Don't know whether to feel proud or disappointed...

So I learned today (again) that my family's parish giving represents about 1% of our parish budget. This was also true last year. Now we're fortunate enough to be a two-income family where both of us are engineers, so we're comfortable. Are we that well off, or are others less charitable than we? We give to other charities besides our parish, and we do try to meet the scriptural goal of 10% as a total.

I heard a statistic that the "average" American (whoever that is), gives about 2% of their income to church or charity. The "average" Christian American gives about 2.8%, compared to a scriptural goal (considered a requirement under Mosaic law) of 10%.

I don't feel like we do anything to be proud of - we only answer God's challenge to allow others to be blessed through His blessings to us. A good friend of mine has a prayer for his family: "Lord, please continue to bless us, so that we may bless others." Anyway, it is all God's, not ours, so it is only right to return some of what He lends us back to Him to be used again for others.