For Reals

3 Nephi 24:10

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my 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'm going to be completely candid, and I expect it to be a humbling experience. But I am going to share the whole truth, (so expect this to be a long post) because I need to testify of the immensity of my Father in Heaven's love for me, and the irrefutable fact that our Father in Heaven does bless us if we pay our tithing.

Brandon and I are in debt. And we aren't talking about a couple hundred dollars. We aren't even talking about a couple thousand dollars. And, regrettably, we aren't including home or vehicle debt... as much as I'd prefer to say it isn't so, the same could still be said if we weren't to include medical debt in that number. And by golly have we got medical debt.

Now we don't have creditors knocking down our door but we don't have lenders jumping at the chance to loan us money either. And we most definitely do not have extra cash we can save up to finish our basement or fix my son's teeth. We pay the bills every month. But we're paying the minimum because we can't afford to pay more. And we've got overdraft accounts being maxed out each month in between pay checks.

Do we make enough money?
Yes. The lord has blessed us with wonderful jobs and although we don't make bank, we make enough.

So, candidly, that leaves us one reason and one reason alone to account for the situation we find ourselves in:
gluttony
... or, to say it differently: irresponsibility. (gluttony was just a funner way to say the same thing.)
Or, to say it just as true but harder to swallow:
sinful.

Do you remember when the prophet advised us (which is just a cowardly way of saying commanded us) to get out of debt. Do you know what it means to disobey a prophet of God? Do you know how humbling and terrifying and repentant and, well what's the word that describes feeling like utter crap... okay let’s just say wrap those feelings up in a big ugly ball and that's how it felt to approach my Father in Heaven about our debt. (Remember, the debt, the pain, the fear, the complications... all the crap that resulted from disobeying a commandment of the Lord.)

Let's leave this tangent at this point because I feel as if I have clearly described our financial situation. But let me finish up this portion by saying something I want to make perfectly clear:

Our Father in Heaven is a God of mercy, a God of kindness, and a God of forgiveness.

Never once has He rubbed my face in my mistakes.
Never once has He told me "tough luck".

Never once.

Our Father in Heaven, the perfect unchangeable being, who knows the end from the beginning, will forgive us.

Please know that.

No matter what your sin, your Father in Heaven stands ready to forgive you and to bless you.

It’s crazy but it’s real.

The Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ makes it real. His sacrifice satisfies the justice so that we can receive the mercy.


That’s serious stuff.

Oh how you ought to thank your Heavenly King…

Shall we talk about tithing now?

We pay our tithing.
We pay our tithing because we know our Father in Heaven commands it of us. (funny how we pick and choose those commandments huh?... I’m just saying)

We pay our tithing because we know our Father in Heaven blesses us.
We pay our tithing because, quite frankly, we need those blessings.

Now it shouldn’t be any surprise to you, given our debt situation, that were our tithing to sit in our bank account we would spend it. It would evaporate with all the other money we don’t pay attention to.
Knowing full well this would happen we created a separate tithing account. Our tithing goes in every month and only comes out if we write a check for tithing.

It’s a sweet setup.

Except the fact that I can’t seem to remember to write the check so the money sits in the account for months on end until I remember...

That was our current situation: A large chunk full of change sitting in a bank account. Not going anywhere.

Our other bank accounts weren’t doing so hot. I’d just emptied our savings to pay off a dentist bill. It was the end of a pay period so my account sat near to barren. And Brandon’s account was…

well Brandon’s account was $600 over drawn.

He wasn’t getting paid until at least next week. $600 over drawn and nowhere to pull money from. Nowhere except the tithing account that is.

I wouldn’t do it.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t steal from the Lord what was rightfully His.

I couldn’t.

Not even if I was going to pay it back next week.
It was the Lord’s. It was sacred money that I owed the Lord.

I prayed and I prayed.

It’s been a superbly rough week. And we aren’t just talking financially. I mean it’s been a week from Hades. It’s been two weeks from Hades honestly. Top that off with a financial week from Hades and well you’ve got a triple scoop Hades sundae with a side of guilt sauce smothered in a big dollop of stress.

Sounds appetizing.

I prayed for patience.
I prayed for help.
I prayed for release.
I prayed for forgiveness.
I prayed for wisdom.
And I prayed for strength.

Looking at my bank account scares the stuffing out of me. So I don’t do it. But today the Lord told me to look at my bank account and to pay my tithing. And so I put on my big girl pants and I signed into my bank account.

Yep… still $600 in the hole.

And, although for some reason today was pay day, still no reasonable way to juggle the money around so I could pay it back.

I shook my head and decided to do what I had come there to do.
Pay my tithing.
It’d been a long time. Since December actually.

I started adding it up.

Counting up the months.

8 months.

I multiplied it out.

I was confused

so I multiplied it out again.

And again.

And again.

Finally for good measure I did it the old fashioned way: addition.

I couldn’t believe it.

I still can’t believe.

After my tithing, and a generous fast, my tithing account still held $2,000.
$2,000 from a tax rebate we thought was long gone.

$2,000

Two. Thousand. Dollars.

How?

I had prayed that the Lord would bless us if we payed our tithing. I didn’t know how but I had faith that somehow we could work it out. Maybe Brandon’s pay check would come early or something… I never expected.

I never expected this.

I never expected the Lord to bless us so quickly and so completely.
Things that I’d been worried about, that I haven’t even discussed here, they’d all been taken account for. Abundantly taken account for.

…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.


The Lord blesses us when we pay our tithing. He does. For reals.