Sweet spent the night with Beet on Saturday night. Sunday morning she went to church with Beet and her family. The "theme" this week was tithing. Pastor G, during the children's service, talked all about giving to God and receiving from God in return. To make her point she gave each of the children $5.The children all sat in the front pew and as the collection plate was passed all the children put the $5 they received into the plate. All the children except Sweet and Beet that is. In fact Beet told the person collecting, "my mom has ours." Now, by this time as I was being told this story, I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face.
After the service was over, Beet's mom took the girls aside and asked them if they understood the lesson Pastor G was teaching them. They both shook their heads yes. They then explained that they only intended to keep $5 of the $10 they had. $5 of it was going to Sokol and they were going to split the other $5. That was they were still giving. (I think I should explain that we do not go to church. Sweet has not been taught to tithe. She gives by donating her time and monies to different organizations such as Sokol, the museum, the pioneer village, etc...this was all a new concept to her)
Pastor G was very compassionate to the girls. Explaining again what it means to give to God. In the end they finally agreed to give the money to the church explaining that is must have been a "misunderstanding".
Sweet being the negotiator that she is got Pastor G to agree to purchase something from the fundraiser for Sokol.
Sweet asked a question last night that I need to take some time to think about before answering. "Why is giving money to God the way to receive back? God doesn't need money to live like we do."
© 2008 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
3 comments:
Oh ... I LOVE that picture. :-)
Maybe a good way to explain this is the same thing I did for Sunday school. We don't neccesarily give the money to God but it goes to pay the bills that we get from doing God's work. We have our missions that we support, we have to pay the gas, water and heat just like any home would. This helped the other kids understand it better. Also being as we are part of a group (the iowa conference) we send them monies every month to support and pay for the conference needs. By the way...I love that picture too. I definately think Beet and sweet looked so good when I did that to their hair. And to think Beet hated it!
I had to ask my favorite minister about this. I was amazed by his reaction. He told me that if sermon stayed true to tithing then the children should of given back only 10%. They were expected to tithe 100%. True Tithing is 10%. He also wanted to make sure that Sweet knew that she wasn't giving the money to God, but to the Church to pay it's bills. God does not ask anywhere in the Bible for you tithe. He said that it would be hard to hand anyone $5 then immediately expect it back. While we discussed this further he
While talking with my fil I learned of a sermon that he gave. He gave everyone at the service some money. He talked about bettering the community. He talked about the importance of community service. He then asked the congregation to think of how they could use that money to better the community. At the end of 4 weeks they all came back and told him wonderful stories. One lady used the money to buy yarn. She then knitted clothing for needy children. One child used the money to have a bake sale & lemonade stand. Then donated the $$ to their favorite charity.
Since talking with you and my fil about this I have been searching online about Tithing and the Bible. I have found some interesting sites.
I have learned that the word "tithe" means 'to pay or give a tenth part of especially for the support of the church'(Webster online).I found an online Bible study on Tithing(http://www.parentalguide.com/Documents/Bible_Studies/Tithing.htm) The first little paragraph states this: "Now what do we mean by a tithe? A tithe is ten percent of everything. For instance, do you have a fruit tree? tithe ten percent of your fruit tree. Do you have a garden? tithe ten percent of the increase of your garden. Do you rent houses to others? tithe ten percent of your profit." A little bit further down it says that you should FREELY give. This verse from the Bible is very relevant. 2 Corinthians 9:5 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (http://bible.logos.com/passage/niv/2%20Corinthians%209.7#ref=2%20Co%209%3A7%2Chi%3D2%20Co%209%3A7-2%20Co%209%3A7&ver=NIV)
Here are some of the other websites that I found.
http://bible-truths.com/tithing.html
http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/3658/tithing.html
http://www.letusreason.org/doct54.htm
http://www.tithingtoday.com/sermon/index.htm
http://www.gotquestions.org/tithing-Christian.html
http://www.pointsoftruth.com/tithe.html
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