A Commandment With Promise

Tithing: A Privilege by Ronald E. Poelman of the Seventy (April 1998 Gen. Conf.)

As a young married couple, my wife and I were expecting the birth of our first child. I was studying law at the university and working nights in a gasoline station. We had very little money. We had furnished our small basement apartment with some used furniture and many wooden boxes.

As the time of the birth approached, we had assembled everything we would need, except we had no bed for the baby and no money to buy one.

It was our practice at that time to pay our tithing each month on fast Sunday. As that day approached, we discussed the possibility of postponing the paying of our tithing so that we could make an initial payment on a baby bed. In the spirit of the fast, and after praying, we decided to pay the tithing and trust our Heavenly Father.

A few days later, I was walking in the business district of the city and unexpectedly met my former mission president, who asked if I was in school or working at a job. I replied that I was doing both.

Was I married? “Yes!”

Did we have children? “No, but our first child will be born in just a few weeks.”

“Do you have a bed for the baby?” he asked. “No,” I replied reluctantly, startled by the direct question.

“Well,” he said, “I am now in the furniture business, and it would please me to have a baby bed delivered to your apartment as a gift.”

A great feeling of relief, gratitude, and testimony came over me.

The gift filled a temporal need but is still a poignant reminder of the spiritual experience that accompanied it, confirming again that the law of tithing is a commandment with a promise.