A testimony is a witness to personal experience. It cannot be refuted or explained away. It belongs to one person and need not be duplicated by another. This is my testimony of stewardship. I tell only what I have experienced.
My initial introduction to financial stewardship started at an early age when my sister and I asked Daddy for an allowance. (This was about 1950.) Having thought about it, he handed each of us two quarters and a box of church offering envelopes. He explained that our weekly allowance would be given to us on one condition: one quarter would be given to the church. Both of us agreed; after all, we were one quarter ahead of no allowance.
Then our church started a building fund. Sure enough, Daddy wanted us to give one quarter to the building fund as well. At first our hearts sank. But Daddy increased our allowance to $1.00 and we were happy with the new arrangement. This went on until I began to earn my own money by baby-sitting and selling Christmas cards. By then I found it natural to give a tithe (10%) of my earnings to the church. I’m thankful for parents who taught me to tithe, even though the first arrangement had been 50/50.
This habit held fast when Bill and I got married for Bill had also been taught to tithe. When our church in North Biloxi, Mississippi, began a building program, we set the example for the congregation in giving. In those early years in the pastorate we designated our giving so that it would not come back to us in salary.
Twice I remember we questioned this principle of tithing. First, when Bill began seminary as he pastored a church in Kentucky. We soon rationalized how our income did not amount enough to title; and surely the expenses of seminary could be counted as an offering to the Lord. We vowed instead to tithe our modest income to the church and missions. After all, wasn’t everything we owned a gift from God?
Second, when we moved to Indiana to work with OMS International (currently One Mission Society), we reasoned we would have to delete our personal share support of missionaries. But when we figured out our tithe (on our gross income), we had enough to continue our commitment of giving.
Do you ask about the benefits and rewards of giving? For us, it has meant no sweeping abundance of wealth or material blessings. But God has met our needs, even when dinner meant bread and gravy along with green beans from some parishioner’s garden. Each faith pledge has been met without an unexpected gift, and met by putting God first and using available resources to His glory.
The greatest benefit has been a deep satisfaction in giving back to God a portion of all He has given to us. (See Proverbs 3:5, 6, 9, 27.) That benefit has lasted through the years, and today we continue to praise God for the privilege of being a part of Kingdom work with our finances as well as ministry skills.
Ann Coker 