Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on first things first. I waited until he got to the bedroom and I quickly ran up and changed the channel to 373, The Word Network. I said, "Honey, Past

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on first things first. I waited until he got to the bedroom and I quickly ran up and changed the channel to 373, The Word Network. I said, "Honey, Pastor Jamal is going to be on Paula White Ministry and you've got to see it."

He said "Ok." I was happy that he was willing to watch with me. As he stood in the middle of the room watching, I stood right behind him. After the program was off, I asked what his thought on the first fruit was. He said it made sense. After introducing the idea to him, I left the room. I waited until the next morning and while we were sitting at the table I said, " Honey, I was hoping you give first fruit with your first paycheck in January."

He understood why I wanted him to participate and loved how I explained it to him, but he had already made plans to use the money for something else. There was no changing his mind. He had his heart set on using his first paycheck to purchase parts for his motorcycle.

Since getting his motorcycle chrome out was a big deal to him, I had to drop the issue for the moment, but I was not finished with him yet. Later that evening I repeated what he had said about first fruit and how he agreed that it is important back to him. He finally said, "Well, I knew you were going to do what you wanted anyway. If it makes you happy go ahead."

After thinking about it, I did not use his check for the first fruit. I paid the bills and decided to ask about giving the first fruit two months before the New Year. I would still use the same approach, but I would start earlier in getting him prepared to give up his whole paycheck.