The Law of Tithing: A Gateway to the Lord's Tender Mercies

Another Guest Blog! Sister Bekah Vanderhorst shares some of her thoughts on the tender mercies of the Lord through tithing.



There have been many times in my life when it has been obvious that the Lord was watching over me or my family. One example was when my son was born 6 weeks early and had to be in the hospital for 3 weeks. It was a scary time and a busy time as I was in the middle of teaching my first year of school, and my husband, Grant, was in the last year of his college career at BYU. We could very clearly see the hand of the Lord blessing our son to grow healthy and strong despite his rough start, and helping Grant and I juggle our very hectic schedules at the time.

There have been other times in my life that I've recognized the hand of the Lord and His tender mercies, but they have not been so obvious. What might seem like a coincidence to other people, I consider a tender mercy. I have tied all of these small, tender mercies back to one principle: The law of tithing.

For those who aren't members of our faith, members of our church give one-tenth of everything they earn to the Lord, and we call this the law of tithing. It is a small way of us showing our willingness to give to the Lord's kingdom and a small way that we thank Heavenly Father for everything He has given us.
Some of Grant's coworkers have asked how we live in DC with a child (and another child on the way), and yet afford to only live on one income. Even though I tutor out of the home, the main source of our income is Grant's job. I'm sure it would shock his coworkers even more to learn that not only do we live on one income, but we live on 90% of an income, yet we have still managed to live within our means. While Grant and I have tried our best to live as frugally as possible, we know that the Lord has helped us in small ways.
For example, this past Christmas, Grant received an unexpected bonus from work. We were thrilled to have a little extra money to act as a buffer to our, but then about a week later, we had some issues with our car and had to get it repaired. The cost of the repair was only a few dollars less than the bonus that Grant had received. To some this might seem like a coincidence, or even a tragedy that we had to spend our bonus money on something as trivial as a car repair, but to us, it was the Lord's way of providing for an unexpected expense.
I remember when Grant and I were first married and I was working at a call center. We had just barely purchased car insurance, which was an extra $75 per month. Within that same month, I received a small raise at work, and when we calculated how much extra money I'd be getting a month, it was about 80 dollars.
There are so many of these small experiences with finances, that I know it's not simply coincidence, luck, or mine and Grant's hard work (though I do believe we have to be doing our best before the Lord can bless us). No, this is the Lord's tender mercies in our lives.

He not only has blessed us to live within our means, but the small spiritual blessings we have received have been wonderful. We have seen an added measure of the spirit in our home, and I have personally noticed that our family is more unified and harmonious when we all sacrifice together to live the law of tithing.

"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance." Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

--Bekah Vanderhorst

Family

A couple posts ago, I posted about how we are all children of God. The song "I am a Child of God" is one of the first songs I remember learning. The words go

 

"I am a child of God,

 an he has sent me here,

has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear"

 

As tempting (and sometimes true) as it sometimes is to change the words 'kind and dear' to 'kind of weird', family is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us.

 

 

     God has ordained a way for each of his spirit children to come to the earth. He has set commandments and guidelines for us to follow that not only make US happy, but provide the best way for the rest of his children to come to earth. The home is THE best place to learn. As we are growing up we learn from our parents, from brothers and sisters, from aunts and uncles, from Grandpas and Grandmas. We learn how to walk, talk, share, play, serve, and countless other foundational life skills that, when learned and applied bless us and countless others for the rest of our lives.

     I am so grateful for my family. I have wonderful parents and great brothers and sisters. I am so blessed to have been born into a home where I did have this generally ideal setting, but I know that not everybody has that chance. We aren't all born into a family where there are two parents that love and support you and each other. All families look different, have different interests, expectations, and values, but there is one thing that IS universal for all families, that is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ strengthens them.

 

    No matter what your family looks like . . . Single-parent, two-parent, lots of small children running around, teenagers, grown children . . . centering your home on Jesus Christ and his teachings is what will bring us closest together. In Matthew 11 Christ invites us all to take his yoke upon us and learn of him. As we do so we will find rest and peace, and as we help those around us to do so as well, they will find that same peace and it will create harmony. If we are all yoking ourselves to Christ, we will all be yoked together. What can you do to create a more Christ-Centered Home?

A Note for Robyn

Today's blog post is brought to you by a good friend, Robyn. She was baptized in November and is one of the kindest people I know. She graciously humored me when I asked her to share one of the tender mercies she had experienced.

 

What is a tender mercy? A Tender Mercy is an act of kindness to lift the spirits of another, whether done intentionally or otherwise. I experienced a tender mercy and didn't even realize it until several days later. I discovered a note hidden under my windshield wiper on my car. It's my back up car so I didn't see it until four days later. The note was a note from a friend who had taken her young son to our condo complexes' playground. She saw my car there and did it on a whim. I had been going through a hard time and this person knew it. Immediately I felt at peace and tears welled up. I know that tender mercies exist-- from personal experience.

--Robyn Reynolds

Prayer

   Once upon a time, when I was younger than I am now...Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was coming to the theaters and not only that, my Dad's company was having a party where we got to see it the night before it came out!!  Now, just to give a little background, my family takes Harry Potter very seriously. It is one thing that ALL of us really like, so, as you can imagine, this very exciting! 

   We all piled into the car and started the journey to the Movie theater, everything was going smoothly until...you guessed it...TRAFFIC! What was a van full of happy, excited people turned into a van full of highly stressed out slightly contentious people.

   I was VERY worried that we would miss this movie and I was also worried that not all of us would make it to the theater alive, so I said a prayer and asked for a way to keep my family calm and that everything would work out. A few minutes later we heard on the radio that a lane somewhere was cleared and traffic was moving again. Our Harry Potter movie was no longer in jeopardy, and most importantly, I gained a testimony of prayer.

 

   Prayer is such a precious gift! It is the cell phone that our loving Father gave to each of us when we came to this earth. A Tender Mercy that happened yesterday confirmed my testimony yet again that God does listen to our prayers.

 

  Yesterday we got a call from one of the people we visit with. She was very upset because her cat, Woody, was missing. This is her favorite cat and she was really worried about him because he didn't come home to eat. We decided to go over and offer to look for him. We looked for him, but couldn't find him before we had to leave. We left, but then felt like we needed to go back and pray with her...so we did and made her promise to let us know when he did come home. A couple hours later we got a call from her saying that he had! Woody was home, safe and sound!

 

  I KNOW that God answers prayers. He cares about the little things that don't seem very important like watching a Harry Potter movie, He cares about our beloved pets, and all the little things that we love. Thinking about that, how much he truly does care about the little things, think just how much he cares about the BIG things in life.

 

 

I know not by what methods rare,

But this I know, God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His Word,

Which tells me prayer is always heard,

And will be answered, soon or late.

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

Will come in just the way I thought;

But leave my prayers with Him alone,

Whose will is wiser than my own,

Assured that He will grant my quest,

Or send some answer far more blest.

 

-Eliza M. Hickok

 

 



Children of God

This is my absolute FAVORITE Mormon Message. I think it is so amazing to have the Knowledge that we are literally children of God! How cool is that? God knows each of us individually. One of my favorite quotes about our relationship with God I found in this talk, Bringing Peace and Healing to your Soul by Dale E. Miller 

           "C. S. Lewis put it this way: '[God] has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man [or woman] in the world'"

God is with each one of us. He knows who YOU are! He LOVES you more than anything, and he just wants you to come back and live with him someday.