Sunday Thoughts

Last Wednesday at school the 9th graders got to participate in an activity called "Reality Town". They were each given a paper that told them what their career was, how much money they made per month (before and after taxes) and what their personal life was like (i.e., single, divorced, married, with or without kids). They were all given a checkbook with the starting balance of their monthly salary after taxes, then set loose in the gym where there were many booths set up representing the bank, the grocery store, the car dealer, daycare, beauty salon, property taxes, entertainment, chance, insurance, and so on.


I was assigned to work the donations booth with a girl who works for United Way. Together we told all the kids that visited our booth (which was supposed to be everyone) that they did not have to make a donation, but that if they would like to they could decide what amount they'd like to donate and where they'd like the money to go (Cancer Research, Church, Homeless Shelter, Humane Society, Education, etc.).

It was a fun way to spend my day (I had no idea that's what I'd be doing when I showed up at school that day) and was so interesting to watch the kids as they "spent" their pretend money.


I was particularly moved and impressed by the kids who came to our donation booth to pay their tithing. Even though the money was just pretend, it was still hard to write a check for $516 dollars or whatever amount was 10% of their earnings. For some kids there was no question at all that that's what they would do, but for many others there was a long pause and then a small donation of $10-20.

It was particularly interesting for me to see what the kids from my ward would do. A couple of the boys came to the donation booth after they'd been to many other booths and didn't have very much money left, so they wrote their small checks with red-faces and nervous laughter. One girl from our ward completely shocked me when she came and made a small donation instead of paying her tithing. Based on what I know of her and her family I was floored by her choice not to pay it first. Interestingly, she came back like an hour later and wrote another check, this time for $491 to cover tithing. I don't know if the guilt got to her or if she was waiting to see how much money she'd have left, but I was impressed that she came back.

It made me wonder what I would have done as a 9th grader with a pretend bank balance of $3, 150. In my youth, I always struggled with paying my tithing because it felt like so much money to me when I was already making so little (all those hours working at TCBY!). I didn't understand the true spirit of tithing or the concept of true obedience. My immature view was based solely around the money I was giving up, and totally disregarded the fact that everything I had came from the Lord.


This morning as we were getting ready to go to Tithing Settlement, we were explaining this concept (again) to a teary-eyed Whitney. She was gathering $1.70 to pay from the $17 of birthday cash she'd recently been blessed with. That $1.70 felt like a tremendous amount to pay, especially because she had already spent most of her money (we should have had her set it aside first) and would only have .50 cents left! It was no comfort to her to think of the big tithing check Randy had written today, because 10% of a person's increase is exactly that and feels just a easy or painful (depending on how you look at it) to the poor man as to the rich man. (Though I'd really like to give the rich man tithing a try some time!)

I have a strong testimony of tithing and know that we have been blessed because our obedience in paying a full tithe. Our blessings haven't usually been financial, but we are convinced that we have been blessed with good health and safety many times as a result of paying our tithing. We have been without insurance for a lot of years off and on and at one point for 2 years while the kids were very small, but we never had so much as an ear infection during that time!

**Thoughts??**

From Mormon.org--The principle of tithing, or voluntarily giving one tenth of one’s income to God’s work, has been known since Old Testament times. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20).

The law of tithing is how the Lord funds His Church. Today all faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contribute one tenth of their income as tithing. Tithing funds are used for:

• Constructing temples, chapels, and other buildings.
• Providing operating funds for the Church.
• Funding the missionary program (This does not include individual missionary expenses.)
• Preparing materials used in Church classes and organizations.
• Temple work, family history, and many other important Church functions.
• Education.

When the Lord reminded His people of this law through the prophet Malachi in the Old Testament, He promised to bless those who were willing to pay an honest tithe (Malachi 3:10)

Comment Window Tidbit: We put up our Christmas decorations this morning and are listening to Christmas music. This is the earliest we have ever done this, but for some reason my seasonal time clock feels right on schedule...weird.