While her boys were still young, my Grandmother went to her husband and said, “We are giving, but we are not tithing. I want us to tithe.”
His reply was simple and direct, “We simply cannot afford to tithe.”
She said, “Walton, please. Don’t deny me the joy of tithing.”
She had been taught as a young girl about the importance of tithing. She thought about it and went back to him. “If I can find a way to make some money, can we tithe with that?” He agreed.
During the Depression days of the 1930’s, our grandparents lived in a small town in north Georgia. Their home was adjacent to the local elementary school. Grandmother did her laundry in the basement using a washer that had a wringer to wring out the clothes before they were hung on a clothesline to dry. There were no automatic washers and dryers as we know them today. Wash day required so much more time than we give to that task today.
She grew vegetables in garden and on the fruit trees that were in the backyard. Much of what they ate came from her backyard, as well as the fruit and vegetables that were canned in season for storage in the basement. There were goats in the backyard that provided milk for our great-uncle and a chicken coop that provided food for the table. I remember going into that chicken coop to select the chicken that would be cooked for the evening meal after instructions about how to wring a chicken’s neck. I was never successful at wringing the chicken’s neck, but Grandmother was masterful.
She was a good cook and loved to spend time in her kitchen. Grandmother was known for her pear preserves and fig preserves, both of which were made from fruit trees grown in her yard. She was also known for her biscuit-style hoe cake. She generously cared for her neighbors and others in her community.
Since the schools of that day did not include lunchrooms as our schools have today, Grandmother came up with an idea to make and sell food to the school children. She decided to make soups, sandwiches, lemonade, cookies, and other goodies to sell from the front porch. From these proceeds, she was able to tithe. This was so successful that after about three years, the school invited her to come into the school building to open what became the first cafeteria in a public school in that small town.
Among the many things we learned from our grandmother were these three lessons:
- Don’t work on Sunday unless the cart is in the ditch.
- If you cannot say something nice about someone, then talk about the weather.
- Don’t let anyone deny you the joy of tithing.
So many are like our grandfather, good men and women, and often strong Christian believers. However, these often believe that they cannot tithe. There are two gospel song titles that speak to this thought: “God will make a Way” and “Jesus is the Way Maker.”
When God puts a burden on our hearts, not only does He show us the way and bless our efforts, but He often blesses us in ways that we didn’t think possible. Grandmother had a burden placed on her heart about the importance of tithing. She believed that there was a way to do so and trusted in God’s guidance to find the way to do so.
Proverbs 16:9 states “The mind of a person plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Don’t let anyone deny you the joy of tithing, not even yourself.
Reese Griffin and Mary Griffin Bendickson, former administrative assistant for The Idlewild Foundation