Tithing On a Shoestring!

Wow I have heard this story before in various pieces and i have even read this article several time. "Mom" I was just completely struck by how open and vulnerable You make you yourself for the sake of the message thank you




Tithing On a Shoestring!
by Major Betzann Carroll

You can decorate on a budget and travel on “next to nothing”. So, why not tithe on a shoestring? Sounds like it could be done, giving ten percent of the whole.
But…is it possible to give all!

After resigning as a Salvation Army Lieutenant (minister) in Boston, MA, I took my meager savings ($689.00) and a few boxes containing everything I owned in the world and moved to Florida to marry a man I hardly knew. I worked with him right after high school. Although there was no formal engagement, he did say he wanted to marry me. I was sure he had. As I watched my every penny disappear I asked the question, is it? What is left? How do you tithe on nothing? What if I give all?

I arrived at the Daytona Beach Airport for the second time in my life. The first time I visited for a week, now I was going to live here. On the plane my mind scrambled over the details. I would live with his grandmother until I found my own place. I had a job lined up as a teacher at a Christian school. I thought I would be married and live happily ever after. Wrong!

My husband-to-be was at the airport but there was something about his welcome that made me uneasy. We recovered my belongings and after his complaining, we were on our way. Funny, but a few boxes representing twenty-four years of my life didn’t seem excessive to me. He dropped my boxes off in front of the house, introduced me to his grandmother, and was on his way to work. After lugging the boxes into the garage, I had supper and was shown to my room. This was my first night and the beginning of a series of events, which would deplete every penny I had.

First, a place to live!
I paid an agency to help me find an apartment. The agency simply dropped “the book”, a collection of current listings in front of me. Somehow I thought there would be an interview, personal advice or someone to show me apartments. The listing, meant nothing to me without a car or knowledge of the area. The listings were just addresses. I started looking myself. I found a rooming house and rented a room with kitchen and bathroom privileges. The room was fair. I moved in. The first night I slept with the lights on to keep the roaches away. The second, third, and fourth nights I slept with the lights on for a very different reason. All night long I heard men coming and going. Funny, there weren't any men living in the house when I moved in. On the fifth night I heard more than voices, and I was out the next day. Again I walked the streets until I found a garage apartment. It was small but mine. I lost the rent on the first room and paid a security deposit and rent on the new apartment. The money I paid the agency was gone as well.

Second, a job!
The teaching position I was promised was no longer available. The school said they did not have the funds, but I also knew they had other reservations. After my first interview I realized they felt very different about women in ministry and the types of ministry The Salvation Army practiced.
I looked in the newspapers and then paid an employment agency to help me. Since age eleven or twelve I had never been without some kind of job. There went more of my savings!

I guess I should have learned but the agency merely offered me “a list and a promise to do better next week”. I finally asked my “husband-to-be” to hire me since he managed three Burger Kings. His reply was that it would not be good for our relationship. What relationship! I barely saw him. He was working or with his friends. He had not mentioned the word marriage since I arrived. He asked me to join him once and said, “If my friend offers you a drink just take it. Don’t embarrass me.” Yet, when the drink was offered, I simply said no thank you. I guess he was embarrassed because he never asked me again. Working for him may not have been good for our relationship, but it would have been healthy for me, since I needed to eat. There had to be a job somewhere. I walked the full length of the beach stopping at every business, store and stand. At the city limit I turned and continued on the other side of the street. When I stopped to look at the ocean I saw the motel sign “Inn On The Beach” hotel. The billboard in front said “Why Go Further, Stop Here!” So I did. I went in and was hired on the spot. Management reminded us all the time that maids were a “dime a dozen”, but it was a job. Another woman, Marilyn, was hired the same day. She was my first and only friend in town. She lived in a camper with her daughter.

Third, the doctor bills!
The combination of the blazing Florida sun, my stressful quest to get settled, and my diet, or should I say lack of “one” made me weak. Finally, I could not keep going and passed out a few times. Forced to go to the doctor, he said I had anemia and a few other “little” things, but the cost was not “little”. I could not afford the medication and I would not ask “my husband-to-be” or anyone else for help. The realization of a zero balance set in. Even my job held a week’s pay back.

I had Sunday off. That Saturday night I had ten dollars to my name and a handful of change I found in my pockets and boxes. I called The Salvation Army. There was a church by the hotel. I could take the bus with the coins. That morning the minister spoke about tithing and the conflict began. The church also took the offering after the sermon. How could I tithe? How could I give? All I had was a ten dollar bill.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house…and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Malachi 3:10

“When you hold back on God you are stealing from Him.” I knew that.
“When you give to God and trust Him, He will care for you.” I knew that.
“God knows your situation.” I knew that too. .Everything I had planned for was gone, along with my savings. How could I have thought this was God’s leading? I was lonely, bewildered, and confused. All I had was a ten dollar bill. That’s it! If I gave the ten I would have to walk home and walk to work. I guess I didn’t have to eat. Sometimes vacationers would leave food in the rooms and the maids could have it or throw it away. I would find something. Listen to me! There wasn’t much difference between the” ketchup sandwiches” I was eating and the cornhusks that the prodigal son ate. “God, I know I am not where I am supposed to be but here I am.” The music played and the offering plates moved from row to row. How convenient to take up the offering after the sermon. What would I do? Should I put the ten-dollar bill in? “Lord, if I put this bill in I have nothing. It is all I have in the world,” then I dropped it in the plate. I had nothing! I walked home, I walked the beach all afternoon alone and afraid, cried myself to sleep and walked to work the next day.

In the morning as I opened the door to the hotel Marilyn greeted me. I was worn out. Frizzy hair, scarlet cheeks and a film of mud and sweat dripping down my face made it obvious that I had walked a distance. “Hey, listen I heard the office staff talking”, she said. “They said some customer checked out this morning talking about the spelling of your name. They left an envelope for you and if you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it.” So she gave me a push and said, “So, go ask for it!” There was an envelope with my name on it. The envelope I signed and left in the room I cleaned. . I was almost afraid to open it. My last ten-dollar bill was now in a church treasurer’s hands or on the way to the bank. I ripped the envelope open and then slowing, reached in. Marilyn watched as I pulled out the contents. Inside the envelope was…not a ten-dollar bill! Inside the envelope was a twenty-dollar bill and a note “God Bless you.” Can you believe it? I gave God my last ten; my only ten and He gave me a twenty! He doubled my gift. I gave Marilyn ten dollars for helping me and we went to work.

God answered my question. You can tithe on nothing. Later I received my first check. At the end of the summer I had earned enough to return to the Boston area and leave what I think of now as “my training ground”. I went back to the very place where I resigned. Today after thirty years of ministry as a Salvation Army officer with my husband and family, I will always remember this valuable lesson. However, I will never question tithing again. My husband and I practice the Biblical teaching of tithing and teach our soldiers as well. Thank you, Lord, for your personal answer at a very difficult time in my life.