Tithing With a Twist

'Reversible Cable Shawl' - Ruth Thompson
The Prayer Shawl Comapnion

I've been tithing money (giving 10% of my income) through my church for many years now -- close to twenty, I think.  Today, though I was  watching the daily Joyce Meyer broadcast on the computer (I do this most days with my morning coffee).  She was taking Q&A about giving, with her assistant, Ginger Stache (pronounced 'stocky').  One viewer had written in about tithing time and talents as well as money, and that got me thinking.

I enjoy knitting prayer shawls and items for our Mitten Tree at St. Cyprian's, Lacombe, but I've found that I've been shrugging off this activity in favour of other so-called priorities.  I have a pair of mittens, a toque, and a cabled prayer shawl all on the needles...destined to stay there for months if I keep on like this.

I also enjoy reading the Divine Office four to six times a day with Macrina Wiederkher's Seven Sacred Pauses.


Now, as Joyce responded to her viewer, suppose I assume I'm awake 16 hours a day.  In  a week, that would be 112 hours (16 x 7).  Ten per cent of that would be 11.2 hours a week (let's make that 11 1/4 hours for simplicity's sake).  Well, 11.25/7 = 1.6 hours per day, or 1 hour and 36 minutes per day, or 96 minutes per day.

If I use a full six Daily Offices (dawn to dark), that would work out to 96/6 = 16 minutes each during which I could complete the given Office and meditate on it while I knit on a prayer shawl or Mitten Tree project.  Who knew?  A tonic for the soul, and work from my hands that will actually get finished!

Oh -- and I'd still have 6.75 hours (405 minutes) each and every day in which to eat, bathe, exercise, nap, go online, work in the studio...