Philosophy of Kitchen Stewardship

Kitchen Stewardship^® is the idea that working in our kitchens, like everything we do, is an opportunity to love God and serve our families.

Foundation

The foundation of Kitchen Stewardship^® is simple:  God gave us everything we have and asks only that we take good care of it. God gave us our health, our earth, our time and our money. For those of us who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, we are met with challenges in all four areas a daily basis. It can be daunting to try to do our best to be good stewards of them all, especially as science finds out more about how we harm our bodies and environment with chemicals and the world tempts us to live beyond our means in many ways. Kitchen Stewardship^® is about finding the balance, doing the right thing to give glory and honor to God, becoming more prayerful in the kitchen, and rejoicing in the accomplishment of baby steps on the road to perfect stewardship.

Lifestyle

Kitchen Stewardship^® is a lifestyle, a commitment to doing your absolute best in the kitchen to be a good steward. The Bible tells us that a good steward cares for his gifts from God. The servants in the parable of the talents are honored when they (1) take some risk with God’s gifts and (2) USE God’s gifts and avoid burying/ignoring them. Our gifts are many and varied:

Physical Health

We all have a certain genetic makeup that makes our bodies healthy, and we are endowed with the ability to choose and eat foods that can help or hinder that process.

Environment

We all have been given the great gift of our earth and all its resources. Genesis 1:28 says that we should “fill the earth and subdue it,” and those first humans were also given the responsibility to care for the earth. They pass that on to us.

Money

We all have financial resources at our disposal, whether they be generous or simple. It is a vast challenge to decide how and where to put that money, especially when we try to balance our budget on top of our health and the environment.

Time

We all have time. We may not feel like we have any (!), but that’s just because we already use an awful lot of it! We have 24 hours in each day and must make account for our use of each one. When we’re in the kitchen, let us use our time wisely so we can have more hours for prayer, for being with family, and for our other worthwhile pursuits. On the other hand, let us not sacrifice our other gifts simply for the sake of having more time to spare.

Balance

Kitchen Stewardship^® seeks to balance our care of these four gifts from God.

The lifestyle of Kitchen Stewardship^® requires the following:

• Prayer…walking the KS blogwalk will offer many ideas and opportunities for praying IN the kitchen
• Trust in God…He will give you the time and resources you need to take care of your family
• Flexibility…you may be asked to make changes that seem difficult at first. Change is often difficult…
• Organization…believe me, you don’t have to be very organized, but in order to avoid fast food fixes, you’ll need the ability to plan ahead
• Dedication…I’ll be working under the assumption that my readers are dedicated to the ideals of conserving our earth’s resources and keeping our families physically healthy. Any good work takes a commitment.

The lifestyle of Kitchen Stewardship^® allows for the following:

• Baby Steps!...KS is first and foremost a process, not an ideal you can obtain in a few days. We must allow ourselves time to grow!
• Celebrating small accomplishments (see above)
• Failure…it will happen. Don’t worry about it!
• Balance and acceptance of less than perfect…sometimes we can’t do it all. We shoot for the best we can in each category and allow some wiggle room for God to bless our emptiness.

Please join me on this wild ride, whether you are a fast food junkie or a health nut. I promise you’ll find something new to challenge you in the kitchen, here at Kitchen Stewardship^®!

Method

Mary and Martha