She sat down with me in our living room and handed me a set of envelopes and markers. I decorated them {the fun part} and then she handed me a dollar's worth of dimes and taught me to divide them {that would be math...NOT the fun part} into spending...savings...vacation...Christmas...and tithe.
And actually, tithe was first.
My first dime of my first dollar dropped into the bottom of a white envelope with a clumsy attempt at a marker-art Bible on the front of it.
And on Sunday, I dug it out of the envelope, took it to church, and put it in the church-shaped bank in Sunday School class.
I have always loved that about my mom and her training of me. She taught me this verse through her actions that day:
And the thing I love about what she taught me was not just that she taught me what God asks of me, but that she {unknowingly} taught me to LOVE the actual act of giving.
Years later, I learned from another friend that her practice of honoring the Lord with the firstfruits was to actually write that check first every time she paid bills...and not only write one check...but one for each Sunday. So each time she paid bills, she took her tithe and divided it over the number of Sundays in that month. Then each week at church, she was able to worship and honor the Lord by putting a check in the plate.
I heard of a couple that actually prayed each time they paid bills and wrote their tithe check - and thanked the Lord for the ways He provided for them in that month. I loved that, too.
There isn't a specific formula for honoring the Lord...but what a joy to do it. To give cheerfully and make the practice of tithe more an act of worship than a bill to be paid.
Even when times feel lean...He provides. And for that, I'm thankful.
5 comments:
This really makes me think. We tithe faithfully but it's something my husband takes care of. He write the check each month and sends it to church. I think it would be great to change that into some kind of ritual and be very intentional about it. I love the idea of us coming together each month to take a moment to write the check and be grateful for all God provides. It's so much more than just write a check to church isn't it?!
Thank you for this post and the idea to (possibly) have a check EACH week to give. I love that idea and think it will be more of a reminder, each week and not just once a month, of worshiping and honoring the LORD through giving.
p.s. I LOVED the little 'church banks' growing up. Maybe we should pass those and not plates in the sanctuary haha ;)
This is a great idea. Each week that we get some kind of income, (we both have part time jobs, so it's almost every week)I write the tithe check off the gross amount we earned. It's my husbands part to actually put it in the collection plate on Sundays. That way we both have a part in it. Bekah, thanks for your bits. I love reading them.
Hope - I do love being intentional about it! Hope you can find the practice that works for you!
Elisa - You are so welcome! And I'm with you on the tiny churches. HOw fun would that be?
Rebecca - I love your practice! That's beautiful! And thanks for hanging out here. :)
We do give offering at church but we are not super-intentional about it. We do give every week that we are there though. And as a way of teaching our kids how to give, we let them put it in the offering basket.
This post is a good reminder to sit down and actually think about how much of our income we are giving and how we give it.
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