27July2003

Two weeks ago I substitute taught a primary class. The assigned topic happened to be tithing. I almost chuckled about the coincidence since I recently railed on tithing in one of my blog entries.

It seemed like I faced a lot of temptations the week prior to preparing for the lesson. I did my best to shun these and I had a pretty good time teaching the lesson. I think I avoided teaching some of the material because I didn’t feel comfortable teaching everything included in the church publication of lesson 24 The Widow's Mite .

One of the activities in the lesson was to present coins to the children. I handed ten pennies to a child (child A) and asked him to hand them to another child (child B) in the class. Then I asked the recipient (B) if he would be willing to give one coin back or more to the child (A) who gave them to him. He was. When I asked why, child B said it was because the child A had given them to him. It was very simple. It helped me realize how simple tithing can be if we just remember that God has given everything. Believing that I suppose can be difficult times, but I guess the lesson helped me to not resent tithing as much.

The kids were fascinated by the “Tithing and Other Offerings” slip of the church. The bishops daughter was in the class and started filling out the slip so she could donate to every category listed (in order from top to bottom: Tithing, Fast Offering, Ward missionary, Book of Mormon, Humanitarian aid, Temple construction, Perpetual education, Other (specify)).