One of the prayers that I pray over my kids is that God would reveal himself to them in a very real way.  It’s the only way to seal all of the ‘Christian’ things we do- going to church, serving, reading the Bible, family prayer.  If we do all of those things, but they never have a personal experience with God, it’s pointless.

My son recently celebrated a birthday.  He’s at the age where he has outgrown most gifts and just wants cold, hard cash. Or gift cards.  When the dust cleared from his birthday celebrations, he had some clothes and a stock pile of money and gift cards.  He totaled up his amount, and we had a conversation about tithing on what he received.  Should he tithe on just the money or the money and the gift cards?  He wasn’t resistant to the idea, but he just didn’t seem impressed by it- in the way that most teenagers are not impressed by anything that their parents say.  The next morning, before church, he started putting his tithe together.  Like many churches after Covid, our church does not physically take offering.  Most people give online through the app or they scan a QR code.  They  do still have a few boxes in the lobby where you can physically give money.  He and I talked through the logistics of how he was going to give. Should he just give us the money and we’ll just add it to what we give?  I told him no- I think there is something very personal that happens during this transaction.  I wanted him to experience that.

So he filled out the envelope and put it in a box in the lobby. No big deal. Done and done.

He has a stock account that we started during Covid.  At first, it was just something for him to do with my husband.  He basically ignored it until last year, when he started to track his stocks a little more seriously.  The week after he tithed, he noticed that the price of one of his stocks soared.  They started to discuss his options for selling.  Was he going to actually get money from this?! When he finally sold the stock, he made a nice chunk of change. He was thrilled.

The following Sunday, he prepared his tithe, no questions asked.  He knew that the stock increase that week was no coincidence.  He knew it was the direct result of his tithing.

God knew how to get my son’s attention, and this is a lesson that he will hopefully never forget. This was God reaching him in a way that was very real to him.  It taught me something, too.  Sometimes, in order for God to complete his work, I need to just get out of His way.  I need to pray and give counsel and let God do the rest.

~Shiney