When we think about stewardship we often are given thoughts of how we spend our money, or taking care of those in our charge. Sadly, one of the first things we're told to be stewards of is seldom given much thought.
We've all heard Matthew 25:29, For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. We've all heard it used for our finances and physical blessings and some of our responsibilities, but what if I told you we have been given something even bigger, even greater? Genesis tells us that we have been given stewardship over the very Earth! Genesis 1:28 shows us that directly from the time of creation the rule of the earth belonged to humanity, that we are in charge of caring for the animals, the fish, birds, and the ground itself. It says, God blessed them: God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.” This is reiterated by Genesis 2:15, saying, Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it.
This wasn't just a Garden of Eden issue, Genesis 3:17-19 says, To Adam he said, “Because you listened to what your wife said and ate from the tree about which I gave you the order, ‘You are not to eat from it,’ the ground is cursed on your account; you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.” Showing us that the actions of sin affected the ground as well, and that part of the curse of man was that taking care of the Earth would now be harder than it originally was to be. Elohim wanted to ensure we knew some of what it meant to be stewards of the Earth as well, giving us many laws within Torah on how to take care of the animals and the ground. Laws like not crossbreeding species, when to harvest fruit trees, not to be cruel to animals, and so on; depth can be seen in Biblical Commandments.
Yet when we look around outside it doesn't take much to see that humanity as a whole has failed at this commandment just as much as we have failed at the majority of others. Believers of many walks are indistinguishable from non-believers in this area, seemingly forgetting that they have a God given command to be mindful of the world around them. Litter can be seen strewn about, plastic debris now outnumbers the fish in the ocean, genetic changes are being made to vegetation (and animals) daily. The Western throw away culture has gotten out of control, and Canadians you're the worst of them all according to the Conference Board of Canada! We as Canadians average 2.2 kg (4.8lbs) of garbage a day, surpassing the United States' 2.0 kg (4.5lbs) a day average.
But what can we do about this? One person in a world of 7.6 Billion isn't even a drop in the hat. Believers of all people however should know what one voice can do, our Messiah changed the world. Now, we aren't the Messiah and we're all as far from divine as we can be, but our voices can still make a difference. It can start as easily as writing in to your government representative. Sharing your voice that you care about environmental initiatives. Things like ensuring our national parks are maintained and even expanded, that hunting and fishing regulations are enforced by all members of society, that you'd like to see reduction in single use plastics and the ones that are used are from recycled plastics.
We can take initiative in our communities and around ourselves. Things like picking up litter when we find it, turning down needless straws at restaurants (or carrying your own if you need one for a handicap), and raising awareness to those around you of small changes that can be made. We can be sure to follow proper hunting and fishing practices, support reserves and wildlife rescues, support animal shelters even if it's volunteering or awareness, help the wounded animal we come across or be sure not to harm the environment needlessly when we go camping on Sukkot.
We can vote with our dollars. Putting pressure on business' to produce more of what is eco-concious and less of what is harmful to the enviroment. Putting pressure on producers to use crops that are designed as how Elohim made them and not altered by products like glysophate. (Note- Not all GMO's are an issue! Many are simply changes in the plant itself to God's design and naturally attained.)
And of course we can follow the tried and true three R's.
Reduce. Reduce buying things with to much packaging. Bring your own bags and containers to be able to reduce packaging. Like bringing your own grocery bags, mesh produce bags, cotton bulk bags and jars for bulk shopping. Let Bulk shopping become your new best friend, you'll be surprised what you can get without any packaging! Reduce buying products made with modified ingredients. Reduce take out waste by keeping travel cups, tumblers, reusable straws, containers around for when you want to eat out and not have the single use plastic. I keep tumblers for the family in the car for when we want to get smoothies (or Mama wants an Ice Capp), two travel mugs so I can get coffee for myself and a friend, a collapsible bowl with lid for take out and a set of utensils. I also keep some steel straws in my purse for my children when they want them. There are now many options of straws to find exactly the one that works for you and your family; such as steel, glass, silicone, bamboo, paper, pasta, reusable plastic, and some are even a combination of mediums. Buy things that you can package better yourself, like reusable freezie tubes for your children, or if they're like mine and love those squeezy pocket things you can get some that are reusable and fill them with yogurt, apple sauce and like yourself (and it's cheaper!). Change in the disposable cling wrap for resuable wax wrap and silicone storage bags instead of sandwich bags. If you need disposable look for things that have less of a footprint and will properly decompose like bamboo utensils or sugarcane plates and bowls. Reduce buying things that only come in packaging that can't be recycled or reused. You can now get some items that don't come with packaging at all, like shampoo bars, soaps lotion and deodorant (all that are biblically clean), or using things like soap nuts for your laundry and dishes.
Reuse. Reuse as many things as possible, using travel mugs, grocery bags, jars, whatever you can as many times as you can. Need a new water bottle? Get the fancy pasta sauce next time to have the bottle after! Sometimes this means purchasing things once that will last a long time, and sometimes this means buying things in packaging that we can reuse. Some of the reusable things I do are using reusable coffee mugs, water bottles, grocery bags, produce bags, cotton bags and jars (some I've bought and some I've reused), laundry wool balls, reusable freezie and popsicles, reusable leftover containers (most from yogurt!), reusable sandwich bags, reusable wax wrap, reusable squeeze tubes, and reusable bamboo cloth wipes for quick wipes and paper towel.
Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! I can't say this one enough. Even when we're reduced our packaging and reuse what we can it's still likely that we're going to have some packaging to get rid of. To avoid ruining whole batches of recycling we must make sure that we have rinsed whatever is going into our own recycling, so wash out those hazelnut spread plastic jars before throwing them in the basket. Ensure that you separate plastic films like grocery bags from the plastic containers. Tin cans from food go separate from pop cans. Any glass you aren't reusing needs to be separated from it's metal lid. Don't worry about removing most labels from tin or glass however, the melting process will handle those without an issue, but they do need to be cleaned of food debris so they aren't contaminated. In my home we have a bag for the plastic film, a bin for plastics, glass, metal and then one for drink cans and bottles. Then it's easy when it's full to swing by the station and deal with it all! What I love about the local bottle depot is there is also a large spot there for when you're to lazy or time restricted to deal with your recycling yourself (and get the payback) you can dump it there and run. The proceeds from that bin all goes to local charities!
In an effort of keeping it real, below is an image of a shelf in my pantry. While I have mesh produce bags for my garlic and onion, jars for some treats and reusable bags for some treats, there's also some things in packaging like granola bars in boxes that can be recycled and foil that can't, veggie chips and salsa in a jaw that I'll be reusing, along with the naughty single use plastic package around salt water toffee that was purchased for us.
We may not all be able to get to a point we'd like to, but small steps are always still steps in the right direction! There is always more each of us can try to do, but we first need to grow in awareness of how we can help in what has become not only a world wide problem but a problem in obedience to the very first commandment in Elohim's Word. So Ladies, let's work together to be better stewards of the biggest thing Adonai has trusted us with, the World around us, as from it stems how we care for the animals and plants on this earth we rely on to feed ourselves and our families.
