'Angels to Bear You Up' recounts the dilemma of paying rent or tithing

As wonderful as this was, there was yet one more lesson I learned from this experience. I continued to sell Fuller Brush products right up to the time I left on my mission, and never again did a single customer pay me up front. Not once. That’s when I realized the Lord had really opened that door for me. It wasn’t luck or just my hard work. The Lord had created such good feelings in each home I visited that first week on the job that every single customer trusted me, a complete stranger, to take their money first and return with their orders later.

The Lord had given me a testimony of the blessings of paying a full tithing first before worrying about worldly debts. I knew I had been blessed to earn all I needed that week and only the Lord could have opened that door.

This blessing of having the faith to keep this particular commandment had its start when I was only a child of 10, as I watched and learned from my mother’s example. And it came full-circle in my life as I experienced my own moment of choice as a young woman when faced with a difficult adult decision that could bring some unpleasant consequences. This faith to do the right thing led to a strong testimony of tithing that has served me all my life.

Judy C. Olsen has been writing and editing for the LDS audience for many years. She and her husband, Don, live in Sandy, Utah, and are parents of four children and grandparents of 16 grandchildren. Judy enjoys writing, sewing and crafts.