A Few Thoughts on Tithing

For a while now I’ve been wanting to write a post about my experiences paying tithing, but I keep putting it off. Tithing is an offering of one-tenth of your income to the service of God. You can read more about tithing - specifically in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - here.  

A few weeks ago it was my turn to teach Relief Society, and I was assigned the talk, “Think Celestial,” by President Russell M. Nelson. In the talk, the prophet briefly told of an experience he had with tithing. His wife brought to his attention that he hadn’t been paying tithing on a small monthly stipend he had been receiving as an intern. He immediately began paying the $1.50 a month tithing for that income. He said that becoming a full tithe payer changed him, and he attributes many professional opportunities to paying tithing. Reading the talk reminded me of my own testimony of tithing.

When I was young, I struggled to pay tithing. I really wanted to pay it, but I had a hard time handing over the money, and I often spent it first. As an older teenager preparing to go to the temple (hoping to marry Scotty when he got home from his mission), I set a goal to pay a full tithe - meaning 10% of my income. I met that goal and have stuck to it ever since. 

It can be hard to pay tithing. In Sunday school a few months ago, a man made a comment along the lines of, “If it feels like a sacrifice, you’re doing it in the wrong spirit.” I disagree. I don’t think the point of tithing is for it to not feel like a sacrifice. I think the point is to act on faith even when it feels like a sacrifice. 

The talk by President Nelson includes a footnote that states that the promise of paying tithing is that the windows of heaven will be open to the tithe payer, but the nature of the blessings are not all the same. President Nelson feels like he was blessed immensely in his career because of his choice to pay tithing. Scotty and I have experienced similar blessings that we attribute to paying tithing. Not all blessings of tithing present in monetary ways, but we have experienced a fair amount of financial security through paying our tithing. 

We have always had what we’ve needed even during times of employment struggles and financial difficulty.

Our money has, at times, stretched far beyond what it should have. On paper, our income often hasn’t been enough, but somehow it provides. 

We’ve had so many occurrences when something that we needed was made available to us at a low cost or free right when we needed it - things as simple as a pair of church shoes and bigger things like a box spring and mattress. 

We’ve been very blessed in our employment - every job change we’ve experienced has a tale of personal revelation behind it.

I’ve often thought that we have been blessed in financial ways for paying our tithing, but I’m just now realizing that the real blessing has been like the prophet said - the windows of heaven have been opened to us. We have been directed by the Spirit consistently in how to spend our money, where to go to find what we need, and when to make employment moves. Following that direction has helped us be able to live on what we have and make it stretch. 

Sometimes I think about everything we could do with that money if we kept it instead. Mathematically and logically, it would be so helpful. But I have the feeling it just wouldn’t be the same. I truly believe that we have been blessed for living the law of tithing. Consider me brainwashed or manipulated or whatever you will, but simply stated, it just works for us.