Paying Tithing

During World War II my widowed mother supported her three young children on a meager schoolteacher’s salary. When I became conscious that we went without some desirable things because we didn’t have enough money, I asked my mother why she paid so much of her salary as tithing. I have never forgotten her explanation: “Dallin, there might be some people who can get along without paying tithing, but we can’t because we are poor. The Lord has chosen to take your father and leave me to raise you children. I cannot do that without the blessings of the Lord, and I obtain those blessings by paying an honest tithing. When I pay my tithing, I have the Lord’s promise that He will bless us, and we must have those blessings if we are to get along.”

• MARCH 2012
• THE GOSPEL CULTURE

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The Gospel Culture

By Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

This article is excerpted from an address delivered during a regional stake and district conference broadcast to Africa on November 21, 2010.