Five years ago, my wife Jennifer and I were not active tithers. When the collection basket came around at church, we’d gladly and proudly toss in a five dollar bill, if we had one, but our level of giving stopped right there.
Hers, Mine, and Ours
At that time in our lives, we didn’t even consider tithing on a regular basis. Even though we both had decent jobs, in our minds we needed the money far more than God did. To us, tithing was too huge of a commitment because many months we simply didn’t have a dime to spare. What cash we had was quickly spent on ourselves.
Unfortunately, the tightness of our belts was very much our own fault due to not properly managing that which God had given us.
When we first got married back in 1995 we were very much young and stupid. Now we’re just nine years older, but still rather stupid at times. But what we were most often stupid about after we got married was how we spent what little cash we had. Within the first year of marriage we bought a couch and love seat, a new electric guitar for me, upgraded our computer, bought a $1000 treadmill, and purchased a slew of other things that I don’t even remember anymore. But what I do remember is how our debt, which was already quite substantial from all of our college loans, suddenly skyrocketed to several thousands of dollars.
A couple years later our first child was born and we struggled to bring our finances under control. Jennifer left the workforce to stay home with our son. Within a month of her becoming a stay-at-home mom, God blessed me with a new job that would help make up the loss of income from Jennifer’s job. We paid off some creditors and juggled a few bills and slowly learned how to stay within our limits…most of the time.
But because of the interest rates on our credit cards and other loans, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t seem to completely eliminate our debt.
My work situation, and my salary, continued to improve over the next few years but our debt did not. Nevertheless, somehow we still managed to get our finances in order enough for us to buy a house. Much of the debt from our first couple years of marriage still clung to our backs, but we were somehow able to improve our living situation.
Whose Cash Is This Anyway?
During this time, there were several instances where it was abundantly clear to us that the only way we were surviving financially was because of the grace and kindness of God. There could be no other explanation for why Jennifer could quit her job to stay at home and then I almost immediately got a new and better-paying job. There was no other way to justify how we were able to buy a house when we still owed so much money. There was no way to explain how we could pay our bills each month without ever once sending in a late payment. There was no way to understand how we always had food on the table. By His immeasurable kindness to us, God had humbled Jennifer and me. God had shown us over and over again that in the most impossible financial situations, when we thought we had no money, that we’d still be taken care of.
God continued to bless us, but usually in unexpected ways. I was now making more money than ever before, but was quite miserable in doing so. I didn’t enjoy traveling and hated being away from home, yet each week I was living thousands of miles away in a hotel. After much prayer, God blessed me with another job, but one that came with a rather severe cut in pay. The plus side was that the new job called for virtually no travel. It was worth taking a chance.
My new job required a commute of over two hours a day. A year later, in the midst of the Internet boom, I was offered yet another job only twenty minutes from my home, but for yet another cut in pay. My wife and I, trusting God, decided it would be a good move for the sanctity of our family. There would be less money, but more time for family. God was giving to us in abundance, but we were still not giving back to God.
Then, shortly after I’d started that new job in the spring of 2000, Jennifer and I had a breakthrough. We decided we’d been hiding from God’s generosity for too long without ever giving anything back. And one day, in the midst of a grace from God, we somehow managed to write a check in a huge amount that was equal to 10% of what I’d earn for that month. It was an amount equal to several nights out at a name brand steakhouse. It was an amount equal to paying a babysitter, buying popcorn, and seeing a movie six or seven times over. It was an amount equal to a fancy weekend in a hotel downtown.
For us, it was an unfathomable amount, but we did it.
And then the next month, we did it again. And again. And again.
Priority Spending
In the months that followed, our belts had to be tightened over and over. We now felt, though, that if we didn’t give back to God just a portion of what He’d given us, then we’d be stealing from our Lord. We were willing to sacrifice to save ourselves from that circumstance. This was a miraculous change in mindset for us.
Tithing, giving ten percent of our gross income, became a priority for us. Before we paid any bills or treated ourselves in any way, we offered back to God a portion of what He’d already blessed us with. As we grew to love this new way of life, we kept coming across the phrase, “You can never out-do God’s generosity.” The more we gave, the more we were taken care of.
Two years ago we managed to pay off all of the credit card debt from our first years of marriage, as well as all of our student loans. While we’re still not completely debt-free, and every month still brings its share of financial challenges, there is no doubt that God’s hand is at work in taking care of our family. It is our pleasure to regularly make a financial sacrifice to give back to God in thanks.
We’ve been tithing for nearly five years now, and it has been in these five years that my wife and I have experienced the most spiritual growth. It is during these five years of tithing that we’ve seen our income drop, as well as our level of debt, but our faith and our joy and the blessings of God have increased a thousand fold by giving ourselves more completely back to God by releasing to Him that which is rightfully His in the first place.
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