In the Bible, there's a story of a widow who pays her last mites ($) to the church for tithing. The woman, who was very poor, deposited a small coin called a mite into the temple treasury, acting on faith that the Lord would take care of her and her son (see Mark 12:41-44).
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormons), we have been commanded to give 10% of our income to the Lord through the church for tithing.
Everything we have comes from the Lord, so giving Him back 10% of our income seems totally reasonable.
Sometimes though, when you're poor, like us, this can be really challenging.
But, in all of my years of paying tithing, I have never regretted it.
Let me share this story that happened this weekend:
I went to the bank on Friday to deposit my earnings from teaching piano and voice lessons all week.
I hadn't withdrawn tithing (we pay cash because I hate writing checks) since the end of October.
We were a little behind.
And, truth be told, I did not know how we could "catch up" on tithing and pay our bills.
But, acting on faith, I withdrew our tithing for the month of November and first week of December.
I did not know how we would be paying the rest of our bills in December.
I felt an awful lot like the widow in the Bible.
I turned it over to the Lord and said, "I'm doing what you've asked me to do. I am trusting that you will provide a way for us to pay our bills."
I fretted all weekend. And multiple times I had to go back to the Lord in prayer saying, "I'm doing what you asked me to do. Provide a way, please!!"
Today, my sweet MIL sent an email to my husband saying that Grandma R, who already took us to Aptos for a weeks stay in a beach house, was going to be giving us a check for Christmas.
The check was for the exact amount we needed to pay the rest of our bills in December.
The Lord knows us.
He knows our needs.
If we keep His commandments, we will be blessed.
Maybe not as obviously as in this story.
But we will always be blessed.
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