The Precious Stone

Well as discussed previously, I am a big fan of the 10% rule. Pretty key to the Christian teachings, though I am not terribly religious. I believe in giving because it is the right thing to do and it makes me happy when I help others.

In our family giving takes the form of volunteer labor hours, donation of property and donation of cash. This is distributed between my Lutheran church, United Way, Robbinsdale Area Schools/ Students, PRISM and all those other miscellaneous fund raisers. So though my church will never see 10% of my income, I thought the following "Tithe Sunday" story they sent out was worth posting:

"A monk in his travels once found a precious stone and kept it. One day he met a traveler, and when the monk opened his bag to share his provisions with him, the traveler saw the stone and asked the monk to give it to him.The monk did so readily.

The traveler departed, overjoyed with the unexpected gift of the precious stone that was enough to give him wealth and security for the rest of his life. However, a few days later he came back in search of the monk, found him, gave him back the stone, and entreated him, "Now give me something much more precious than the stone, valuable as it is. Give me the wisdom that enabled you to give it to me."

So what do you think? What keeps you from tithing? Some typical excuses I hear are:

• I give through the government provided social services. (ie high taxes)
• I don't make enough money as it is.
• I don't have enough time to volunteer.
• Those people are just lazy and don't deserve my money / effort.
• Other ???

Any others you plan to use at those pearly gates?