The first thing that I think I should talk about when it comes to managing our finances is the principle of tithing. Tithing is one of those things that does not make sense by worldly standards, however when you follow scriptural principles relating to finances, you have to be ready to do things that do not always make sense!
I should back up here, first of all I am a firm believer that in order to achieve one's definition of success, one should examine the actions of someone who has walked the walk and follow in their footsteps. No sense in reinventing the wheel. One of the things that make me laugh are those guys who call around dinner time telling me how I can make lots of money using their system of investing etc etc etc. My first question, when I get a word in edgewise, is how much money do they have in their account.... At this point they usually umm and ahh a few times before they admit that they are relatively new to the company so they only have a few bucks left from their last paycheque. Then I politely tell them that as soon as they have made a million bucks using their "system", then they can call me back.
So while admittedly I am not currently a multimillionaire, I should remark that tithing enabled us to pay off all of our credit cards, which were maxed out, and live credit card free within a period of six months! All this time living on a single income! By the way, I will talk about how much I dislike credit cards in a later post.
So what does tithing look like? Basically tithing is giving ten percent of your gross income back to God. The easiest way to do is simply to put it in the collection plate at church. Incidentally, if you are Roman Catholic I highly suggest that you use the collection envelopes, they really do make a difference.
Scripturally, tithing is mentioned several places in both the Old and New Testaments, beginning in Genesis where Jacob promises to give God ten percent of all that he gains. (Gen 28: 20-22) Personally, the scripture passage I find most profound relating to tithing is found in the Book of Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
Incidentally, this is the ONLY place in the bible where God tells us to test Him. In fact, He doesn't just tell us to test Him, God actually CHALLENGES us to test Him.
Anyway, for those of you who tuned in hoping to find tips on saving and stretching every dollar, I will be writing all about those on a regular basis. But seeing as this is a blog about how we raise seven kids on a single income I felt that I needed to first give credit where credit is due.
TiPSI Dad
I love that man. So to be clear... By tithing to your church you gained enough money to pay your debts through other sources suddenly appearing?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny but I get it. I think I've mentioned to you about my belief in Karma. that when you give without expectation of return. (give from the heart) You get it back seven fold.
Elrin
Hi Elrin,
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what happened! We had tried all sorts of different strategies to get out of debt, but it we were always crawling at a snail's pace.....when we looked at the concept of tithing, it seemed counter intuitive! However I can confidently say that it was because of tithing that we started being blessed with the funds to pay off our debts. Simply because it was the ONLY financial change that we made. When we did, funds started pouring in from unexpected sources!
I should mention something I have noted from experience. For tithing to work, you need to tithe from the "first fruits" which means off the top. I know that sounds a bit legalistic, but I learned that from experience. One time during the process I bought gas before I took out the tithe, and lo and behold, that pay period I came up short! Now I take our tithe out first thing in the morning and it has not happened since!
Thanks for reading!
Geof (TiPSI Dad)
Very Cool. I had my own discovery of truth to this a year ago. I've had a few since. But making it a habit in my financial state is hard to make regular. I know it it can be done but one thing I believe to be true in this process also is that it must come without strings attached. If you go into it with the expectation of return you could be disappointed. Giving without any thought of return is when I believe it works best. How can we avoid falling into the habit of "tithing" with the expectation of return when we can become do dependent on the windfalls apparently associated?
ReplyDeleteI dunno. When I had the money and gave freely, it seemed to go out and in retrospect never returned in any genuine state. I had friends as long as the money was there. But when It left so did they. Did I unconsciously spend the money on these friends to make them my friends? Should I have refused the favours they asked of me? In hindsight, yeah. I'd probably have had money longer. Maybe even long enough to get wiser before it was all gone. Ahhhh this is a discussion for my blog too. Hehehe.
See you on the Mats.
Elrin