Stewardship and being ready

Matthew 25
Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids
“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids[a] who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, 4 but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. 5 When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’

7 “All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

AHHH, they took extra care of what had been given to them and they took extra oil to cover their need, because they prepared themselves. When the shout was given, they spent their time getting ready.


Matt 25:19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together![c]’

22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’


Fear holds me back. I'm afraid of failing. And in being afraid of failing, I fail. I fail because I'm afraid that my attempts will be mocked, futile, or even that I will succeed and that success will ruin me. So, when this fear grips my thoughts, my response is to do nothing. In doing nothing, I am the unfaithful bridesmaid, the servant with one talent who buried it in the ground. I have failed to take care of even the simplest of tasks that have been given to me.

So, what I've been neglecting has been brought to my attention by the Lord. It's time to take care of business. Taking care of this body He gave me needs to be a much higher priority. My A1c is way up and I do not want to take more meds. My sinuses keep getting infected, and I feel tired much of the time. I have not been to the gym in since September and not regularly since July. I was dependent on another for my motivation to go and when I began to see that waning, my resolve went out the door. I have placed too much in the encouragement of people and their approval of me for the things I must do.
Taking care of my home is also lacking. This place was a dump when we bought it and I haven't wanted to put much effort in to it. That's not what Jesus wants. I'm supposed to take care of what is given to me, regardless if it looks nice or not.
Taking care of my family and nurturing them, not just feeding and clothing them must be priority. My selfishness has caused me to withdraw from those closest to me and to shut my life off from them. Not fair or right.

So, in letting you all in on this, I'm choosing not to hide my talent any more and to move forward into taking care of my business instead of looking around me at everyone else's.