When I was 10 years old, my family and I were baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Entering the covenant path brought some profound changes to our lives. I had never attended any church before. I now understand that those changes reflected our sincere efforts to apply the doctrine of Jesus Christ in our lives.
Perhaps the change that required the greatest faith and sacrifice was to honorably pay a full tithe.
Those were difficult years financially. My mother had separated from my father and worked tirelessly to provide for our family. Supporting eight children—most of us still very young—was no easy task. Yet when the missionaries taught us the law of tithing, my mother chose to trust the Lord’s promise as recorded by Malachi: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” ( Malachi 3:10 ).
The Lord taught this important principle:
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
“And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” ( Doctrine and Covenants 130:20–21 ).
I bear witness to this great truth.
As the Lord declared, “Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled?” ( Doctrine and Covenants 58:31 ).
Sometimes we expect the Lord’s blessings to come the way we would wish, rather than in His own way and timing.
After a sacrament meeting, a faithful sister shared that her testimony of the law of tithing had begun to weaken. She explained that although she had always paid a full tithe, she had never received the job promotion she had hoped for nor even the salary increase she deserved.
The counsel I gave her is the same counsel I share with you today.
In his address “ The Windows of Heaven ,” Elder David A. Bednar taught, “As we live the law of tithing, we often receive significant but subtle blessings that are not always what we expect and easily can be overlooked” ( Liahona , Nov. 2013, 17).
Elder Bednar’s words prompted me to make a list of the blessings I have received through faithfully paying my tithing. The Holy Ghost helped me recognize many blessings:
I have enjoyed steady employment for many years.
My wife, my children, and I have been blessed with good health.
Our home and temporal possessions have been preserved, even during difficult times.
The Lord has blessed me with the ability to manage my time and resources so I could obtain an education.
I have developed the gift of gratitude by learning to appreciate the Lord’s hand in each of His tender mercies.
I have learned to recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost when making important decisions in my life.
These blessings, both temporal and spiritual—and many others—are evidence that the Lord has indeed opened the windows of heaven and poured out His promised blessings in abundance. I invited that sister to write her own list of the significant yet subtle blessings the Lord had given her—blessings that are often easy to overlook.
Later I heard another faithful sister share in a sacrament meeting that the 20-liter (5-gallon) propane tank in her home had lasted far longer than she had expected. It almost seemed as though it would never run out. She knew this was one of the Lord’s tender mercies for paying an honorable tithing.
I was reminded of the Lord’s words to the children of Israel: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot” ( Deuteronomy 29:5 ).
Have you ever asked yourselves whether the Lord has caused your personal possessions to last longer because you have faithfully lived the law of tithing?
I have seen those subtle blessings many times in my own life.
When I think of my mother’s faith during those difficult years, I also think of the widow of Zarephath.
The Lord told Elijah, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath … : behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee” ( 1 Kings 17:9 ).
Elijah found the widow gathering sticks. He asked her for some water and for a morsel of bread. She explained that she had only a handful of meal and a little oil—enough to prepare one final meal for herself and her son and then die.
Elijah then said, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son” ( 1 Kings 17:13 ).
He promised that her barrel of meal would not be exhausted and her cruse of oil would not fail until the Lord sent rain upon the earth.
She “did according to the saying of Elijah” ( 1 Kings 17:15 ).
Elijah understood that blessings will come after the trial of our faith. The widow trusted in Elijah’s words and offered up all that she had (see also Mark 12:41–44 ).
Then the Lord’s promise was fulfilled: “And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah” ( 1 Kings 17:16 ).
I am especially grateful that my mother trusted the Lord’s promises and chose to live the law of tithing regardless of our difficult circumstances.
I bear my testimony that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He knows each of us and is aware of our needs even before we ask (see Matthew 6:8 ). I testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that He directs His Church today. He gives us commandments because He wants us to receive His blessings.
When we live the law of tithing, the Lord indeed opens the windows of heaven and pours out His promised blessings “that there shall not be room enough to receive it” ( Malachi 3:10 ). I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.