps you balance your money and your influence. I also talk about why this lets you give and thrive in good times and bad. And I share with you some practical tips on what this really means as we talk about stewarding your treasures.
[00:01:58] Wouldn't it be great. [00:02:00] If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime. It turns out you can. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon.
[00:02:26] One of those things that comes up over and over again, is this idea of what do we do with our money whenever we're struggling, when we're in debt, do we actually still tie, do we give, do we send money to charity or other things? If we're struggling ourselves? Maybe you're living paycheck to paycheck, or maybe you're just dealing with a little bit of stress and strain and a little bit of overspending where you don't necessarily, you're not living paycheck to paycheck, but at the end of the day, you make way [00:03:00] too much money to feel this broke.
[00:03:02]The truth is, are fluence on others and what we do and how we serve and how we reach out to others is often. In part through the money and the giving that we do that is by no means the only way or even the most important way that we serve others. But it definitely is part of it. And one of the reasons that I began to tie the, even while I was in debt and my wife and I went through this long period of trying to decide, was this the responsible and right thing to do.
[00:03:35] And we came to that idea that it was because of developing a stewardship mindset because of taking on the philosophy that it wasn't ours in the first place. And we were called to do it not because we were. Blessed, even though we were, but because it was what we were called to do it, wasn't just what we were called to do when times were good.
[00:03:58] It's what we were called to [00:04:00] do all of the time. If you picture for a moment that you worked for a company and maybe you're the work in the accounting department where your job is to actually write the checks. That the company uses to pay for services, to pay for vendors and to do everything else. And one day the owner of the company comes in and says, I need you to write a check for 10% of our gross profits to give over to this particular organization you would, of course, just write the check.
[00:04:33] It wouldn't even bother you. You wouldn't pause for a moment and wonder what was going on. You would just do as the owner directed. And that's really how I came to view the money and the blessings that I was given by God it's what my wife and I finally wrapped our heads around is that we were being told by the owner to do this anyway.
[00:04:56] And the truth is, as we began to do that, we began to thrive [00:05:00] in good times. And in bad, when we first started this, we were still deeply in debt. We weren't making very much money and we were truly struggling, but because our mindset shifted all of a sudden we could give up things easier and we found ways to make more money and to make more progress than I think we would have.
[00:05:20] Otherwise don't get me wrong. It wasn't a magic formula. It wasn't that we went and tied in suddenly more money showed up though. Sometimes it did. It was about the way it changed, how we thought about things. It was the way we began to feel, instead of feeling like we were struggling instead of feeling like we were just barely getting by.
[00:05:42] We began to recognize those blessings that we did have, and we began to recognize that we were still in a place that we could help others. And as that shifted our practicality, the reason and what we did changed. So the truth [00:06:00] is if you're struggling with this. You need to actually begin to do some practical steps.
[00:06:05] You need to take some action to let you recognize it. Some of these are recommended before, but I'm going to put them together here. The first step is to actually take stock of your own blessings. Look at what you've been given. If you, aren't doing a gratitude journal where you sit down every day and you list two or three or four or five things that you're grateful for each and every day start doing that.
[00:06:33] Now, if you haven't looked at the blessings that you have in terms of shelter and money and other things, look and do that. Now take stock of the blessings that you have. And then secondly, begin to recognize that if you wait to give until you have plenty, you'll never give because you never really ever feel like you have enough at all levels.
[00:06:59] You still [00:07:00] struggle in some way at all levels. There's always something else you could do with money. And because of that, You've got to start giving first when the money arrives before you do anything else, write the check or make the transfer or do the online account to make the giving happen. The next thing is for me, I look at giving as a tie, the 10% of what I make regardless.
[00:07:28] Of what's going on. But past that, I consider that offerings. And though, sometimes we are called to give in a sacrificial way. I don't think it's always so next, you want to make sure that you're actually using the rest of your money to do smart things. And that means looking at what you're doing and making sure it's in alignment with what you are called to do.
[00:07:53] It's an alignment with doing those things that are most important to you. And if you're spending money that you don't have in [00:08:00] sacrificing the future for the present, recognize that by definition, that's not a stewardship mindset because you're actually betting on the future and we're called to live in the present.
[00:08:14] Sure. We're called to plan and prepare, but we're not called to gamble on the future. And that's one of the reasons I think that for many organizations and many people debt can be such a hammer around our neck because it sacrifices the future for moments of the pleasure of today. And oftentimes instead if we defer that gratification, we always end up better off.
[00:08:40] So that's a few practical tips that you can take to begin to shift your mindset and make sacrificing easier and make growing your income easier. So that at the end of the day, you come out ahead and you continue to give without any hesitation, any worry or any angst. And [00:09:00] instead you use that giving to recognize the blessings that you've been given.
[00:09:05] Thanks for listening.
[00:09:11] So much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of treasures. You can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the us four four two, two, two treasures tips.
[00:09:48] And we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop [00:10:00] your influence and impact the world. .