10 Best Decisions of our Married Life...#3 Monthly Tithe Non-negotiable

Recently I began to share something I composed some years ago to be part of a document for a niece as she got married in June 2004.  That document was created as a compilation of entries under the title:  

THE TEN BEST... or 

The Wisdom of the most important women in your life.  

Each woman who submitted an entry chose her own subject matter.  I promised to post my entry on this blog.  This is the third of our top decisions in the list of:

The Top Ten Decisions Guiding Our Married Life

By Uncle John and Aunt Linda Worden

3.Monthly tithing a minimum of 10% to Christian work is a non-negotiable commitment.

           

Leviticus 27: 30 “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord: it is holy to the Lord.”  We have honored this commitment regardless of our income.  We have never discussed reconsidering this even during a time of unemployment.  We have always been able to pay our bills.  Scripture has much to say about giving cheerfully, freely, generously as Jesus modeled.  As we look back on our life, we know that we have experienced blessing from the Lord.  Perhaps our honoring him with our tithes has resulted in tangible and intangible blessings.  We have absolutely no regrets for having followed this decision throughout our lives.  And in recent years, we have been privileged to give more than 10% each year to ministry causes.

Update in August 2012:

This continues to be our practice.  

The ability to be generous monetarily is accomplished as a result of at least two main things:

1. Having a source of income
2. Making life-style choices which allow income to be designated for the Lord

Even if a person has an income source of any amount, the decisions about how that income is spent will decide whether or not there will be abundance to share for godly causes.  There is often great temptation to spend income on ourselves to get bigger, better, newer,...

There is very interesting and convicting statistical information about money given to ministries in the already evangelized parts of the world compared to the amount given for non-evangelized parts of the world.  Checking this link will allow you to become informed about World Mission Statistics.

As a couple, we seek to live in such a way that we can give generously and respond to needs of which God  makes us aware.  Our early married years through the completion of college for our children, were years when usually income just covered the needs of our family.  We still gave at least 10% to the Lord's work in those years.  At a different stage in our lives now, we are grateful that we have opportunities to be more generous with income God provides for us.