Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring…In this way you also will present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the LORD’s portion to Aaron the priest. Numbers 18:19, 28
Little green bills, silver and copper coins, paper that states “Pay to the Order of,” and plastic cards with names like “MasterCard” and “Visa” used to stress me out. Why? Because I was careless with them. They caused my husband considerable stress too.
Until I married Bill, I thought it was normal to float checks before payday. I knew the Bible taught financial responsibility. I also knew choosing which parts of the Bible I wanted to follow and ignoring the rest weakened my witness, but who cares if Numbers teaches money is given to us by God for His purposes?
My outlook affected my marriage as well. Bill was forced to solely carry the burden of our finances—even in spite of my unintentional sabotage of his efforts to track checks I forgot to record, receipts I forgot to save, and money I frivolously spent.
“We’ll never have enough money to blow, but we will always have enough for our needs if we are careful,” he’d say. Bill insisted we pay our tithes, practice financial discipline, and carry extra cash for emergencies. What emergencies? We had decent paying jobs. Quite frankly, I felt Bill was going overboard.
A year into our marriage, I accepted a position as a debate coach at our local high school. One tournament required an overnight stay. On the morning the students and I were to check out of the hotel, I approached the front desk to turn in our keys and noticed a woman with three young children standing at the counter. She was crying, and the clerk looked appalled. I could see why. Her two black eyes and bruised lip told the story. One child whispered, “Mommy, now where are we going to stay?”
Looking into the fear and hopelessness on her face, I grabbed my extra cash and plastic card. Suddenly Bill’s faithfulness to biblical financial practices wasn’t a burden. It became the door to immeasurable opportunities to serve my Father.
When you’re tempted to overspend, think through the financial responsibility to Christ. You never know where He will lead you.
Kimberly Thomas lives with her husband and six children in Lubbock, Texaa. She is a free-lance writer, serves as a youth director, and is a high school English teacher.
