A Can Do That
I became a member of the Adventist Church in my late twenties and began to tithe. The Lord blessed from the beginning. When I had no money to buy my daughter a spring coat, a nice lady gave us not one, but two, new coats.
A few years later a man from the conference came to the church to talk about stewardship. He spoke about the idea of returning a double tithe. I thought, I can do that. Then he told how the children of Israel sometimes gave 25 percent or more. And I thought, I can do that.
At the time I was a housewife and a baby-sitter. The company where my husband worked was about to close, and he would lose a good job. So now came testing time. Would I return the full tithes and offerings that God had already prompted me to give? I decided to give the full amount and put my trust in the Lord.
My husband worked what he thought was his last week and was able to put in a lot of overtime. Then the office lady said, “I don’t know why, but you are to work one more week.” The pay for that week was almost double his normal salary. After finishing that week and thinking he would now be laid off, he went to the office to pick up his check. The lady said, “I can’t understand what is happening. You are to work next week too.” At the end of the third “extra” week, the plant finally closed, and my husband was given three weeks’ pay for vacation. We paid all our bills and went to Florida to visit my parents. When we got home, my husband quickly found a job and went to work the following Monday.
I know all these blessings came because I decided to be faithful to my commitment with the Lord.
“’The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:24, NASB).
By Pauline Lewis
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