You have to say that with pursed lips. (And imagine Dana Carvey in a dress.)
Melissa asked on Friday about tithing. And since it's Sunday...
In the LDS religion:
It’s a straight 10 percent. But other than that it’s really up to you. Pay on your gross? Or net? You choose. The interpretation is from the statement 'pay 10% of your increase'. Is that $20 birthday gift from your father-in-law increase? Up to you to decide.
If you have no increase, you have nothing to tithe, eh? I knew a woman, who was a sahm (no income), and her husband who worked was not LDS. She really had no way to pay tithing, and that was just fine. It’s a very personal thing to work out with you and your higher power. But Melissa's statement about a deferment has me cracking up! Because during the clerkship time the LAW LOANS were in deferment, which meant they were earning interest…but we weren’t paying anything on them!!! (Think about that for a minute…yikes.)
You will see very poor people who do in fact pay tithing, even though it’s very little (think about the widow’s mite story from the bible), and strangely enough they will tell you they are better off because of it. Maybe a blessing from God, and/or being forced to budget that extra 10% helps make other things on the budget fall into place?
Either way, I can tell you that during those 2 years of clerkship, we were honestly better off, even though
1) I chose to stop working, and
2) We still paid tithing on his salary?
I choose to believe we were blessed for our effort. For a couple reasons: We realized in the nick of time that we would have had to pay thousands of dollars extra to the IRS (we NEVER could have pulled that off!), because 4 more months of my additional salary would have pushed us to the next tax bracket. (While working, my net after taxes and childcare was as little as $10/day! And if someone in the lab was having a birthday and I was supposed to donate to a ‘kitty’, then I made nothing that day, if I didn’t have lunch from home that same day? Yup. I PAID to work that day!)
Also out of the blue, my previous employer got wind of the fact that we only had one car, and while home with my kid I would be ‘stranded’ in the suburbs of
(Or could it be....SATAN?) I had to get that in there somewhere.
6 comments:
My brother in law once asked if we could just pay 5% since I wasn't working anymore. Now there's a concept! Did you see that you were nominated for most talkative on AN Island Life?
While tithing is a lot of money to part with I have found it to be worth every penny. I think its important that is a personal choice to do it. It's not forced at all... just between you and the higher power.
Paying tithing brings blessing, let me tell you!
How cool - I inspired an entry!!! Okay, so maybe "deferment" wasn't the right word "S", but you knew what I meant! I loved reading about tithing, and your tithing journey through the years. Do you think for us heathens giving to charities counts? ha ha - just kidding - I'm not a heathen :) But I think it's wonderful that it is between you & your God, and that you've chosen to give so generously. The LDS church does do amazing things with it's resources, I have to say - I saw a great report on what the LDS wards in New Orleans did after the hurricane - thank goodness for those tithers!
I think you should do more Sunday-inspired church chat entries - you know I've always been interested in everyone's church business :)
xo, M.
Well there's a lovely idea. I guess I could make 'Church Chat' a weekly thing? Would I have to delete the parts where we have totally rotten Sundays (on occasion)? Or the times when I'm a little jealous of my neighbor's extra time for yard work...? Because my faith is certainly a work in progress. But thinking about Dana Carvey in a dress is funny anyway! My husband may have to guest host (he did Dana Carvey, as the Church Lady for skits in High School ALL the time!) How's that for a visual?
I have a good one... I visited a church that my friend attends, I'm Baptist, she is Pentecostal BIG difference. The preacher's sermon that morning was on tithing verses "special" tithing. The regular tithing was going good but the "special" tithing was down and his whole message was, you have to give more, give more than than 10% and you will get more miracles and blessings. I later found out that the "special" tithing was for his extra paycheck.
I believe that you should tithe your 10% and more when you can and less when you can't. I believe that God does not intend for us to not be able to make ends meet.
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