The short story entitled Circle of Love (by Jeannie S. Williams
compiled by Cheryl Kirking in Ripples of Joy, Stories of Hope and Encouragement
to Share From. pp. 28-29) is inspiring, touching and rippling as a starting
point for our topic, Love for Country.
[When Joey was 5 years old, his
kindergarten teacher told the class to draw a picture of something they
loved. He drew stick images of his
family then encircled with a red crayon. With his desire to label his drawing,
he approached his teacher and asked, “Teacher, how do you spell…?” He was
scolded not to disturb the class even before he could finish his question.
Excitedly arriving home, he approached
his mother in the kitchen to show his drawing and asked the same question,
“Mom, how do you spell…?” “Don’t you see, I’m busy. Why don’t you play outside
and don’t slam the door!” He folded his
drawing and stuck it to his pocket.
Later in the evening, he unfolded and
smoothen it being ready with his pencil, showed it to his father and asked,
“Dad, how do you spell…?” “Joey, I’m reading right now and I don’t want to be
disturbed. Go, play outside and don’t
slam the door.”
In the morning during laundry, his
mother threw his folded drawing without opening it together with pieces of
other materials in his pocket gathered while playing.
When Joey was 28 years old, his 5 yrs.
old daughter, Annie presented a stick drawing of their family, circled with red
crayon. Ready with her pencil to label her drawing, she asked, “Dad, how do you
spell love?” “Love is spelled T-I-M-E!”, he told her.]
Equally amazing associated with this
episode is the following enlightening quotation:
“We need to think of the home as the cradle into which the future is born, and the family as the nursery in
which the new social order is being
reared. The family is a covenant with posterity” (Sidney Goldstein).
Basically, love for country is equated
or associated with stewardship in
our respective family, workplaces and
our Community, the BCBP and the
society at large.
Love
for country is
basically founded on the greatest and double commandment of love: love of God and love of neighbor. This is
the greatest commandment, “. . . you
shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind and with all your
strength. And after this comes
another one: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no
commandment greater than these two “ (Mk 12:30-31).
Therefore, love for country begins in
our heart with our virtues and values that radiate from inside-out. As BCBP members, let us look and evaluate our
individual selves dealing with our characters as stewards, how we learn and
practice good stewardship at home,
at work and in our Community, the BCBP and in our society. We have 3 areas or schools of learning and
application as far as stewardship is concerned: family, workplace and BCBP.
A steward
is someone who is in control. He can
also be referred to as director, manager, custodian or caretaker. Etymologically,
the word steward comes from the old English sty and ward that refers
to a person employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns
like the supervision of servants, collection of rentals and keeping of
accounts.
A steward is a person to whom the
possessions of another have been entrusted.
He is authorized to manage these possessions. The welfare of the owner and others who have
a stake in the venture is entrusted to the steward. His position is always a position of trust
calling for trustworthiness.
St. Peter is made the steward of the
Kingdom of God when Jesus said, “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of
Heaven” (Mt 16:19). The keys symbolize
stewardship.
Character
qualities of a good steward
1. He
has the mind of the owner. As BCBP members, we must have the mind of God
who owns our lives.
.
2. Trustworthiness that flows from integrity and competence. Competence in whatever we do is crucial that
need to be paired with integrity, transparency and honesty.
.
3. Balanced courage and concern. A
steward dedicated to the enhancement of the master’s business in line with his
intentions exemplifies a steward with a balanced courage and concern. An overly
courageous steward may get everything done his way disregarding the concern
for others being unjust to those he works with.
On the other hand, if he is all concern
and lacks courage, he may not get the master’s business done.
. 4. There
are 2 basic domains of putting good stewardship and love of country into
practice:
a. Circle
of influence –
includes all those things we can influence, change or have control or impact
for the better. Starting from within,
the most important area is our character
and behavior. Consistent improvement
of our character for the better makes us grow and become emotionally and
spiritually mature for a greater impact, making a difference in the family,
professional/business, BCBP or public life.
b. Circle
of concern – includes
all those things which we can really do nothing. Negligence of our own behavior
(circle of influence) and focus on our concerns, result to being unable to make
a difference. (For details, read: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Dr. Stephen R. Covey. pp. 81-88).
Stewardship
schools of learning
The family, the workplace, BCBP and our society at large are the 4 areas or schools of stewardship that
give us the opportunity to act and serve as good stewards.
The family being the basic unit of society is the most fundamental
school for stewardship. As parents and children, we must be united to learn to
put ourselves in a constant position of service for the welfare of each
other. This calls for trustworthiness
with a balanced courage and genuine concern for one another.
We raise our children to be
responsible citizens by giving them stewardship opportunities according to
their age and set up a system of accountability. Perhaps assign them in household chores,
cleaning their own room and asking for an accounting of their allowance. Demand their respect for household
helpers. When they graduated and are earning,
but still living with the family, they are urged to contribute financially to
teach them financial responsibility. We
use every opportunity to teach respect, honor and integrity until good
characteristic traits become a habit.
They are also trained to sacrifice when necessary especially in moments
of inadequacy not providing them what is beyond our means. We should avoid the military parlance,
“Follow what I say, do not follow what I do” because the most effective
stewardship training is modeling. We should be the best models for our
children. Mothers have the important
role in shaping up our children because they are “moral compass” of the home.
In our respective workplaces, we ought to develop a win-win attitude in dealing with our employers/employees, peers,
clients/customers, suppliers and all stakeholders to gain and win. “Win-win
means that agreement or solutions are mutually beneficial and mutually
satisfying. We see life as a cooperative and not a competitive arena.” (Read: Covey, S.R. 2004. Think win/win.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. pp. 204-234).
A good steward works towards increased
profitability being committed, cooperative and open-minded who freely
communicate with all involved in the business.
He takes a major concern for the safety and just compensation for all
employees. He also makes sure of the
world-class quality of the products and services.
The characters of a good steward in
workplaces include integrity, competence, efficiency, courage and concern.
The BCBP is a school of learning for good stewardship and eventually
becoming good citizens to measure love for country. It leads us to a deeper conversion to the
Lord and helps us to grow as men and women of God because we have the mind of
God.
The Christian life program is a basic
formation that strengthens our relationship with God. Improved relationship at home is realized
through the marriage retreat (BCMR).
During the business retreat (BCBR), serving God as good stewards is
spelled out. Through our action group
meetings, we are trained to open our hearts to others beyond our immediate
family giving us concrete ways to care and love our brothers and sisters.
Basic
concepts of love for country
. 1. Building
strong families result to responsible citizenship. Faithful spouses raise responsible children
of God that eventually build a strong republic.
2. Putting
our time, talent and resources at the service of the Lord for others in the
BCBP is an expression of our love for our country.
3. In
the marketplace, our love for country is expressed through our integrity,
courage and concern for all working for justice, honesty and fairness.
Special
contributions
1. Electing public officials with the
track record of integrity and competence.
2. Promoting our BCBP advocacy for
honesty, the “Be honest” campaign.
3. Following
traffic rules.
4. Not littering our garbage in the
streets through proper disposal.
5. Paying our taxes correctly, accurately
and in time.
6. Promoting our local goods over the
imported ones.
Love
for country basically
emanates from the greatest double commandment of love: love of God and love of
neighbor. Time, talents and treasures are
the instruments or avenues of this great love.
Love in our opening short story is spelled T-I-M-E. Love can also be spelled T-R-E-A-S-U-R-E or
T-A-L-E-N-T.
This expression of love radiates from
inside-out, from the family to our Community, the BCBP, to our respective
workplaces and then to the society at large.
Love for country boils down from being a good steward in all areas of
our life and living by putting God in our minds. A good steward has the mind of God.
Take note that we have 3 instruments
(3 Ts: time, treasure & talent) of expressing love among the 3 identities
(God, neighbors and self) that are fundamental to love for country. In closing, we find the following worth
remembering:
Everywhere I look, I see
Fact or fiction, life
or play
Still the little game
of three,
B and C in love with
A.
(Jeannie Hendricks. A Woman for all Seasons. In:
Favorite Stories and Illustrations by
Charles Swindol.
p. 355). nmg
[1]
Talk No. 6 comprising the BCBP Way of Life Retreat for the BCBP Consolation
associate members held at the Sto. Niňo
Spirituality Center, Tolotolo, Consolacion, Cebu on May 5-6, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment