General Conference Odyssey post on the Welfare session of October 1980.

President Spencer W. Kimball spoke on Tithing. He shares a fairly well-known story about Mary Fielding Smith being told that because she was a widow she shouldn’t have to pay her tithing. Her famous snappy remark, that she expects the blessings that come from her paying her tithing, is often used as a great example of understanding the law of tithing. Pres. Kimball shares her testimony of tithing and urges us to look up the rest of the story, told by her son, President Joseph F. Smith, where he shares his own testimony of tithing as a result of his mother’s example.

Below is the rest of the story:

“When William Thompson told my mother that she ought not to pay tithing, I thought he was one of the finest fellows in the world. I believed every word he said. I had to work and dig and toil myself. I had to help plow the ground, plant the potatoes, hoe the potatoes, dig the potatoes, and all like duties, and then to load up a big wagon-box full of the very best we had, leaving out the poor ones, and bringing the load to the tithing office, I thought in my childish way that it looked a little hard, specially when I saw certain of my playmates and early associates of childhood, playing round, riding horses and having good times, and who scarcely ever did a lick of work in their lives, and yet were being fed from the public crib. Where are those boys today? Are they known in the Church? Are they prominent among the people of God? Are they or were they ever valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ? Have they a clear testimony of the truth in their hearts? Are they diligent members of the Church? No; and never have been, as a rule, and most of them are dead or vanished out of sight. Well, after I received a few years of experience, I was converted, I found that my mother was right and that William Thompson was wrong. He denied the faith apostatized, left the country, and led away as many of his family as would go with him. I do not want you to deny me the privilege of being numbered with those who have the interests of Zion at heart, and who desire to contribute their proportion to the upbuilding of Zion, and for the maintenance of the work of the Lord in the earth. It is a blessing that I enjoy, and I do not propose that anybody shall deprive me of that pleasure.”

The complete story can be found in Gospel Doctrine by Joseph F. Smith, pp. 330-333 (Kindle).