By Rich Sanders
Lee Curtis always knew she wanted to work with people and money. After graduating from the University of Alabama (like our daughter Caroline, Lee was in the Kappa Delta sorority), she began work in banking and is now an entrepreneur and real estate agent in Destin.
As a banker, Lee had the opportunity to work with all kinds of people, including Christian Capitalists who owned their own businesses. “We love our small business owners. And you can tell those that work faith into their business. They tend to have people that stay around longer, people who were great leaders. It just kind of trickles down from the top.”
Lee also got to see stories of giving when she worked in banking. She could see the faith of her customers through their bank accounts. “They would bless others when they had a tax cut, or an extra amount, or a lump sum fell out of the sky for whatever reason, a lot of people would take the initiative to pass that on to their employees or put it back into the business to help grow the business.”
As a mother, Lee has tried to instill the spiritual discipline of giving in her son James, who is now fourteen. “It’s just keeping the envelopes of spend, give and save. Then you can decide what proportions every month you want to put into those. I give him some ideas or percentages, but whenever he gets money for his birthday or for Christmas… we look at that. It’s now evolved to an electronic envelope.”
One of the principles of the Christian Capitalist movement is that we are blessed when we bless others, and Lee gets it. “My book club does the book called One Word every year. One year my word was ‘give’, and that was the year that Hurricane Michael hit Panama City. Everybody in this community rallied around Panama City. I struggled, and I prayed [about how much to give], and I finally decided on this amount… and it was a lot more than I planned on, but I thought ‘I can do this right now- this is the max, and I’m not going to think anymore or be afraid’. And I’m not kidding, the day I decided to give that money, my credit card company called and said: ‘We’ve made a mistake on your payments, and you’re getting a refund.’ And do you know it was almost the exact same amount that I had donated? And I was just in awe and was like, ‘That is the Lord at work!’”
Lee reflects on that story, and she concludes: “I firmly believe that Jesus is the voice of love.”
Lee recently appeared on the Christian Capitalist podcast, and you can listen to the entire episode on SOWAL Life’s website. We are excited to share inspirational stories of hard work and generous giving to the poor and needy in the name of Jesus Christ, like Lee Curtis!
Rich Sanders is a pastor, small business owner, retired healthcare attorney and adjunct professor at Emory University, and former intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy. He and his wife, Rebekah, met at church in 1996, have been blessed with three children (James, William and Caroline) and live in Destin with their large golden retriever, Cowboy.
