From modest beginnings in Vermont came a man who was self-educated and who became a big success in the business world. His start was in designing, patenting and later manufacturing heavy earth-moving equipment. He also developed a revolutionary electric wheel drive system and was known, as well, for building the Boulder Highway to Hoover Dam in Nevada and the Orange County Dam in California, among other accomplishments.

This individual was Robert G. LeTourneau.

Later in life, he founded LeTourneau Tech, a private Christian university in Longview, Texas.

He was a generous philanthropist and was referred to by many of his contemporaries as “God’s businessman.”

Often speaking of the blessings of paying tithing throughout his life, he was sometimes asked why he did so. In response he was known to say: “It’s a simple matter: Give to the Lord in a thimble, and He gives back in a shovel. You can’t outgive the Lord.”

LeTourneau — and those who accept the principle of “The Lord’s Tenth,” agree that all blessings come from God — and that, when we pay our tithing (a dollar out of every 10 we receive), we are only giving back a small amount of what He has already given to us.

Virtually all honest tithe payers agree.

A Principle with a Promise

Several hundred years before the birth of the Savior lived a prophet by the name of Malachi. His writings and prophecies comprise the last book of the Old Testament. Many of his words ring down through the ages. From the last chapter of this book, we read:

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. ... And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:8-12 KJV — emphasis added).

The rewards of the payment of tithing may not always be in money, of course, but in “blessings unmeasured.” Tithing, as indicated, is a powerful principle with a promise — a promise from God. If we want the blessings, then we must live the law.

The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints is well known for its emphasis on the payment of tithing. It is also known for the vast good that it does worldwide with the tithing, fast offerings, and other humanitarian donations received — giving millions and millions of dollars, as well as goods and services — many times joining with other partners to provide help and relief, such as working with Islamic Charities, Cross Catholic Outreach, the Red Cross, etc.

Some of these efforts include bringing water to whole villages in Africa, delivering wheelchairs by the thousands to those in need, neonatal care, building meeting houses and temples, schools where there are none, responding to a multitude of disasters, and on, and on.

A 2019 report showed the church spending into the billions of dollars in 197 countries in recent years. This is money carefully and judiciously spent, and we have seen the results of many of these efforts, specifically in South Africa where we served a senior mission.

To provide the vast amount of funds needed, members simply fill out a little slip of paper — usually monthly — whereon they designate the amount of their tithing, along with categories for other optional donations (or offerings) such as: fast offerings (designated to help feed the poor), humanitarian efforts, disaster relief, missionary work, etc. They then place the list and the funds in a provided envelope, which they give of their free will to church leaders to be disbursed for a multitude of worthy causes.

It was former Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, who said, “We can pay our tithing. I have yet to find a faithful tithe payer who cannot testify that in a very literal and wonderful way, the windows of heaven have been opened, and blessings have been poured out upon him or her.”

Another church leader and sometime humorist by the name of J. Golden Kimball jokingly said in a Church Conference Report way back in April 1903:

“Some of these men get in debt, and a few of them have told me that the Lord is so merciful — and their creditors are so hard on them — that they will pay them first.” Obviously a humorous, but warped, concept of the principle.

”Now, as we personally contemplate the payment of our “tithes and offerings” in that proverbial “thimble” ... we need to remember the promised blessings that will be ours when we cheerfully and trustingly give to the Lord His tenth — resting assured He will return to us again from His more than generous “shovel.”

And paraphrasing the words of an old hymn: “With blessings unmeasured, our cup will run o’er.”

Of this, we testify.

Dean & Nancy Hoch are members of the local Communication Council of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They may be reached at dean.nancy@gmail.com.