TITHING and the SOLO PARENT
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
From: "C. H."
Its no joke being told to tithe on a benefit raising 3 children
with no support from your ex-husband and little support from
my family (my mother is a widow). Yet every church I went
to laid this impossible burden on me except the Anglican
church.. But the guilt and condemnation laid upon me by
the previous churches led me to falsely believe the reason
why I was always so poor was because I wasn't tithing 10%
and that I had robbed God by my previous disobedience and
that I needed to make it up.
All the testimonies of miraculous provision and my lack of
them always kept me bound into believing that 1) It was
my lack of faith, 2) I wasn't being obedient to the law of
tithing, 3) I was under a curse. Try telling your hungry
children why the church was getting our money and they
were always going without. This went on for years. It wasn't
until I stopped going to church over a year ago that I prayed
and asked God to show me where to give and how much
and he showed me Tear Fund Microenterprise Trust which
lends money to poor people (usually widows) to get them
started into business, etc, and they pay it back and
someone else borrows it. And its not 10% I give but I can
give freely and cheerfully to those who really need it. I feel
the tithe I gave was a curse indeed - but to me for being
under the Law.. It never really produced fruit except
occasionally the church would pay for my children to attend
a camp. The provision I have needed over the years for my
children was poured into church salaries and buildings and
while they all lived in comfort we went without.
10% isn't much when you earn $1000 a week but it is the
difference between buying food or paying a bill when you
get $450 to feed, house and clothe 4 people.
Occasionally some kind folk would secretly slip me some
money, but generally I was treated like an inferior (it was
obvious God wasn't blessing me their way so I must be at
fault). This caused me to feel such shame that I stopped
mentioning my financial needs. I just got into debt on a
credit card as this was the only way to make up for all the
shortfall of my pay. This whole matter stinks if you ask
me. Often I felt like asking the church leaders if they would
like to 'live in faith' weekly for their provision for their
churches like I had to for my family.