Grade 6, Chapter 4

Stewards of Creation

God has entrusted this planet and all that lives on it to our care. He asks us to accept this incredible responsibility with reverence and respect.

Caring for the entire world and its natural environment is too large a task for anyone. Our Creator gives us each other so that stewardship can be a shared responsibility.

But Christians want more than a nice, clean world. We are called to care for Mother Earth because it is God's wondrous gift to us. In God's creation, we experience God's love for us. We strive to protect and nurture the environment as our response to God's never-ending love for us.

Some young people your age have started neighborhood or community environmental groups. These local groups cannot solve all environmental abuse alone, but together with similar groups throughout this country and the world we can begin to help protect the world and all living creatures.

Get your friends and classmates excited about the environment! Create an environmental youth group. The purpose of your group is to help protect your local environment. Hold meetings, rallies, fund-raisers—such as walk-a-thons and clean-up days. Your work may be as simple as reminding neighbors to recycle or as ambitious as taking on a local industrial polluter.

When your group is up and running, spread the word. Your story may encourage other young people to begin their own environmental groups.