Posts by Betsy Schwarzentraub
Living from the Soul
“Living from the Soul” These months of “sheltering in place” because of the pandemic have stripped away a lot of extra coming and going. Although I am already retired from the official work world, this different use of time has prompted me to question what over the years has tended to become an armload…
Read MoreWays to Make a Planned Gift
There are many helpful and creative ways to make a planned gift. Here are the most important ones, according to Renard J. Kolasa, Esq., of Couzens, Lansky:1 Outright gifts, particularly appreciated securities. Gifts at death via Will or Trust – perhaps the most important source of gifts other than outright cash gifts during life; should…
Read MoreSolitude
It’s good to learn about one or more of the spiritual disciplines – prayer, meditation, Scripture study, and more – but to actually practice them presupposes solitude, or the clarity of mind and heart that come from it. In these days of the pandemic, many may say, “With social distancing and staying home, I have…
Read MoreHelping Children Be Thankful
Almost every parent has been there: pressuring their young child to write the obligatory thank-notes to Aunt Charlotte and the next-door neighbor after Christmas or their birthday. But does sending those notes under mild duress make your kids really feel grateful? The fact is: we cannot make children be thankful. We can only make them…
Read MoreQuotes about the Faith Community
The community is a discipline of mutual encouragement and mutual testing, keeping me both hopeful and honest about the love that seeks me, the love I seek to be. – Parker J. Palmer Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime, therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense…
Read MoreLive Gratefully, Live Generously
Generosity is grounded in a real sense of gratitude, says Rev. Scott McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Horizons Stewardship Company. He saw it firsthand on a mission service trip to Malawi, in the midst of a famine there. The villagers they had helped – themselves on the edge of starvation – danced and sang and…
Read MoreWriting in the Sand
“To speak of the heart is not to sentimentalize but to ensoul,” says author Thomas Moore. “There is a toughness and intelligence about living from the heart. . . .”1 Moore uses the phrase living from the heart to describe what the Gospels imply about a new sense of self: “openness to experience, to the…
Read MoreLiving from the Heart
“To speak of the heart is not to sentimentalize but to ensoul,” says author Thomas Moore. “There is a toughness and intelligence about living from the heart. . . .”1 Moore uses the phrase living from the heart to describe what the Gospels imply about a new sense of self: “openness to experience, to the…
Read MoreA Cycle of Grace
Written for Voices and Silences, 2003 Grace, Giftedness, Giving and Growth – these four words, from Clif Christopher and Herb Mather’s book, Holy Smoke!, prompted me to reflect on these themes in my life. For me, they flow in a cycle, a deepening spiral, which begins and ends with God’s grace. From God’s side, it’s…
Read MoreFoundation Statement on Stewardship
Written for the General Board of Discipleship, The United Methodist Church, 2010 Stewardship is whatever we do with what God has entrusted to us by the way that we live. In response to God’s outpouring love and covenant faithfulness, we live out of God’s abundance instead of the illusion of scarcity thinking. We seek to…
Read MoreClean Eating
June fifth is coming up soon – World Environment Day. And boy, do we have a lot of issues to address! But one essential dimension of our impact on the environment that calls out right now is what we choose to eat. “Clean eating” is a phrase that’s becoming popular in some circles these days.…
Read MoreGenesis and the Image of God
“Our soul is our true self, the essence of who we are, seeking to grow more and more into the image of God,” says Growing Generous Souls,1 pondering Genesis 1:26-27. But what is the image of God? Beyond that book’s couple of paragraphs, here are a few further reflections. Some renowned Bible scholars confirm the…
Read MoreOur Identity in Christ
What Jesus said and did in the Gospels are signs of who he is. But how do we apply that to who we are in Christ? Where else can we turn to find additional guidance about who we are because of Christ’s work in our lives? Colossians 3:8-17 can help us see the shape of…
Read MoreOur Identity in Christ
What Jesus said and did in the Gospels are signs of who he is. But how do we apply that to who we are in Christ? Where else can we turn to find additional guidance about who we are because of Christ’s work in our lives? Colossians 3:8-17 can help us see the shape of…
Read MoreWhy Good Things Happen to Good People
Written for Giving magazine, Vol. 20 By the Ecumenical Stewardship Center Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving By Stephen Post and Jill Neimark “Giving is good medicine,” say Stephen Post and Jill Neimark, authors of Why Good Things Happen to…
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