Do we still know what stewardship is?
A woman lovingly packed her heirloom silver and sat down to decide which of her three daugthers should have it.
Her daughter Amy would pack the silver away even more carefully than her mother had and would store it in a safe place, probably a bank vault
There the silver would stay. It would come to no harm, but neither would it come to anyone's sight. It would be the source of delight to no one. Amy would tell her friends about it, but she would never use it. She would be proud of it, but she would not enjoy it. It would be better, thought Amy's mother, housed in a museum.
Cornelia would use the silver, but she would enjoy it no more than Amy. She would use heirlooms as she used everything else, carelessly, thoughtlessly, unheeding. The silver would be thrown into the kitchen drawer with the steel-ware and used for anything from a Thanksgiving dinner to a country picnic. It would be better, thought Cornelia's mother, if it were melted down for the worth of the metal.
Elizabeth would care for heirlooms, but not anxiously. She would use the silver, but not heedlessly. She would be proud of it and would share it. She would be aware of its value, and also of its purpose. She would enjoy it. For what else, thought Elizabeth's mother, did it exist?
Cornelia type. If we are, then we take the gifts of God so lightly that we forget that they ever were gifts at all, and who had given them. We throw them into the clutter of a disordered and heedless existence and they are wasted.
Some of us are the Amy type, treasuring God's gifts ... and seldom using them. Amy-type people are so overwhelmed by the value of such gifts that they forget the purpose of them. Amy's are too solemn to enjoy anything that concerns God, as if life were not God's concern. To an Amy, vocation is neither a living nor a calling, but only an existence and a burden.
God isn't like the woman with the silver. God gives gifts to all of us, but we treat them very much as the three daughters would have treated the family silver.
We must remember to give thanks for all of God's gifts; hopefully we are like Elizabeth in this story: We treasure and share all our good gifts, as good stewards.