Happy Sunday!!
I attended a beautiful church service today that was centered on the sacredness of families, the importance of strengthening the families, and the importance of the law of tithing (yes, they all go together!). I was so inspired I wanted to write it down and share it with the world! (so share it! ;))
"The law of tithing is one of the most important ever revealed to man. . .Through obeying this law the blessings of prosperity and success will be given to the Saints."
"In a meeting held on May 18, 1899, President Snow declared: 'It is the word of the Lord to you, my brethren and sisters, that you should conform to that which is required of you as a people who have these glorious prospects of exaltation and glory before you. What is it? Why, it is something that has been drummed into your ears from time to time until you perhaps have got tired of hearing it...the word of the Lord to you is not anything new; it is simply this: The time has now come for every Latter-Day Saint, who calculates to be prepared for the future and to hold his feet strong upon a proper foundation, to do the will of the Lord and to pay His tithing in full. That is the word of the Lord...'"
Our Sunday School teacher gave us a scenario at the beginning of the lesson similar to this:
Imagine my husband and I owned an incredible and prosperous business that supported a million people (likened to the Rio Grande Valley where we live) and our whole lives we have thrived with this business and each of you relied on the business because we have hired all of you to help with certain areas of the business. One day, we are asked to serve a mission for the Lord, OF COURSE we accept the call, however we must figure out what to do with our business, we don't want to up and leave it because it is supporting so many people! So what we do is call a meeting and all of you attend. We tell everyone we are going on a mission and we would like you all to have a stake in it an run the business together. Our only condition is that you send us 10% of what you all earn to support us on our mission. We won't check up on you or enforce that condition, but we count on you to support us! You get everything else to do with as you will.
Sounds like an incredible deal right? All you have to do is send 10% to support a worthy cause and you get the other 90% for whatever you want! This is similar to what our Heavenly Father has asked of us with tithing. Heavenly Father has provided us with this entire earth (prosperous business), and we would not be supported with out it! All He asks is we give 10% of what we gain to support God's work on earth.
"Tithing is not a difficult law...If a man receives ten dollars, his tithing is one dollar; if he receives one hundred, his tithing is ten...It is very easy to comprehend."
"I say to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, if you will pay tithing from now on, the Lord will forgive you for all the past [nonpayment of tithing] and the blessings of the Almighty will be poured out upon this people."
"If we will keep that law [law of tithing]...the land will be sanctified, and we shall be counted worthy to receive the blessings of the Lord and to be sustained and supported in our financial affairs and in everything we do, temporal as well as spiritual."
Thought: One of the definitions of the word sanctified is "to free from sin : purify". So if we keep the law of tithing, our homes (or our land) will be purified. How awesome would it be to have our homes free from Satans' influence?
3 Nephi 24:10-11 "Bring ye all the tithes unto the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and PROVE ME now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will REBUKE THE DEVOURER for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the fields, saith the Lord of Hosts."
Thought: This is the only instance I know of where Heavenly Father actually gives us permission to PROVE HIM. He has told us to prove His word that He will give us certain blessings if we follow the law of tithing, WHY THE HECK NOT???
What if you had a bag of MnM's (yum) and your dad told you "Hey, if you give me one MnM I'll give you 10 bags of whatever candy you want!" and of course your first response is "Yeah right, you aren't going to give me all THAT for just one MnM!" so your dad says "Prove it!!" Are you going to hang onto that one MnM thinking "I just won't have enough if I give him one of my MnM's"?? No way! Same thing with tithing!!!
The blessings our Heavenly Father will give you for obeying the law of tithing are so much more than 10% of what we earn! One of these blessing is that He will "rebuke the devourer", who is the devourer? Satan of course, the devourer of all that is good! (I said that in my dramatic movie announcer voice). Heavenly Father will rebuke him for our sakes IF we pay our tithing! What does rebuke mean? One of the definitions is "to turn back or keep down". So Heavenly Father will turn back Satan and keep him down IF we pay our tithing!
One of the driving forces in my life (as I am sure is the same for other parents) is my children, learning different principles then teaching them so they can be wise and happy.
"Teach [children] that when they get any money they should pay one-tenth of it to the Lord, however little it may be. Educate them to pay their tithing in full."
Thought: As a homeschooling mom I try to put gospel teaching first in the day and as a priority. Just as I put gospel principles first in my life, and let the other things fit where they may, I believe if I teach gospel principles first, I will be guided to the subjects, curriculum's, and resources that will help me give my children the best education.
I'm certainly not perfect in this law, but I am working on it! I am always willing to pay, usually I just forget :/ Either way, I need to work on it! When we are consistent in paying our tithing Ernest and I almost daily name off the extra blessings we receive. Spiritual blessings are always there, but of any law I have noticed the most temporal blessings come from paying tithing. I know that the more consistent we are with our tithing the more blessings we will receive and the more we will prosper.
I would love to hear your own testimonies on tithing and how paying it consistently has affected you!
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Thank you for your thoughts and for sharing this insight with us! The nice thing about tithing is that it works kind of like taxes, we pay a percentage, the collective goes to running our nation, we get a return at the end of the year. BUT tithing is not forced on us. It is a choice we make to follow Christ. By following (which is NOT easy for the majority) we reap many more benefits, eternal blessings far more grand than the measly temporal sacrifice we hand over. And we KNOW its going to a worthy cause, not like handing over tax money that will be used and abused in causes we don't always believe in. The government of God is far more promising and rewarding than the government we are required to pay taxes to :)
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