TKingdom Advisors Teach Their Clients About Tithing

After referring some friends of ours to financial advisors at Taylor & Williams, I was happy to know that they were in good hands. On Saturday, my wife and I attended a birthday party to celebrate their one year old daughter’s first birthday. My friends proudly showed me a card that they received from their aforementioned financial advisors. The card included some cash as a gift but it also included an encouragement to start early in the child’s experience to teach the gift of tithing.

I loved this idea and wondered why I had not thought of doing something like this during my own tenure as a financial advisor. We believe and have practiced tithing ever since a man in our church challenged us to actually calculate what percentage we were giving to the Lord’s work. We were teachers at the time and I had rationalized that we were entitled to a break on this tithing concept since were making so little compared to others. When I could no more justify that position or that our giving of just three (3) percent of our income would please the Lord, we decided to take the challenge to step it up. We agreed to go to 5% the next year and found that we were not suffering and in fact rather felt it was important to keep going. The year after that we went to 8% and we have been well over 10% ever since.

I share that in awe of so many others who have moved from tithing 10% and living on the 90% to actually, giving away 90% and living on 10%. It is also shared in the spirit of knowing that the Lord wants a cheerful giver, not someone who gives out of selfish motives. There are many ways to teach generosity and I thank Brent Williams and Andy Whitten for their unique birthday card but I also wanted to remember Earl Sickels who modeled how to move from just writing checks to being generous with the Lord’s goodness! What would you like the Lord to teach you about your giving? Remember, it's all HIS anyway!

Proverbs 23:4-5 (NIV) “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Monday Morning Message Sent 11/30/09

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