Question about tithes

[werda4]

My wife and i are about to have a baby, and we are not wealthy by any means. But we are not poor you know. Anyway my wife thinks that we shouldn't tithe cause we need that money. But i am thinking that god blesses people for tithing or so i heard. ( i have tithed my money for a while before her, and really never saw anything becuase of it. i know that sounds really selfish, and it sounds like i am tithing for all the wrong reasons. But i just thought god is suppose to bless you.) anyway she doesn't want to tithe, and i want to. How should i go about doing this?

 

[handy]

Your situation is a bit like my husband's and mine. Only I would be the one motivated to give more than he, and he is far more careful of every penny that goes out of our house than I am.

Tithing isn't really a part of the church. It's a useful measure of what one can give, but it is in no way mandated that the Body pay the Church 10%. God will bless you or not irregardless of whether or not you tithe, but God does love a cheerful giver.

Only you can decide if God is laying it upon your heart to pay a full tithe, (which can actually be more than 10%, if one want's to truly follow the Old Testament law regarding tithing.) Sometimes God will convict us to do something, because it works to our benefit. If you truly feel convicted that God desires you to tithe, then you should do so.

Also at issue is the age-old submission question: You are seeking to do something that the wife doesn't want you to do. Key here is that you are to love your wife as Christ loves the Church. Yes, Christ is the Head of the Church and can certainly "pull rank". But, far more often, He is gentle and patient and leads the Church by love and example. Between my husband and I, he rarely (if he has ever?) done something that I truly didn't want him to do, even though I fully agree that he would have the 'right' to as the head of our household. Generally, we discuss things thoroughly, and he has enough respect for my insights and opinions, that if we can't come to an agreement, we simply don't do it.

But, I'll be the first to admit that we haven't come into the situation where God was convicting him of something that I didn't want him to do. Sometimes I might not have seen it, but usually while prayerfully discussing things, I've come to agree with him. So, it might be tricky with your wife, just keep in mind that while tithing isn't commanded by God for the Church, loving your wife is.

 

[follower of Christ]

My wife and i are about to have a baby, and we are not wealthy by any means. But we are not poor you know. Anyway my wife thinks that we shouldn't tithe cause we need that money. But i am thinking that god blesses people for tithing or so i heard. ( i have tithed my money for a while before her, and really never saw anything becuase of it. i know that sounds really selfish, and it sounds like i am tithing for all the wrong reasons. But i just thought god is suppose to bless you.) anyway she doesn't want to tithe, and i want to. How should i go about doing this?

Tithing firstly is OT.
It was a shadow of NT giving which isnt about numbers, but is about giving with a cheerful heart and giving so that there is no need...again, not about number or percentages.

When you give the MOST important thing is 'God loves a CHEERFUL giver" (2Co 9:7).
Giving can be the most blessed thing we can do, in my opinion, because its a way to show our faith thru our works as James speaks of.
But done under compulsion giving can be a little less than a noose at the end of a rope made of misery. Especially if its done with no joy at all and one spouse is not in complete agreement about it.
Whatever you do know full well that if you arent in agreement with your spouse, God hardly wants you to cause anger and frustration in your marriage over it. Make sure that whatever you decide its decided together and is something you BOTH are joyful about. Otherwise it can become something that causes a lot of tension in your marriage.

Laura and I both love to give, so its usually just a matter of where to give instead of how much.

Dont tithe because of what YOU are going to get...thats the wrong reason to do so.
Give because you want to SHARE with others what God has blessed you with ALREADY !
YOu have a roof over your head, food in your stomach, a job, transportation and a wonderful family....many folks are destitute and dont even know where their next meal is coming from.

Instead of tithing for now, why dont you see if shed like to give some money to a homeless shelter or do like we do and buy a few bags of groceries for the local food pantry.
This way she can feel like shes REALLY giving to someone in direct need instead of wondering if the money she feels like she needs is being spent on carpeting the basement in a church building that doesnt really need it to begin with.
The biggest joy in giving can be when you see that what youre doing is feeding some hungry child or keeping a roof over someones head. I'd bet doing that might help her get more into a mood to give

 

[RadicalReformer]

Question: Who does the bills in the house? Sometimes it is hard to give when you are the one seeing the money go out out out and only see two "paychecks" coming in.

Agree on an amount that you can be faithful in giving every week. (if you miss a week, double it the next).

Be faithful first, and then worry about numbers. However, I am cautious to remind that it is God who loves a cheerful giver, remember the widow's mites? She gave out of what she had, not her excess.

 

[Nikki]

A little over a year ago, tithing was always on my mind. I honestly believe it was God giving me the nudge and telling me to trust him. We were struggling financially and DH did not agree with tithing. We went back and forth over it and he stood his ground that we shouldn't tithe. I continued to feel pressure to tithe, so I decided to tithe 10% of MY paycheck. At first, I would panic because I would tell myself (this could pay two bills that we have due), but you know what? Even when I thought we wouldn't be able to pay a bill, somehow we were able to and after a while, our financial situation got BETTER! Then something happened about 6 months later that got us out of all our debt (except for house payment). I felt like I had won the lottery!

I believe that God has blessed us financially. We're not rich by any means, but we are in a completely different financial state than we were in before I began tithing. DH now supports my tithing, but he's not ready or willing to tithe a percentage of his paycheck, but that's ok. It feels good to give what we can. I firmly believe that God has blessed me greatly by putting my trust in him via tithing.

 

[sailor628]

My wife and I were going to "ease" into the whole 10% when we heard a sermon on trusting God and taking the plunge to give the full tithe. We did it and for 6 months or so things went downhill for us financially. For example I took a pay cut and we found our house to be completely rotten and had to tear the whole thing down. We continued to give faithfully but I have to admit I was thinking that it was pretty screwed up the way things were going for us since we started tithing. Then things turned around overnight. We rebuilt our house and later sold it at a huge profit. I made a lateral move in my occupation and am making more than double the pay that I was earning two years ago when we started tithing. There will always be upcoming expenses that can be used to create excuses to not tithe but I wholeheartedly encourage you to take the plunge. You won't miss the 10% you give and you'll be blessed.

 

[Timf]

Tithes

In the Old Testament the tithe was like a tax that was used to support the Levities (priests and their families) since they did not have an inheritance in the land.

Jesus told people who thought they were keeping the law by not murdering or not committing adultery that they were breaking the law even if the were angry in their heart or had lust.

There is a sense that for the Christian 10% is too little. Everything we have is the Lord's. However, turning our money over to a church or other organization may not be the work of a faithful steward. Consider that we are instructed to be industrious so that we can share what we have earned with others when the need arises.

Ephesians 4:28
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.