January 14th, 2012 
Jessica 
“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first-fruits of all your produce.” Proverbs 3:9
When I was a child, my parents decided to give us a weekly allowance. Five dollars seemed like a lot back then! But my parents had some stipulations. A dollar must be placed in a “Savings” envelope, a dollar must be placed in a “Gift” envelope, and fifty cents must be placed in a “Tithe” envelope. Only two dollars and fifty cents were to be used for “Spending.” This early budgeting, and the act of putting our money in the offering plate each week, taught me that my “Tithe” should always be set aside from my income.
As an adult, I still tithe with every paycheck. We have been through half salary, job loss, and short-term positions. We have moved across the world and across the country, and increased the size of our family as we decreased the size of our paycheck. Yet we have always tithed first before spending our paycheck.
We don’t consider tithing a generosity, but our duty to care for the church and those ministries we love. God asks that we honor him in our wealth and in our poverty, with the first-fruits of our produce. We firmly believe that God blesses those who give their best to him. In fact, we would be afraid not to give, lest we risk losing his blessing over our work. Money is just that…it’s only money. We can’t take it with us to the grave. Even when we are trying to pinch every penny, we want to keep giving back to the One who gave his all for us.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10
Do you tithe or have you considered tithing?
Posted in 
It is so important to give to the Lord first, even when you are broke! This is very important to my husband and I as well. So glad you posted this. Tithing is just acknowledging the reality that all we own is God’s anyway. 🙂
I recall my parents doing something very similar to this.Great post. Thanks for sharing.
In our church we pay a 10% tithe of our increase. We are promised in the scriptures if with pay a tithe we are blessed. Our tithe goes to things such as building our temples, maintaining our church buildings, etc. We don’t pay our clergy even the Bishop. We as members of the church are called into different roles; teachers, counselors, youth teachers, choristers, etc and all do it for free. We also are encouraged to fast once a month and use the money that would have been for two meals and donate it to help feed the poor. It is called a fast offering. And where able donate more than the two meals worth. We have other categories that we can donate to as well, such as mission funds, a perpetual education fund, or other special needs. Christmas we do a special giving tree fund. We always see the blessings that come from paying a tithe and have never been in want. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Mormon)
[…] 34. Tithe (Tithing Through the Hard Times) […]
I have been tithing all my life, and God has always been faithful to bless. Since I was making minimum wage several years ago, it was not easy. However, someone said, “You can never outgive God,” and it is so true!
You’re right! God is faithful!