The tension of trying to be a good steward for God while you cook is the seeming tug of war between two (or more) positive ends:
…I want to buy organic foods, but my budget as a one-income family won’t allow for it…
…I try to save money by shopping sales at the grocery store, but cheap food is often processed and unhealthy for my family…
…In order to avoid polluting the earth with harmful chemicals, I have to spend more money to buy the fancy “natural” cleaners…
…Cooking from scratch takes so much time-I feel like it would be better for me to spend quality time with my family or in prayer…
How to balance? There is no perfect answer, especially if you’re working with a tight budget. It’s often sad reality that what is good for the earth and your bodies costs a little more, or takes a little more time. Every family is different, with different gifts of time, treasure and energy, so I can’t prescribe a system that will work for everyone. However, I can give you tools to prioritize the areas that are important to you and pinpoint some key missions/methods that can benefit at least three of the four stewardship categories: time, money, nutrition, and environment.
The beauty of Kitchen Stewardship® is in finding those strategies, like making your own yogurt and bone broths, that positively impact your health, budget, AND the earth. They do take a little more time (always the martyr), but I always try to include time savers to keep you out of the kitchen and in your life as much as possible.
Each mission will include impact ratings to help you decide if it’s right for you. I’ll measure the impact, positive or negative, that making this change will have on your health, budget, and environment.
These symbols:
demonstrates impact on budget
demonstrates impact on health
demonstrates impact on environment
will be paired with these:
major positive impact
some positive impact
negative impact
No symbol means the mission has no impact on that category.
For example, if you see these symbols
below a Monday Mission about making your own cleaning solutions, it means accepting this challenge will:
Have a major positive impact on the environment
a major positive impact on your family’s good health
and some positive impact on your budget.
In other words, you and the Earth will breathe easier and you’ll save a bit of money. Sounds like this one will be worth your time…
You can use impact rating icons to personalize Kitchen Stewardship® for your needs. There may be some of you who don’t need to worry about saving money, so you can focus on changes that have the greatest positive impact on the environment and your health. If you are working with a tight budget, you may have to wait on some of the missions that will cost a little more than you spend now, and accept those missions that will save you money while having some good effect on either your health OR the earth. One baby step at a time…
- What are
Time Savers and Added Bonus icons(Link no longer available)? - Back to Method Explanation
- Back to Monday Missions
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