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Jun 2006 Issue
by Jeff Muir
Growing up in a non-LDS home, the idea of tithing was foreign to me. My grandfather, a very un-religious and self-made man, always told me that I should save 10% of my income for a rainy day. As I grew older I read stories about professional athletes – usually LDS – who donated 10% of their incomes to “church.” But I always assumed that only the fabulously wealthy actually did this. That’s as close as I ever came to learning about tithing.
As a college student I sought life’s answers by studying philosophy. After four years and a degree, I was only more confused. Over the next 10 years I meandered variously through periods of materialism, Buddhism, New Ageism, Protestantism, Judaism, Hinduism, and even atheism. Each of these beliefs contained elements that seemed to hold bits of truth. But none of them resulted in my becoming happier. None held me to a higher standard than I would hold myself. Subsequently, none of them “stuck.”
When I was 36 years old an unlikely confluence of events led me to investigate and then join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the questions the missionaries asked me before my baptism was, “Do you understand the law of tithing and do you promise to honor it?” I faithfully answered “yes” to both questions, but the truth is, I didn’t really know what I was getting into – or how it would change my life.
Over the next few months, I did what I thought was “my best” to pay an honest tithe (as I understood it) but that somehow never worked out to be 10% of my pre-tax income.
As many of us have learned, the Lord really is patient with those who have a sincere heart. Months after my conversion, He blessed me with a faithful Latter-day Saint wife who was raised in the church. One of the first things she said to me after our wedding was, “You know, we’re going to have to pay an honest tithe.”
Since then, we’ve paid a truthful 10% of our pre-tax earnings each month. When extra money comes our way, we pay a tithe on that as well. And the blessings that have accompanied this change in my behavior are almost unbelievable. Both the State of New York and the Internal Revenue Service realized I’d overpaid and sent me checks – out of the blue. My company had a record year and paid top bonuses. A long-dormant business opportunity came to life, resulting in a tidy and unexpected profit. The list goes on and on.
You’d think that I would have learned my lesson by now but, to be honest, my first instinct each month is to cut corners on my tithing. After all who would know? Would the Lord really be angry if I put it toward college savings, or retirement, or some other worthy cause? Even though I know in my heart that those are the whisperings of the Adversary, I nonetheless entertain thoughts exactly like those each and every payday.
We’ve decided that tithing comes down to a matter of trust and obedience. As many people have pointed out, the Lord doesn’t need our money — but we need to trust the Lord. The notion that I know better than my Heavenly Father is a truly dangerous idea, though that’s just what paying less than a full tithe amounts to. Sure, every month there are other things I could think of that “deserve” the money more than God, or his Church. And we certainly all know people who, month after month, year after year, manage to justify paying less than their share. These are usually the very people who spend a lot of time wondering why they keep encountering the same trials and challenges over and over again throughout life.
Our instinct tells us we don’t need to pay an honest tithe. The Lord, through his prophets, tells us otherwise.
The question is, who are we going to believe?
Jeff Muir is a member of the Amherst Ward, Buffalo New York Stake.
