Mind Your Business

Mind Your Own Business

As a child, pestering my older siblings as younger siblings are want to do, I can recall being told, “Mind your own business.”

Perhaps you also heard that refrain from your playmates or even from your parents, teachers or other adults when you interjected yourself into situations that did not concern you.

I believe that it is actually very good advice. The First Continental Congress certainly thought so. When the first penny coin minted by that august body was struck in 1787, it bore the motto “Mind Your Business”. What sage advice to the citizens of the fledgling nation.

At that time, the ink on the U.S. Constitution was barely dry and the document not yet ratified by the States. Much work was to be done to secure the safety and organizational integrity of the nascent Republic.

It was a time when each Citizen could best serve their country by minding their own business; as a farmer, blacksmith, sawyer, cobbler, printer, baker, or candlestick maker. The products and services of each one, produced with integrity and competence, were required for their well being and the well being of their neighbors. The commerce that would ensue with the exchange of these goods and services would enable them to lay the foundation of a country that would later cover nearly an entire continent and lead the world in many ways.

At some point, things went awry. The causes for this and the subsequent costs incurred are beyond the scope of this missive.

But truth remains true despite the actions of men or nations to the contrary. And the truth is that the admonition to mind your own business did not originate in 1787 with the Continental Congress.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (in the Bible)reads:

“11…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.” (NIV)

There are five real good bits of advice there:

• “Lead a quiet life.” Don’t strive to be noticed. Stay “under the radar.” “Fools’ names, like fools’ faces, are often seen in public places.”( Thomas Fowler)

• “Mind your own business” This would seem to be common sense, but then, “common sense is not so common.” (Voltaire)

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." (Abraham Lincoln)

• “Work with your hands.” Be busy doing something productive that will earn the respect of others.

• Don’t “be dependent on others.” Ultimately you become the chattel of the entity you rely on.

Maybe we would do well to re-instate "Mind Your Business" as our National Motto.

Think about it.

I'm Back!

WOW! It has been a long time since last I posted here. Lots has happened; some good, some not so much. In it all, God has shown his goodness and faithfulness. Several times I have thought to make a posting but, to tell the truth, I couldn’t remember how to get back here. Yesterday I decided to make a new blog and in the process, found my way back to this one. I am so happy with this!

We live in times that hold abundant peril requiring preparations be made to establish a sustainable, life-sustaining lifestyle. My work here on our homestead has taken on a new sense of importance and urgency. By God’s grace, I am now able to devote my full attention to it.

As a husband and a father, it is and has been my responsibility to be provider and protector to my wife and to our children while they were in our care. Scripture mandates and largely defines this position of responsibility. Paul wrote regarding the responsibility of providing for one’s family to Timothy:

“But those who won’t care (provide) for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers.” (Timothy 5:8)

This verse appears in the context of caring for widows within the church. However, it is rightly expanded upon to include providing for one’s family, in many ways; providing clothing, food, and shelter at least.

To the Ephesians Paul wrote:

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…” (Eph. 5:25)

Can there be any doubt that giving one’s self for his wife is an act of providing for her? What riches Christ provided to the church when he gave himself for it! Without a doubt, this entails providing protection from harm.

Likewise, scripture provides stern warnings to those whose function and responsibility it is to watch for and warn others of impending harm or destruction.

“…take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. ” (Ezekiel 33:2- 6)

Whatever my performance of these God-given responsibilities in the past, I am not excused from performing them now to the best of my ability. To this end, I offer the following:

For months I have been reading and hearing reports concerning events in the U.S. and around the world that cause me concern. I won’t try to list them all here. Let it suffice to say that the political, economical, and social news does not bode well for the future in this country or in most other parts of the world. I firmly believe that America, as we have known it, is about to change drastically and suddenly. The current standard and means of living that we enjoy in this country are not sustainable. Our system of government, economy, and society, being completely intertwined, will collapse under their combined weight. Those people, who are attached to the “system” and dependent upon it for their sustenance, will find themselves displaced, disenfranchised and in many cases, desperate. The wiser individuals, seeing the icebergs ahead will get off the boat. They will position themselves out of harm’s way.

That is what I am trying to do here. Trusting God for his care and provision, I seek to follow his leading. In future posts I will share with you some of the things taking place here in the hope that you will find my efforts informative, helpful, or at least entertaining.