A side note from Brady's mum about Tithing

Side note from Brady's mom!  I received a nice reminder from Brady about tithing after I sent him this:  

""WEll, Dad is still working like crazy. He has yet to get a deal to drop but when they do it will be like rain.....in one month...we dont' know what we'll do, get out of debt first...pay tithing first then debt then botox!!:)  ha ha"

I was correcting myself!  Tithing always comes 1st! I added the underline and bold for emphasis.  I can see where he thought I might have said get out of debt first, but then I said tithing 1st.  I love my valiant son!!! Well anyway a good reminder of a great talk! 

 Talk from elder:  joe j Christensen 

“I remember vividly an experience I had near the end of my mission. …

“At that time I was working in the mission home with the president of the Mexico and Central America Mission. He called my companion and me into his office one day and told us that he was sending us to Oaxaca. He handed us a list of the names of all the people who had joined the Church during the brief time missionaries had served there; they had been withdrawn some months previously. Our assignment was to look up everyone on the list, see how they were getting along, and, if possible, arrange for a sacrament meeting so that the members could meet together and partake of the sacrament. Then we were to bring back a report.

“We made the overnight trip on the little narrow railway, arriving very early the next morning. As soon as we got off the train, we began tracking down addresses.

“The first place we went to was a street lined with long adobe walls with doorways in them. When we found the address we were looking for and walked through the doorway, we found a whole group of homes inside. Tucked back in one corner was the home of the woman we were seeking. She lived there with her eight-year-old son and infant daughter.

“Moments later she returned, carrying a small clay jar. She reached into the jar and pulled out some pesos and centavos (Mexican money). She told us that her family had saved ten percent of what they had earned. Most of that tithing had come from her son, who worked at the plaza in the center of the city, shining shoes. When he returned each day, he immediately put his tithing into the little jar so that the money could be turned in to the missionaries whenever they returned.

“I can remember my feelings as that woman handed me the money. She was standing there in threadbare clothes and no shoes, and her children were in the same circumstances. I knew that there were things she would have loved to buy her children. I knew that there were many things that they desperately needed money for.

“At first I wanted to give the money back to her and to encourage her to spend it where it was most needed. But then I realized that that was not my right. She and her son had saved that money carefully, knowing that it belonged to the Lord and wanting Him to have it. I realized, too, that they would be blessed for it.

“I learned a great lesson that day about the importance of paying tithing and the blessings it can bring. I also learned a lesson about faith. That little boy and his mother had not known if missionaries would ever return to their home, but they were committed to the gospel principles, and they had faith that, if they were obedient, the Lord would bless them” (quoted by Kellene Ricks, in “Friend to Friend,” Friend, Jan. 1991, 6).

It is always still a good reminder so thank you!