Blessed November...Blessed Generosity!

November brings with it many well-known and well-loved traditions, both in the church and in the culture, and hence in each of our lives. There is All Saints’ Day, which we celebrated on November 3 & 4. . .there was the “falling back” to Central Standard Time on that same weekend. . . there was Veteran’s Day on November 11. . . then there is Thanksgiving Day on November 22 this year. That is quite an impressive list of observances and remembrances. I hope November will be a good month for you. I also hope that you will take time this November to remember where all your blessings come from.

This month at Beautiful Savior we will focus our thoughts and our hearts on the theme “Blessed Generosity.” We will be talking about stewardship and giving and inviting all the people of the church to make a prayerful and voluntary commitment of financial support to the mission and ministry of Beautiful Savior during 2019. Prayerful and voluntary are key words in that sentence. We pray “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. That prayer acknowledges that everything we have is given by our Creator. Dr. Dale Meyer writes about it like this: Christian stewardship of everything; time, talent, and treasure (money); shows the work of God’s Spirit in us through His Word and Sacraments. Generosity in giving is a voluntary self-reminder that you and I ultimately have nothing except following Jesus. (Timely Reflections, p. 310)

The old hymn says it like this: We give Thee but Thine own,/ Whate’er the gift may be; All that we have is Thine alone,/ A trust, O Lord, from Thee. (LBW # 410)

Have a blessed November. . . .