Following the command

As with all the commandments, if you make a firm decision early about tithing, then you never have to decide it again. And that's the way I grew up. You always paid your tithing first, and there was never a question about when you pay your tithing. You pay your tithing, first, because it's a commandment, second, because it's a blessing, and third, because it helps you keep the other commandments, because it allows you to have the Spirit that reminds you that everything you have is really the Lord's.

In addition to recognizing that nothing is actually yours, one of the blessings that comes from paying tithing is how you use the other money that you have. You learn the principles of thrift, and you're likely to listen to what the prophets have to say about avoiding unnecessary debt and deciding what is a want versus a need. The law of tithing is both substantive in the sense that it is real and you can count it, but it's also symbolic in terms of how you feel about other things.