Homecoming :
Stories of Living in God's Way
The Spiritual Practice of Giving – Margee Iddings
My mother was the controller of the purse strings in my growing up family. An elementary school teacher and principal who loved math, mother taught us many things at home by how she lived her values. I think that one of the reasons that she was the first woman elected an elder in our small town Presbyterian Church was that she was a great teacher about the meaning of stewardship.
Picture this:
- it’s Saturday night. Time to pay the bills for the week.
- sitting at the dining room table, mother has a stack of bills
in front of her. On the top of that stack is an unmistakable
pledge envelope.
- before any other financial obligations are settled, my parents’
tithe is prayerfully placed in their pledge envelope.
I remember how excited I was when, as a child, I reached the age where children, also, got a box of envelopes. At first, it was a nickel or dime from mother that I put into my envelope on Saturday night. Later, as I got an allowance and then, eventually, had a job it was my own tithe.
The spiritual discipline of regular giving, and, especially, of tithing, brought incredible joy to my mother. She truly believed that everything that she had was a gift from the Creator. Giving, not until it hurt, but, rather, until one is filled with joy could be a descriptor of mother’s theology.
Now part of the great cloud of witnesses, I sense mother’s presence each time I place my pledge check in the offering plate at Pilgrims. I am grateful for her faithful modeling.
