Spritual Sunday: Blessings of Paying Tithes & Offerings

As you can tell from the blog name, I really enjoy budgeting and saving money. I have taught some classes on these topics, and the first thing I tell people is this: If you want enough money to meet your needs, you must pay an honest tithe and generous fast offering. (Note that I said needs, not wants).

This principle was one that came easy for me to follow. I think it's because I observed my parents faithfully living this commandment with exactness, and I saw the results of always having our needs met. I heard them tell the stories of only having enough money left to either pay tithing or buy groceries for the rest of the month; they paid tithing, and that same amount of money came back to them in unexpected ways to buy the groceries. Did tithing make us rich? No, at least not temporally. The blessings of tithing are as much spiritual as they are temporal.

I grew up always paying tithing. I guess I never wanted to test what would happen if I didn't. I was blessed to be able to pay my way through college without getting into any debt. I was always able to find jobs to support myself. Another huge blessing that comes from being a full tithe payer, is being able to go to the temple. That has been a huge blessing to me the past 14 years!

In 9 years of marriage, we've gone through around 10 job changes between us. I'm the type of person who does not like change, and I grew up with my Dad at the same job for 30 years. My husband is a Software Engineer, which tends to be a volatile industry. However, every time he's needed a new job, he has been able to find one within a few weeks. We know this is a blessing from paying tithing.

I will end with one specific example of how we've been blessed. The month after I gave birth to our 2nd child, our tithing and fast offerings had built up (I love being able to pay online now so this isn't a problem anymore). I had been contemplating what we needed to do to earn more money, because we were barely getting by financially at that time. I decided that week, I would pay our tithing from the past month; I also paid a fast offering greater than usual with this dilemma in mind. A few days later, my husband was laid off from his job. We were devastated at first, wondering why that was the result of our offering; but we felt peace that things would work out. Within a few weeks, he had a job offer that paid double what he had been making. It was amazing how greatly we were blessed, and we have been since that time also. This does not mean there won't be challenges and hard times (we've certainly had our share of those), but does help us have a feeling of peace. We are not wealthy or have all of the finer things of life, but as I state: our needs have been met.

I am grateful for tithing. It may seem like a huge sacrifice, but it is really a huge blessing. Because our Heavenly Father gives us everything, it shouldn't be hard to give back only 10%. Test it out, and see what happens. I know you'll be happy with the results!