Article written for my children. 10/2011
Baby
Fund vs Tithing
By: Brenda Horrocks
By: Brenda Horrocks
Brad and I had been married almost 6 years when we
were blessed to adopt our first child, Brenley. Brenley
came to our family when she was 32 hours old and we felt we held the
world in our hands. One year and 3 months later our
second daughter came into our family. Haley was 2 days old when
her Birth Parents placed her in our arms. Adoption was a huge
blessing to our family! With strong feelings that there was another
child meant for our home we started to put money away in what we called
our “baby fund”. We needed to come up with a certain
amount of money t file our paperwork with LDS Family Services
in order to try to adopt a 3rd time. We had tried fertility
treatments for a last time which quickly depleted much of our fund.
I was anxious to have enough money to put in for adoption again.
We were halfway to our goal when Brad discovered an error in our tithing
payments. We were short somehow, the exact amount that was
sitting in our baby fund. Brad suggested we use the
baby fund to make up for the mistake. I panicked and
tried to think of another way to make up for the missed tithing.
I began to make a case for why we didn’t need to use our baby
fund…thinking
of many other ways of trying to get the money to pay our tithing.
I started to rationalize by thinking about our righteous desire to add
another child to our eternal family. I couldn’t
handle the idea of putting off filing our paperwork. I longed
for a third child. All of my hope was wrapped in being approve
for adoption and it took money to do that. I was sure the
Lord would understand.
A few days went by and I continue to ponder over this
dilemma. I wanted to do what was right but I wanted what
was right to be what I wanted. One night while Brad
slept I went down in our basement bathroom and poured my heart out to
Heavenly Father. I remember thinking of Alma and felt a
greater understanding of what he meant when he said he “wrestled with
God in mighty prayer” (Alma 8:10). For me it was a long, tear
filled night. As I prayed and pleaded to God my heart
was softened and I thought of Abraham and how he was asked to chose
between the Lord and his only son. I understood in a new
way what a difficult decision that must have been for him…to have
to decide between two people he loved. Being an infertile
woman I had no other way to bring children to our family. Giving
up my baby fund felt like I was giving up my baby.
I struggled to do the right thing but as I remembered Abraham I knew
that by using the baby fund to pay our tithing it was not only the right
thing to do but it was how I could show the Lord I loved Him more than
I loved anything else. I prayed again and shared with
Heavenly Father my decision and poured out my heart again asking Him
to help us in our efforts to adopt. I felt loved and I knew the
decision was the right one and I had a great sense of peace.
The next day I told Brad to use the baby fund and
pay our tithing, which he did. By the following Friday Brad
called and let me know he had just received a significant raise at
work….this
raise would not only bless our family financially but it would allow
us to build our baby fund much more quickly. I knew with
all of my heart that this was a blessing in direct response of obedience
in paying tithing. My testimony of tithing, of obedience
and my testimony of the love the Lord has for us grew ten fold.
But the blessings didn’t stop there, months later as we were getting
ready to have a child placed with us we received an anonymous check
in the mail. The check was written out to us for “Baby Horrocks”.
The amount was exactly double what we had paid in tithing.
We do not know who sent us this incredible gift but we know it was a
blessing that came because of obedience. We are so thankful
for the unknown giver. The Birth Mother who was planning
to place her baby with us ended up deciding to parent and this money
helped us recover the money we used to travel out of state to be with
this Birth Mother. While we respected and supported her
decision we were so sad to not have this child come to our family.
It was a huge blessing to not have the financial burden attached to
that grief.
A few months after our failed placement we were blessed
with a beautiful 8 month old baby boy who has brought joy beyond
measure!
Since this time we have added another baby boy to our family.
I know that obedience blessed our lives back in 2005 with an increase
in funds….in 2006 with an anonymous gift and in 2009 with another
child.
Today obedience to the law of tithing continues to
bless our lives and our family. Tithing is never a decision
we make over and over again…it is paid regularly. Brad was blessed
with inspiration to help ensure that we would never make a mistake like
we made back in 2005…our tithing comes out first automatically.
We have seen blessing after blessing because of this decision.
Some blessings come in the form of material help while the other
blessings
have been an increase in spiritual gifts and testimonies being
strengthened.
We continue to see the windows of heaven open and the blessings flow
to our little family. Just like Abraham was willing
to sacrifice his only son to show love and obedience…. tithing is
a way we can show our love and obedience to the Lord. When we
put the Lord first in our lives we never lose. The Lord
gives us more than we could ever repay by blessing us according to His
will.
4 comments:
Wow, that's so awesome!
Thank you so much for sharing! It make my day!
What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing this Brenda. Hearing your experience with tithing helps me build my faith in it. It's such an important thing!
Thank you for sharing your very personal experience and testimony. You have strengthened my own testimony of the beautiful blessings we receive for sacrificing tithes to the Lord.
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