“I’ve noticed certain things. You take alcoholic drink. You keep bad company. I won’t be surprise if you womanize. Another is that you don’t attend church. You are not a member of any church true or false?”

“You are right Mum,” I answered in a low voice.

I felt ashamed of myself. I never knew Mummy took note of me that much. It’s been 6 months since we started living together in the same compound. She had always encouraged me to give my life to Christ. She even invited me to church but I told her that I have my own church. I thought that I was smart and could cover my tracks. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

“Some time ago, I invited you to church but you told me that you can’t afford to miss your church service. Little did I know that dancing club is your church? The Holy Spirit told me that you were telling lies but I decided to give you a benefit of the doubt. Thank God that today, the truth is out.”

She paused for a while before continuing her speech. Obviously she was doing that to enable me digest every of her word.

“I wish I can make this woman happy. I wish it is possible to live the kind of life she expects me to live.” I thought to myself.

“You are an adult. I can’t force you to do what you don’t want to do. But I will always tell you the truth. Kelvin you need Christ in your life. A life without Christ is vanity. I have seen potentials in you. The only way to fulfilling those potentials is to surrender to Christ. Make Jesus the captain of your ship and he will sail you to the desired end. My brother; John, surrendered his life to Christ at an early age. God took over him and made things smooth for him. He attended the best of schools but I did not spend much. He won a scholarship that saw him through his secondary and university studies. You were present the day I was blessing him. Everything I said that day was the truth. John fears the Lord. He is humble, obedient and hard working. If not that he fears God, do you think that he will surrender those stuffs for a hundred thousand naira?”

“You are right ma. I never believed he will obey you.”

“But he did because he is a child of God. Not necessarily for my sake. He showed you the love of God. Kelvin, you need to give God a chance in your life. He has done so much for you. All he asks in return is for you to recognize his lordship over your life. He will take care of you here on earth and guarantee you eternity with him at the end of life. Do you understand me?”

“I understand you Mum. I have decided to surrender my life to Christ.”

“Hallelujah!” Mummy shouted in excitement.

“Another thing is that I want you to follow me to church on Sunday. Will you do that for me?”

“Sure Mum. I will go with you.”

“Wonderful. I’m so happy. Please, bow down your head let’s pray”
**********
There was a knock on my door. I opened the door and saw Mummy standing, carrying a plate of food. Mummy sends Chika, her daughter, to bring food to me every Sunday afternoon. But for her to bring the food herself, I had to protest.

“Mummy, you should have called me to take the food. You shouldn’t have brought it by yourself.”

Mummy told me that the important thing is for the food to get to me, that it doesn’t matter who brought it.

“Please Mummy I am serious about it. Next time, if Chika is not around, invite me to carry my food.”

“It’s alright son, I have heard you. Chika is around. I decided to bring the food by myself because I want to have a discussion with you. I will wait for you to eat. Afterwards we can have the discussion.”

I told Mummy that I will prefer to hear what she had to tell me before eating but Mummy will have none of that. After much persuasion, I had my way. When Mummy finally opened up as to why she came, I couldn’t suppress the laughter.

“Kelvin you are my son. Though I am not your biological mother, you are my son in the Lord. I will not notice something going wrong with you without pointing it out to you.”

“Mummy is there any problem?” I asked sounding alarmed.

“There is no problem for now. If you can heed the advice I’m about to give you, by the grace of God, future disaster will be averted. I was the one that invited you to church. My reason was not to increase the number of attendants in the church; rather, it was for you to be saved. To achieve this, you need to always study your bible, pray, regular attendance to church service, prayer meeting and bible study.”

Mummy spoke for long time skirting around the subject and at last she finally hit it.

“Another key thing that can make or mar you is kind of friends you keep. Son, I am not comfortable with a young man that has been hanging around you in church. His name is Johnson.”

I was surprised that it was because of Johnson that Mummy was raising the alarm. From my own perspective, Johnson was one of the good young men in the church. I don’t understand why Mummy should be raising eyebrows at him.

“Mummy is it because of Johnson that you are preaching this long sermon. He is a nice person.”

“Listen son, you are in the early stage of your Christianity. You don’t need just nice people around you. What you need are matured believers who are rooted in the word. There are many questions in your mind; you need direction. That is why you need Spirit filled youths, who will not lead you astray. I am not trying to choose your friends for you. I’m only advising you as a mother.”

“Mummy you worry too much. I am not a baby. Nobody can deceive or lead me astray.”

“I am not worried. I’m just talking from experience. The truth is that nothing good will come out of any association with that young man. He does not fear the Lord. I pray that God will give you the needed wisdom at this time.”