Tithe and Socks

By my desk I have a large stack of journals. They contain my personal history of how God has kept me through trials and personally has taught me that He can be trusted. This morning I picked up the oldest of my journals. The starting date would have put me at age 19. As I thumbed through the pages. A heading caught my attention. I remembered part of the story but many of the details I had forgotten.

I had been given the opportunity to volunteer at a health spa for a month. It would not only give me experience, but also a much needed break after an emotional month caring for a young family that I had been living with after the husband and father had tragically died.

I felt at the time God was leading me to go, however, I was a student and I had no money. Unless God provided the required $200 I wouldn’t be going. My mother wisely counseled me to look up Malachi 3:10 and put my finger on the promise and claim it. “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,’ Says the LORD of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. ” I did this and also asked for faith to believe.

Not long after claiming the promise apparently for no reason an elderly gentleman who was traveling through left an envelope with a friend and told her to give it to me. It was the first $20!!! There was $180 more to go but my faith was strengthened. A week later a student friend, unemployed and younger than I, handed me a check for $100. My heart sang and my faith soared! Only $80 more dollars to go!

I continued to pray. Nearly a month passed and the deadline for the money was only two weeks away by this time I was still $30 short.

The recently widowed mother, knowing I was saving for the trip, asked me if I had reached my goal of $200. I told her no, but went on to tell her how excited I was over the other money. A few minutes later she handed me the remaining $30.00 The $200 goal had been reached!

Once at my destination I discovered that I owed more money for tithe than I had in my wallet. I was momentarily tempted to use the money since some of it had been given to me for purchasing some much needed socks. I decided not to. But I still had a problem, I still didn’t have enough for tithe. I prayed about it and then remembered I had put five dollars in my pocket, I had enough for tithe with one dollar to spare!

A week later I phoned my parents and mentioned that I had just enough money for my bus ticket home and told them I had used the sock money they had given me to help with the tithe. Meanwhile a friend I had been rooming with during my stay at the spa overheard my conversation. Later that day she gave me six pairs of socks. She said they were too narrow for her feet. Guess what! They fit me perfectly!

The joy in my heart bubbled over like the metaphor in the 23rd Psalm.

I had closed my journal entry with Psalm 38:19 “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation.