While I respect all religions and faiths of people around the world, I personally am not much of a religious man. I’d say I’m more agnostic, but there have been times in my life where things just get weird and start to make me question if there is an all powering force around us, whether it be a God, a multitude of Gods, or just the Universe.
One of the craziest experiences that I’ve had to make me question things is when I’ve tithed.
Now, I didn’t grow up going to church. I attended a few sessions here and there with family or with my Boy Scout troop, but it was more because I had too. If you’re familiar with more traditional churches then you’ll know at some point they’ll ask for the offerings and send a plate or basket around to collect money. This would be the tithing, but I had no clue that’s what it was actually called because it was always referred to me as an offering.
Point aside, I never actually knew what tithing was until I read the book, The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity by Edwene Gaines.
Tithe itself means one tenth of something. Really it’s one tenth of something that you give to the church, most commonly money.
Now I know what you’re thinking, at least I know what I was thinking. Why would I give 10% of my money to a church when I’m not even religious. Well, hold on for a second and I’m going to get there.
I’m not sure what made me even read that book or how I even heard about it to start with, but I’m into personal development so I said what the heck and ended up buying it.
The first Spiritual Law that she writes about is tithing.
In this section, Edwene goes into detail about how down and out of luck she is as a single mother of one and how she’s not sure she can keep going. She’s pretty much making basically next to nothing and her religion has been put to the wayside
Well one day, just a horrible day for her, she’s so alone and desperate. She decides to crack open the Bible in hopes of find some inspiration that can keep her going. She randomly opens the Bible and comes across a section that talks about tithing.
In that moment she was skeptical. How on Earth would she feel like she’s making more money and doing better in life when she’s giving ten percent of it away. She was already making next to nothing. Well here’s what she did.
With literally nothing left to lose she looked up to God and said,” Okay, Pops, I’m terrified. This scripture seems like the answer to my prayers, so I’m going to tithe, but only for six months. That’s all you’ve got to prove yourself in my life.” So that’s what she did over the next six months. Guess what happened. Everything started changing.
She goes into greater detail of how after tithing for awhile she started to notice a change. She began to receive small refund check in the mail and she’d get anywhere from $5 to $20 here and there from family members and such. Each time she gets money she tithes 10% of that as well. So this goes on and on for her and her life becomes pretty amazing.
I thought that her story of tithing was truly incredible and also after studying some wealthy people both now and in the past you come to find out that they did some tithing of there own along with great charitable work. Because of this and figuring I don’t have much to lose either, I gave tithing a shot.
Just like Edwene I looked up and I said, “Alright big man, I’m going to make a promise to tithe for six months, but you have to bring some change into my life and if not then I won’t tithe anymore.”
This was by far one of the best promises I’ve ever made in my life. When I started tithing, my general mood went up, I was a happier person, and in the least I felt like I was actually making a difference and helping others.
At the same time after tithing for awhile, I noticed that some of my relationships were improving. I was having more fun and I felt more productive. One of the craziest things I noticed was that when looking at my bank accounts I was actually saving more money then when I wasn’t giving away $350 every month. I thought it was ridiculous. Like how in the world was I ending the month with more money in my account?
I didn’t experience other forms of income flowing in my direction and when I did I didn’t tithe on those like Edwene if I’m going to be upfront. There’s probably much more I could’ve done but at the same time I was doing so much more than many people.
I ended up tithing for the whole six months and a bit after, but after awhile that feeling came back to me. The feeling that I need the money for other things and that I need to start saving even more so I cut my tithe in half for a bit. For the last two or three months, maybe even longer now I haven’t tithed at all. I don’t feel bad necessarily, but I know I could be doing better and I know things could be better in my life. That’s why I’m going to make another promise both to you, my readers, and to God/the Universe/or any other name you may call it, that for the next six months I’m once again going to tithe.
Along the six months I’m going to write about what’s going on with my tithing, the church I go to and give to, how I’m feeling, my bank account and the overall changes in my life that I believe to be related to my tithing.
If you have your own stories or thoughts about tithing reach out to me because I’d love to hear about it!
And as always, thank you so much for reading!