In honor of Father’s Day, I am posting a discussion my stepfather and I had while in Myrtle Beach.
Trigger warning: This post will be about a passage from the Bible. If you are anti-religion, anti-Old Testament, or have any other negative feelings about this topic, please scroll past now.
As you know, I am a huge proponent of giving/tithing. While I use the two words interchangeably, “tithing” generally denotes giving to the Church while “giving” is to anyone or anything else.
God expects us to be generous with what we have been given. There are many references to this in both the Old and New Testaments. On this particular day we were discussing giving and my stepfather pulled out Malachi 3:8-10 as Exhibit A. I cannot tell you which version it was, so your Bible may look slightly different.
This passage reminds us that God will give us more when we are generous. In fact, as He challenges us to be generous He also promises to return what we give many times over.
One of the my principle income allocations is 5-10% for giving or tithing. The reason why there is a range is because giving can be done with money or talents. The important thing to remember is that you want to have equal amounts going to education, savings, investing, play, and giving. If you truly cannot afford to allocate 45-50% of your after-tax income to these categories, reduce them all equally. Do not become unbalanced by having play at 10% and not allocating anything to the others.
My stepfather is one of the most generous people I know and he has been extremely blessed in return. So, if you need it, you have at least one example of living proof that it does, in fact, work. 😉 I, too, always get more than I give (although the expectation would negate the whole point of giving).
What are your thoughts on giving? Do you give a certain percentage or is it more spontaneous?