The Perfect Sunday

Last Sunday I sat in church while Keiko Anderson, a beautiful mommi, wife, and attorney delivered the sermon.

I always get really excited when I see a female at the pulpit! Don’t get it twisted, I absolutely love my Pastor, Gaylon Clark. I look forward to his sermon every week but there is something very empowering, inspiring and uplifting about seeing a beautiful woman that looks like me share her interpretation and experience with The Word.

When she started her sermon she was charismatic, funny and confident and I was into it.

Then she read the Bible verse and I was appalled.

Mind yo business?!?

That can’t be in the Bible!

I know for sure the Lord doesn’t want me to mind my business! Does He?

But there it was. Plain as day:

1 Thessalonians 4:1, 9-12 New International Version (NIV)

Living to Please God

4 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.

9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Being a Star Witness

Her sermon title, fitting for her expertise, “Being a star witness!”

As a lawyer, she knows, most cases are won or lost based on your witness. No one cares what the defendant has to say. He/she will always come across biased, but the witness…. the witness is everything! The judge and the jury will rely heavily on the witness. They will hang on their every word, watch their disposition and attitude and ultimately decide the fate of the defendant based on the witness.

And that’s true about how people judge the Lord! They will base the goodness of Jesus on what they see in His people. They will choose to walk with Him, choose to give their lives to Him, many times because of what they see in us. As crazy as it sounds it’s so true. I decided to seriously start my walk with Christ because of what I saw in my Aunt Maureen. When she lost her son at 22, she had a peace about her that surpassed earthly understanding.  She was stronger than most of us and kept it together because as much as she loved Kevin, she knew God loved him more. I was too young to really understand the depth of that kind of faith but as a mother now, I have even greater admiration for her.

Keiko then went on to share the four stars that we needed to be a star witness for Christ.

  • Love More and More
  • Lead a Quiet life
  • Mind Your Business
  • Work

How do I mind my business from a biblical perspective?

When Keiko got to the part I couldn’t wait to hear, because I had never heard anyone preach about this verse in the Bible, she asked for four people to join her on stage to do a demonstration. I’m usually the first to volunteer for everything but my Mom looked at me like, “please San, not today!” Hater….

When the four women got on stage Keiko asked two of them to grab a hula hoop. She explained that the hula hoop represented their business and what she wanted them to do was simple. Just mind their business while doing one other thing… reading the Bible. It was comical to watch these two ladies attempt to keep the hula hoop up while reading the Bible that was being held by the third volunteer into a mic held by the fourth! They couldn’t do it!

Then she asked them to get into the other person’s business, now this was just insane!

It was a genius depiction of a very important message.

We cannot fulfill the purpose of our lives if we don’t focus on what God has put in front of us.

In Her Words

Can you imagine the effect it has on the Kingdom when we spend so much of our time worried about affairs that have nothing to do with us? Everything God has for us requires our intentionality, our work, and our attention. When we stop, our progress for the kingdom stops and we only have a finite amount of time to accomplish our work and we have no idea when our time will end.

She then went on to say that it also affects our personal goals, dreams, and ambitions. She asked, have you finished the book you were supposed to write, have you finished your business plan, finished raising your children, have you finished school, remedied your broken relationships?

WOW….

We so loosely tell people to mind their business, and usually in a negative way, that I never took the time took the time to think of the positive impacts of minding my own business. I can think of numerous times when I got involved in situations that were none of my business or stayed in too long and now I am crystal clear as to how I will temper my enthusiasm before crossing the line!

No, Keiko wasn’t saying that we should NEVER get in another person’s business that would be absurd. God does intend for us to be in relationship, and He does call us to get in the weeds with others but if our intentions aren’t noble we shouldn’t be in it! Then we should also seek guidance on when to get out. Many times our work is done long before we decide to let go and that is usually when things go sour.

I’m so happy that I attended Church last Sunday, and I’m so happy that I got to hear this incredible mommi share! You can listen and watch the entire sermon here!

Until next time,

and don’t forget…. mind yo business! LOL

Mommi Sanya