Giving to charity

[dotty2]

With Lent coming up, I've been thinking about our charitable giving. We have direct debits to our church, oxfam and Christian Aid and give about 3.3% of our joint annual income regularly. Some one-offs through the year to church gift day, DEC appeals, sponsoring friends etc probably take that up to 4 and a bit %. But I'm starting to feel like it should be (quite a lot) more. If I'm honest our giving isn't really "sacrificial". But if we gave more, it would probably be the DCs doing some of the sacrificing - fewer holidays, fewer savings for their future etc. Is that fair? What are your thoughts - religiously-motivated or otherwise on sacrificial giving?

(BTW, I realise that I am in a very fortunate position of being comfortably off, and that sacrificial giving means something very different if what you would be giving up are every day things, and not luxuries like holidays)

It depends what is more important to you.

If i can afford to then i donate to a charity that means something to me personally. Or i will buy a little gift for someone in need (anonymously). I can't set up a direct debit as i am not in a position to give regularly.

You shouldn't give more to charity because you feel you should, you should give more because you want to.

I don't think it's so much a case of 'you should do it because you want to', because that's the point about 'sacrificial giving': it's hard to (want to) do something that hurts you. This is something I really struggle with and it's my thing to think about in Lent. I should give much more than I do and this year I'm going to try to struggle against my own consumerist desires (which I do think includes things for the kids)and give more freely and n be always totting up the next purchase for me and putting off giving because of it.

Could you try and quantify your giving in terms of, perhaps, consciously giving X amount to a charity rather than, say spending it on something for yourself / your kids that you / they don't really need?

Eg, just to use a randon example, you see a jumper you like in a shop, it's £20. You could buy it because you do have £20 - but do you actually need it? Or do you have enough jumpers? If not, put the £20 away and give it to charity or add it to your charity 'total'.

It could be a useful exercise to practice through Lent, in terms of making sacrifice, giving to others AND trying to reassess your priorities and your lifestyle?

Just an idea

Thanks everyone. Some interesting thoughts and good ideas here - I do like the idea of consciously giving up something specific at the moment I want it. I'm not very materialistic and don't spend much on clothes, make-up, gadgets etc (have an ancient old mobile, etc). But I do buy lots of books and tend to indulge in takeaway coffees etc when I'm out and about for work. And I am quite indulgent of the kids (compared to how my parents were with me, at least - probably not compared to a contemporary norm!). So I'll try not to do that for Lent and see how it goes.

I had the same dilemma a few years ago and I gradually upped my giving to tithe level have kept it there ever since then.
At the time I was living alone and paying rent/bills, now married with 2 kids, never had massive income. and I've found giving is actually really liberating and rewarding.

First thing you need to do is figure out whether the lord is really laying this on your heart, and if so whether you will respond to it.

IF you do decide to do it, here are some suggestions of ways to make it manageable and also rewarding.

1. If you're worried about coping financially, do it gradually over a period of several months but set yourself a deadline (say by this time next year) to get your giving up to the level which you have decided in your heart to give. Up it by one or two % first of all and see how that works for a few months. You will probably be surprised how little you miss the extra money

1. If you don't already, get a separate account for giving, and set up a monthly direct debit from your main account into your giving account. Train yourself to think of this money as "not yours, but God's"

1. There will be more money in the account than your current direct debits. You get to choose whether to give more to your current charities or pick one or more new ones. This is fun! You also get to do this every time you get a salary increase.

1. I run my account to a surplus, so my direct debits are slightly less than the amount I put in every month. This is partly to prevent giving account from getting charged overdraft fees if anything goes wrong, but also means that after a few months you have a "lump" of money to be given to others as and when the need arises (maybe internationally like Haiti earthquake, but maybe friend who can't afford to replace broken washing machine/repair car, private minor medical treatment for relative.)

Not everyone accepts gifts so you have to approach with care, but when they do it is wonderful being able to help and bless people you care about in a tangible way.

Sorry about the long post. But I've just never looked back, and I think you'll be so blessed by going for this.

Malachi 3v10
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "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."

This is the only place in the whole bible where God invites people to test him!

Tything is massively liberating. We had a sermon once about it and the minister said that he would personally pay anybody who had tried tything and found that they were worse off as a result. We took him at his word and found that we had a surplus. Don't ask me how that happened, I have no other explanation that "God is good".
When you first work out 10% of all your income (pre-tax because God has a greater right than the taxman) you gasp. Until you realise that you still have 9 times as much left over as what you have given away.
And until you realise that a 10% discount is not really all that much.
All I can say is, just try it, we did and have been mightily blessed.

Sacrificial giving is a struggle, by definition.

It is meant to be hard, but we are blessed many times over.

It doesn't do DCs any harm to go without luxuries.

I think Lent gives us a good opportunity to increase our sacrificial giving without making a huge committment. Giving up a luxury for six weeks and passing the savings on is wonderful. I will do my annual booze fast and give a shed load to our mission partners. It is hard for me to do this and I get the spiritual benefits, at the same time, mission partners get a financial benefit (I won't say how much, lol).

That's the funny thing MmeBlueberry, that once you get over the shock it becomes a habit and more of a joy than a sacrifice.

Not had time to check back for a while as no time at my desk during half term. But thank you for those further - very thought-provoking - comments. Next step is to mull it over with DH who is more financially risk-averse than me:significant extra giving (as opposed to £50 here and there) has to be a joint decision for us. Thanks again.