It's Just Makes Sense

In 3 Nephi 24 Christ is visiting the people of the America’s again. He commands them to write the words of Malachi that he would tell them. In this section he talks of tithing.  I have shared a bit of my testimony and personal knowledge of the power of prayer.  This week I am going to share a bit of the tithing testimony I have.  In these scriptures as well as in the book of Malachi in the Bible it talks of a man robbing God if he does not pay tithes.

As a kid I knew my parents struggled with tithing but always thought they should pay it. I remember when my mom was committed to getting caught up and she paid the tithing instead of 2 months of the house payment. (We never ended up homeless, but things were sure tight.)  My parents always knew they should pay tithing. 

One day I heard this story:

There was a young man about 18-19 years old. He was living with his parents in Southern California when the Vietnam War and draft started.  He made a mistake that caused him to be in jail when it came his time for the draft.  So he did not go in that first round.  His charges were dropped and he went home.  He was invited by a friend to come with her to have missionary discussion. When it was over the missionaries left him with a pamphlet. The information contained within was on tithing.

He read the information and it “just made sense.”  The Lord has given us all we have. He asks for 10% back to help build up his kingdom here on Earth. He blesses us for obeying the Law of Tithing. I am sure there was a little more to it than that, but that was the gist of it.  Because this made so much sense to him and was just so right he found an address on the pamphlet. It was an address in Alaska.  He started mailing 10% of his income to the address on the pamphlet.  It was quite a few months later when he got another knock on his door.  This time is was a different set of missionaries.  In conversation they found he was the man they were looking for.  They let him know he was sending his money to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they were representatives from that church. 

He took the missionary discussions and joined the church.  Then towards the end of the war he was drafted again. He was a few years older and much much wiser.  In Vietnam he would hide in his sleeping bag every night with a little light and read the Book of Mormon.  Other soldiers knew he was different. Something about him was just a bit more calming in this time of horror, death and war.  The men in his unit would come to him. They asked him why they never saw him drinking and other things. He had the chance to share about the Savor and the Atonement, the reasons he had this light around him in such a time of darkness. 

He was never able to serve a mission but, he looks back on his time in Vietnam as a quasi-mission as he was able to share the gospel and have his relationship with the Lord and Savior grow exponentially.  (The Alaska address was a bit of a mystery. It seemed the pamphlet he was handed had the mission address from an Alaska mission stamped on the back of it.) 

This story was so powerful to me. I struggled in my life. When I came back to the church one thing I knew I needed to do was pay my tithing. I know without a doubt this man’s life was spared in the War because he was meant to lead people to the Gospel.  I used this story of my dad to boost and jump start my testimony of tithing. Now I have one of my own. So many personal and shareable stories. But, this was the last story of this post.

I want to share my testimony of tithing. I know that the Lord keeps his promises. We may not always get monetary returns for paying tithing, but we will always be blessed. The Lord does provide a way. I say these thing in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.