Ten percent?!

   I made it a personal goal to blog about once a week and what better time then when I get home from church and feel most spiritually lifted in the whole week. I had a tough time thinking of what I wanted to discuss because the Lord's work and blessings in my life are numerous.  I got a strong feeling that I should talk about something many people struggle with. I am sure I received this feeling because there are people in my life that don't understand it or really struggle with this. Tithing is not an easy commandment to follow however the blessings can be unbelievable.

   A question I often receive is "Isn't it difficult to give money you work hard for to the church?" I must say when I first joined the church I often asked myself that. Ten percent is a lot of money from my income when I hardly made any money. The bills kept coming in, but only the same amount of money. The first thing I had to learn was to not put my heart on things of this world. Even today I still struggle with this because isn't it great to have a brand new car and the newest cell phones. By paying tithing and learning it's importance we learn to control our desires.

   There are months when we write down our bills and the numbers do not add up to what we need. I write the check every week and hand it over to the church. I don't second guess it anymore. I just do it because that is what I am told to do. A few months back I had no idea how I was going to pay tithing and I didn't even know how we would pay certain bills, but I got on my knees and prayed about it. When we received a check the next day for some overpayment of something it was more than enough to pay our tithing and bills. There have been months when on paper it says we won't have enough money, but we always paying our tithing first and it always works out. I do not know how the numbers suddenly work out, but they do.

  In Malachi 3:10 the Lord has said, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine 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." I ponder often to myself how would I feel if I stood before my Heavenly Father and Jesus and said to them " I am sorry I didn't pay my tithing to help the progress of the gospel because I really wanted that new cell phone." I want to stand before my Heavenly Father and be able to say, " I paid my tithing and trusted you would bless me. I paid it on faith that all would work out. I didn't have a lot of the newest things, but I lived within my means and received many blessings." So I ask you to look at your life now and ask yourselves if you were standing in front of our Heavenly Father today and he asked if you followed the law of tithing what would you say? I want to be able to tell my Heavenly Father I gave him what was asked of me.

  I have a strong testimony of the law of tithing. I know that if we pay our ten percent to the church we will be blessed. We will help the gospel reach others and be able to build more temples so our members can simply drive to the temple instead of having to plan for years to attend one. This gospel is my life and if it wasn't for people paying their tithing chances are I might not have received the gospel yet. I want the Lord's work to continue and touch so many lives like it has touched mine. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.