Our Journey to Tithing

I've been debating on whether or not to share this story...but after today's message at church I have decided to go ahead!

It was four years ago almost to the date that I finally convinced Jeremy to attend a financial class at our church. We still lived in Ponder and were attending Crosstimbers in Argyle. We signed up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and it changed our lives forever. We signed up for FPU because we wanted to learn how to invest, save for college, and manage our finances in general. I was almost finished with college and about to have a career and we were ready to get in fit financial shape! I had been convicted of tithing for quite some time before we enrolled in FPU and that was definitely a driving force for me to get our finances in order... See, we weren't able to tithe because we wouldn't have been able to pay our bills because we were in debt. We didn't have much credit card debt but we did have car payments, student loan payments, and had more month at the end of the money EVERY month. I was sick of it...I was sick of not tithing...We needed help to know what to do. So we went to FPU class faithfully for 12 weeks and began the process that has lasted us just over 4 years. I won't go into specific detail about how we got out of debt but I want to share the story of how we began giving our "first fruits".

Since we couldn't financially give a full tithe due to our debt we decided to start with what we could give. I looked the other day and I believe the amount we started with was $30 a month. Jeremy and I vowed to give consistently until we had eliminated our debt and was tithing a full 10%. From the day we wrote that first check my hearts desire was to give more, to get to the full 10%. After a few months of consistent giving (from the heart not out of obligation) we re-evaluated our finances and decided we were able to give more. The preachers always say "give and you shall receive" and we know that statement to be true! The more we gave it seemed the more debt we were able to pay off. As of this January I'm SO blessed to say that we have reached our full tithe! We hope to be completely debt free (other than our mortgage) by March! We have been blessed beyond measure and we can take NO credit for any of it. It was all from God and when we realized that and started giving and making an effort to obey Him, He blessed us.

I would like to encourage those of you who think of tithing and feel like you'll never be able to do it. Have faith...you will get there! My advice is to start giving something today. Be consistent with your giving and work toward a debt free life making sacrifices that will seem so hard at times. It will pay off and before you know it, you'll be tithing and praising God for all the blessings!