Excited About Giving

It's tax return time. Everyone is hunting and gathering all of the necessary documents and spending tedious hours filing their returns. The drudgery of the exercise is alleviated by the excitement of "spending" the tax refund.

I've had a lot of fun spending the tax refund over the years. Two years ago, it paid for my fancy-pants DSLR camera. Last year, we paid off debt, and part of it went towards a new guitar for my husband. One year, it paid for a new wood floor in our family room. Non-essential purchases that are pipe-dreams at other times in the year suddenly become possibilities as we speculate on how big the return will be and how far it will go. This year, we hope to get back enough to cover the expenses at the Midwest Homeschool Convention (hotel, meals, and curriculum purchases) as well as our trip to Yellowstone in September. There are home improvement projects I'd love to tackle, and I'd really like a new camera lens too; but, I'm skeptical that the refund will be big enough to cover all those expenses.

As much as I get excited over "spending" the tax refund, I'm even more excited about the opportunity it provides to GIVE. It is our practice to tithe off of our tax refund just as we tithe off of my husband's regular income. It's not a legalistic thing that we do out of compulsion, but a joyous occasions to give back to God a part of what He has given to us. It's all His anyway; giving a tenth is truly the least we can do.

Our normal tithe throughout the year goes to our local church. The tithe off our income tax refund is an opportunity to support a charity, organization, or individual that we don't regularly support throughout the year. Over the years, we've had a lot of fun prayerfully deciding where our tithe should go, and we've had some awesome opportunities to use it to bless others. It's impossible not to be cheerful about giving from our abundance. It's really quite fun!

This year there are so many needs: Haiti; an upcoming church missions trip to build houses in Mazatlan, MX; friends who are raising money for adoption; families who are struggling from unemployment... The more we give, the more we are challenged to give more, and the less it makes sense to keep.

I don't know if other families tithe off of their income tax refunds, but I hope they do. The Bible says, "God loves a cheerful giver." If you can't give cheerfully, it's time to examine your heart to determine why that's the case. Everything we have comes from God, and we are to be good stewards of it all. We need to hold everything with an open hand and be generous. If we don't make a conscious decision beforehand to give, it's very easy to spend it all without a thought of others or of what God desires.

I challenge you to prayerfully consider how you can give. For many of us, the tax refund is a bonus, so you really don't have any excuse not to give. Don't rob yourself and others of the blessing that comes from giving cheerfully by clinging too tightly to the things of this world. Embrace the opportunity to make an eternal investment. You won't regret it!!

So, what are your tax refund wish-list items, and what charities or individuals has God placed on your heart to whom you can give? I'd love to hear!

Grace and Peace,
Angel