The other day while on Twitter, Serenity asked if I was going to be ready for my guest blog?! Excuse me?! I didn't remember signing up to write a post when I agreed to do the 21 day fast. I quickly scanned her archives and saw that I had been assigned a post. I didn't sign up for this! My own blog is threatening to disown me for neglect, how was I expected to guest blog on another person's blog. Since I fear Vicki's wrath, I did my assignment.

To give you a little background on me, I grew up attending white churches and didn't step foot into a black church until I was about 16 years old. I now attend an all black church, but what I remember about the white churches I attended is that everyone tithed and we rarely had tithing sermons. I never realized that people have issues with tithing until I became older and I heard people complaining about not wanting to give their crooked pastor any more money.  I also didn't understand the jokes people made about the multiple offerings until later on in life.  I have been lucky that the two black churches I have attended as an adult are good stewards of the money that is brought in.

This chapter struck a nerve with me because I have been dealing with questions on how much to tithe (gross vs. net) and at what intervals (monthly vs. weekly). I'm a business owner who pays herself monthly and tries to tithe as well as give offerings. In the past when my business was structured as an LLC, I tithed based on the amount that I deposited in my personal account. My money wasn't taxed at that point, so it didn't bother me to tithe on my gross income. I now have an S corporation and as of January, I pay myself a salary similar to what I earned when I last worked for a company in 2003.  I hadn't received W-2 wages since 2003 and it had been so long that I forgot how much money they take out. When I saw how little was left in my check after taxes and 401k contributions, I freaked out. I have only been tithing on my net this year and sometimes worry that I will have to dip my hand into the business account before payday. I know I'm not in the perfect will of God because the Holy Spirit convicts me about this each and every month. I plan to bite the bullet and go back to tithing on the gross...  I also struggle with paying my tithes all in one lump sum or spreading it out over the weeks. I don't want to be the person with nothing to put in the collection basket some weeks, but if I don't tithe the entire amount when I get paid, I find other selfish uses for that money. I plan to remedy that by paying my full tithes after I get paid, and giving an offering on subsequent weeks. I know that God will provide for me and I need to exercise my faith. Letting go and writing that check has definitely been a struggle though.

This chapter also talked about tithing not being a money back guarantee and that reminded me of a situation that recently occurred at my church. My pastor offered a challenge to first time tithers at the beginning of the year. If God didn't return their tithes to them within say a month, he would refund all of their money. It was his version of a money back guarantee and a good number of people took the challenge. Week after week, first time tithers emailed or called the church with testimonies about how God returned their money. It was inspiring to hear about people stretching their faith and God coming out to meet it. This week a first time tither wanted the church to refund the $1600 she had tithed up until this point. The pastor spoke about the issue briefly at my service and said he would refund the money from his own personal account because the church has already cashed the checks. I KNOW everyone in the church had an opinion about the matter. I felt like the person missed the spirit of the challenge and probably expected $1600 to reappear in their account when they might have been given extra peace or something else they had been praying for. I hope the person learns the true reason for tithing, but they may not be mature enough to tithe and should just stick to what they know for now. I'm not sure if the pastor will continue the challenge or not, but I think it has been a good thing so far.

For the daily assignment I was to look at my discretionary spending and find areas to cut back on so that I could tithe more. I called my cable company to see how much money I would save by removing my HD cable and have been weighing lowering the amount of money budgeted for clothing and eating out. My existing budget is pretty lean already and the only way to really free up any cash is in the mortgage area, but I can't refinance and I'm resistant to having a roommate. I guess I will need God's guidance in this area. This fast will definitely let me see how much money I can save by not eating out most days of the month, so I'm interested to see that number for myself.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or answers from the daily assignment.