Hey everyone. I‘m Sunae. Known to many as Rev. Sunae or Rev. Thomas. I’ve even garnered the nick names of Susu and NaeNae to some. I can’t always control what people call me, but if it’s done with love and respect...I good.

I am the Associate/Assistant Pastor at Community Memorial Baptist Church in Yonkers, NY. Becoming a minister for God was never a part of my plan...not in a million years. Shy me standing before people and talking - ABOUT GOD - are you kidding me! I’d pass out from fear. But here I am still standing. God had his own plan, whether I thought I could do it or not.

Until corona, I was the Recreation Supervisor at the Adult Day Services Program of Warburg in Mt. Vernon. Oh how I miss my registrants and co-workers. Helping seniors maintain their social, emotional, physical, creative and spiritual well-being was and is a wonderful task to be called to do.

I love strawberries, pineapples and all kinds of melons. Give me a honey crisp apple with peanut butter on the side and watch me smile. Or let me have a sweet, ripe mango and there’s no knife available. Watch me make a mess and love it.

I am a mother of 5 grown sons, 9 grand children - one of which now lives with me (she just turned 13 so pray for me), I have 1 “adopted” daughter and one god-daughter. I have three brothers and 2 sisters and many cousins. No mom. No dad. No aunts. No uncles.

Of them all, I am now the matriarch of the family. And you know, I just realized some of what that means. But we’ll save that for another day.

I tell you all this to let you know there is an abundance of love in my world. But there is also a lot of pain. It comes with the package called life. And it’s the same for all of you and those in your circle.

Is there anything we can do about it. Yes! As a woman of faith the first thing I will tell you is that we should keep those in our circle lifted up in prayer. Those of you who don’t believe or worship as I do, please consider it. Things are getting harder everyday for some. So try prayer. And for those of us who do pray, don’t just say “I’ll pray for you“ - do it.

Secondly...and this is the reason that “Blessed By Your Words” exist...we can purpose ourselves to encourage and uplift and empower those around us. There is enough negativity and put downs floating around us everyday. Let us, one to one, try neutralizing some of it by speaking life and love into the atmosphere around us. Let‘s make the power of our words...since they can speak life or death/lift people up or bring them down...have a monumental impact on our circle.

And let’s not do so just once in a while...let it be “how we roll”.