Are you a good steward of your relationships? Do you receive them gratefully as gifts from God? Think about all the relationships you’re involved in – with a spouse, with parents, children, neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates, fellow citizens, other parishioners, the folks around you at the soccer game, the woman with 30 items in the “10 items or less” line, and the man who cut you off in traffic this morning.
Do you spend time cultivating those relationships responsibly? Do you greet the people involved warmly when you meet, visit them when they are sick, congratulate them when they succeed, remember their significant dates, assist them when they need help, and go the “extra mile,” even when it is personally costly to do so? And do you share the blessings of those relationships with others? Do you introduce your friends to other friends, network and offer “leads” and suggestions when appropriate, serve as a “sponsor couple” in the parish Marriage Prep program, offer a ride to and from church to an elderly person or pick up a neighbor’s children at school with your own? And do you return those relationships with increase to the Lord – rejoicing in the gift of those personal connections and praying for all the people involved? If so, that’s good stewardship!
Jesus urged us to see even difficult relationships as gifts. Love your enemies, he said. Do good to those who abuse you. Forgive seventy times seven times… All of those are ways to repair or recover lost or damaged relationships. And then, of course, there is the most important relationship of all – our relationship with God.
The Psalmist exclaims with awe, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:3, NAB) How amazing that God, the Creator and Savior of the world, should seek to have a relationship with us! What a gift! If we can receive this gift gratefully, seek to cultivate it responsibly, and share it generously and lovingly with others, we will almost certainly become good stewards of all our other relationships as well.
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