The Greatness of Giving

Giving money away? That doesn't sound like frugal spending, does it?

But really, the whole point of living frugally is to be able to give money away.  There is something powerful in being a generous giver.

As you may know, my husband and I are working to be debt free, and hopefully we'll be there in six months. Once we are debt free we can start saving for the down payment for the house, pad our savings, and accumulate money for giving.  Without a car note or credit card debt, we should be able to do some serious saving!

About two or so years ago, we started giving half our tithe to church and saving the other half (I have a whole spreadsheet outlining our savings account!)  Eventually we amassed a nice bit of money. We weren't sure what we were going to do with it--we were waiting until God led us to give.

We even tried to give it away twice, but the potential recipients said they didn't really need it.  So, we continued waiting.  Recently, we happened to be talking to someone about what we had been doing with our tithes (I don't remember how it came up), and I mentioned how much we had saved.  A day or two later, the same person called my husband.  He said he felt weird asking this, but he and his wife wanted to ask us to pray about giving them the money.  They had some medical bills that equalled the exact amount that we mentioned having.

How amazing!  People don't like talking about money, much less asking someone for financial help.  And, honestly, in our economic climate there is no shame in needing help.  Life happens and sometimes it happens hard!  We are on earth not for ourselves, but for the people around us.  We are made to go through life together.  Isn't that what the body of Christ all about?

Our financial plan is not just about being able to provide for our family, but to be generous givers.  We feel like God has put that on our hearts and minds.  There is something amazing that happens when you open yourself up to being generous.  And, it opens you up for God's provision.

If there is one thing we have learned about finances it is that when you give, God provides for you.  We used to be on again, off again tithers, but for the past few years we have been trying to tithe regularly.  And let me tell you, tithing is not about legalism--giving because you're supposed to.  Tithing is about acknowledging that God is the source of your money, and that you are going to be good stewards of what he has given you.  And since we have been tithing we have always always been able to pay our bills--even when we didn't think we would!

If you haven't been giving, or have never thought about it, I urge you to think and pray about it.  Its pretty spectacular!