Blessed Too Much
A Testimony of Tithing

    There is a family in the Diocese of Lubbock that has been "blessed too much." That, at least, is how the husband and father of this very real, albeit anonymous (by request), family explains it when they asked how he and his wife donate some $20,000 to the Diocese of Lubbock at the end of each year.

    "At one point , about 25 years ago, I was worried about money and going broke. I discussed it with my wife and we thought we'd try tithing and see how it worked," he said. "So we started to tithe... and each year we have had to give a little more to keep up with the blessings."

    Most of the decisions they've made since that time have turned out very well, he says, providing the family with a great deal of financial security. It's almost as if the decision to tithe - to donate a regular, percentage-based portion of their income to the church - has assured them of an "across the board" ability to make wise decisions about money and life in general.

    "Our marriage is good, our children are all out on their own and able to support their families," he said. "We've always been satisfied with what we have... financially, emotionally, spiritually, and medically."

    Despite the fact that their's is a large family, the household has never been shackled with any burdensome debts to health care providers, he says.

    "None of the children have ever been really sick or suffered a bad accident," he said. "We've had any big medical bills. We've all been blessed with good health... the grandkids, too."

    He's reluctant to give tithing the credit for this enviable record of good health, but it is a blessing that seems more than coincidentally related to the promise of financial freedom often associated with the decision to tithe.

    "I'm very intense about my faith. No one has to ask what I believe," he said. "I'm sure no smarter and I don't work any harder than anyone else. I'm very limited in what I'm able to do, but I've been given so much" that returning a tithe to God seems like the least that can be done to express gratitude to God, from whom all blessing flow.

    "I don't want to be presumptuous and say that God's going to pay me back more than I give, but it seems that at the end of each year we've been able to give a little more than we were able to give the year before," he said. "We always have to do it that way... it's the only way we can keep up with all the blessings."