In order to teach children about stewardship, it’s important for us to understand the concept ourselves.

Parishes across the archdiocese observe Stewardship Awareness Sunday the weekend of Sept. 25-26. This is a perfect time to assess our varied talents and gifts and to make plans to use them to serve one another.

An article in the St. Louis Review offers tips to parents on how to engage their children in developing a stewardship mindset. Stewardship is the way that Catholics are called to live out their faith, recognizing everything they have is a gift from God and gratefully and generously sharing their gifts without expecting anything in return.

Stewardship is a lifestyle rooted in gratitude and generosity that helps us strengthen our relationship to God. It means putting complete trust in God, in all things.

Stewardship is, first and foremost, about God. When we’re good stewards, we recognize that all of our gifts, talents and treasures, are given to us by God and are to be shared with others. Whether it be prayer, volunteer work, assistance in the Church or school, or financial support of the Church and her ministries, we have an obligation and an opportunity to return in thanksgiving that which we have received.

People who practice stewardship are noticed by others. Thus, they teach children and inspire others through their example. And they can’t help but show joy in giving.

But stewardship is much more than what we see. Stewardship focuses on strengthening our relationship with God and with each other. In gratitude for all that we are given, we are generous with our gifts — our first and best. Stewardship is our response as active participants in the life of Jesus.

We start our stewardship with prayer by asking God what He wants of us, how He wants us to use our gifts for generous participation. As we discover this call, we should reach out to our pastor to ask how we might serve the parish and others.

Find out more about stewardship atwww.archstl.org/about-stewardship.