Jordan Bench

Earlier this week as I woke up and got through my daily routine of brushing my teeth, getting my morning drink, taking my supplements, and then sitting down to my desk, I felt impressed to go check the status of my tithing. Part of the reason I felt impressed to do this is that every Sunday I interview members of the ward. As part of the temple recommend interview questions I ask if people are full-tithe payers. It sort of got me thinking I could be better about being able to honestly answer that question for myself because life gets busy and it's hard to stay on top of making sure I am up to date and feel good about answering that question myself.

So as I opened up my LDS Tools app and I checked the status or donation history, I realized I hadn't made a single payment all year. Now I've always had a really strong testimony of tithing. I always felt from a really young age that when I pay my tithing the Lord blesses me in ways materially that I can't explain. I've always known for certain that by giving to the Lord first he makes sure that my means are taken care of.

Now I've gotten kind of lax about this, mostly just life gets busy and I forget to go in and pay but that's just an excuse.

So it really hit me that I hadn't been current with paying a full tithe. Now everybody does that differently. Some people pay regularly, some pay at the end of the year, at the start of the year. So it's okay. It just to pay at the end of the year can feel heavier and like a harder thing to do, especially if you don't have the means to pay a lump sum when you weren't expecting it.

We recently decided to finish our basement. And in doing so we sort of forecast that the cost to finish will eat up most of our savings. Finishing the basement is what we feel right about doing but I've had worries that after finishing it we'll feel like we have less emergency fund, less padding should anything go wrong.

So then to look at, "Hey I feel like the amount that I owe to my heavenly father for all that he's given me, 10%, being such a small amount of everything we earn and everything that I'm given in principle, sounds easy, sounds straightforward, sounds like the logical thing to do if you really do believe in the law of the tithe and giving some portion back, which I do."

And on the other hand $15,000 is a lot of money, especially with two kids. The constant cost of life; you can easily justify not doing that but I felt pretty strongly that that was the right thing to do despite the pressures that it could hypothetically bring. I feel good about my decision to be current and to be able to answer that question honestly. That I am a full-tithe payer. I know it might, on paper, make things feel tighter or like we don't have that extra 10%, but I firmly believe that we will be blessed in ways that I couldn't tell you right now. Faithfully I confidently donated that 10% that I had missed most of the year and it makes me feel really, really good with the Lord.

It feels good to give and to know that those funds will be used to bless the lives of others. It's good to give and it feels good to live the commandments, not knowing what the future will bring. I'm grateful for the law of tithing and what it's taught me throughout my life.