I have to write this because I’ve had such a great last two days (Thursday and Friday) – when I was in the DC area I was actively involved in supporting St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They had annual radiothons for fundraising. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in San Antonio (the 8th biggest city in the US at that time) and there were no radiothons..horrors. I missed being “involved.
Well, imagine my surprise again the other day when I was in the shower and heard the country radio station that I listen to announce that their radiothon was going to begin in a half hour. I was ecstatic. So, while at work I listened to the entire two days of the radiothon and felt alive again. I was able to give alot and support alot. San Antonio raised over $300, 000 in our very first radiothon AND we had over 1000 partners-in-hope sign up as well. How cool is that.
So, what about the title of the post. Could I consider the money I donated a tithe? No, I can’t. That was seed money. A tithe is given to the source of my spiritual support. Even though I feel terrific after donating to St Jude, the hospital is NOT the source of my spiritual support/supply. So, therefore it is not a tithe.
Seed money is what you give to the universe (in this case via an organization that does so much good for parents and children when a child has been stricken with a catastrophic illness). It is placed out there and will come back to you often in the form of divine surprises. But with that money you’re planting the seed of good and as we know, that good will return multiplied and running over.
You MUST tithe or your spiritual supply will dry up. That’s a fact. In fact you MUST tithe and you MUST express gratitude in order for your prosperity faucet to pour forth!
I’m still ecstatic….
Terrie
In my experience, the claim that "you must tithe and you must express gratitude in order for your prosperity faucet to pour forth" doesn't hold up against the reality we can observe. I've known of people who did not tithe and, at least outwardly, did not express a thankful attitude to a deity (or even believe in a deity) with enough financial resources to last their entire lives. I've also known people who did tithe and who (again, outwardly) honored the principle of gratitude as they learned it from their chosen spiritual community who did not thrive financially as they wished, and had to engage in work they disliked in order to make ends meet.
I don't favor throwing water on this idea. The promise that our needs are met as we are increasingly generous and giving toward a community of hope is a beautiful one. I just don't see that, in practice, the promise is consistently kept.
Todd,
I understand completely where you're coming from. However, we never really know what's going on inside a person that we observe so appearances can be deceptive. It's like the Law of Attraction. You can't just live ONE part of the Universal Laws and expect everything to work perfectly. People's underlying belief systems and thoughts may be getting in their way too. Often people are "thankful" but with conditions attached. In addition,these people may also have conflicting ideas internally about what success is and may continue to harbor beliefs that they HAVE to work hard.
Although the steps to success are actually very simple, weeding your garden to allow it to be fertile is the first significant step and one that people generally want to skip. If they do skip it, the garden is fraught with weeds forever, some of which are suffocating and do not allow the flowers to bloom and be successful.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Terrie