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Don’t Settle for Negative Thinking:

At age 13, a young girl was finishing up the 8th grade. Earlier in the year, she learned of a camp that seemed like a lot of fun. The camp was for at-risk, low-income students whose parents had never attended college. The camp meant that she would have to spend her summer on a college campus about 30 miles away with other students with similar backgrounds. She said to herself, “Yep, I fit that mold. We’re poor, no one had gone near a college in my family and how many risks do you want me to name for this application?” The girl went into the principal’s office after getting recommendations from some teachers and told him her desire. After all, she needed his signature & recommendation to attend the camp. He was very familiar with the camp and listened to her explain why she ‘fit the mold.’ He allowed her to plead her case and then he rejected her. That’s right. Her principal told her that he would not recommend her for the camp.

Of course, her heart was broken. She was confident that she would get his blessing. She received a blessing, however, it looked nothing as she had hoped.

She wanted to make the excuse that “The man was just trying to keep a sista down”, but her principal was Black. Thus, she thought to say that he was just mean and unfair but knew that to be untrue. She searched for reason after reason as to why he would deny her the desire and then he gave her his. He said, “Eureka, you’re setting the standard too low.”

Err? Say what? What do you mean, Mr. principal man? What standard & what does too low mean if I fit the requirements? That was my reaction. Although I was a minority (black & female), a product of a low-income family, considered myself at-risk due to my chaotic environment, and no one in my immediate family had ever gone to college (or finished high school) I was a straight-A student. I’d been in the gifted and talented program since first grade and was a current co-captain of my basketball and track teams. My principal sat in front of me behind his desk and recited all of these things to me. I was still focusing on the fact that he said no. Then, he took things in another direction. He began to explain to me that he had a different summer program that he wanted me to attend. He told me that there was only one student from my school district who could attend and he wanted me to be that student.

I thought to myself, “There’s no way that this could be fun. I won’t know anyone, they won’t look like me, people will be weird, & blah-blah-blah!” Regardless of all of the negatives, I thought of, I accepted. I chose to spend two months of my summer at a university that was about four hours away from home. It would be the farthest and longest that I had ever been away from home at that time. It would also be the first time I had ever been on a college campus. The camp was attended by my state’s best and brightest students. We lived in the dorms on a college schedule, had job duties, and went to class on the schedule.

I, now, had a new standard. I now fit a different mold. Just as David sent someone to “carry” or move Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:4; 9) out of Lode bar, God sent my principal to guide me out of my generational “Lodebar Experience.” My thinking had become “lame” and crippled my ability to see farther. I became the first person in my immediate family to graduate high school and go on to become the first person in many generations to attend and graduate college. I was the curse breaker. What if I had refused? I know you’re probably asking: What’s the point of this story? I’ll tell you. 

Many of us allow only the familiar world around us―our environment, past, socioeconomic status, and/or familial history to set the standard for us. Some of us are ignorant of the fact that this world is such a huge place and our current reality does not have to be our forever reality! We set our bars and standards as low as the minimum requires and never raise them past our comfort zone. If it’s familiar, it seems right. It’s that train of thought that limits our success, life, future, and God. 

God does not want us to set limits based on familiarity or what we may see around us. His plans are way bigger than that. 

Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
God used my junior high principal to show me that my bar had been set too low and that my standards were not high enough. I was setting my standard on my minimum (the negatives) instead of my maximum (the positives). I was setting my bar as low as I could see (past exposure + current environment), instead of as high as I could imagine (hopes, dreams, vision). And God sets our reach, standard, and bar even higher! He strategically places people in our lives to expose us to our higher calling. He empowers us to prosper. He puts people in our paths to point us in the direction that He wants us to go. 
Here is the challenge: It’s up to us to accept or deny. It’s up to us if we’re going to follow His lead.

 Have you set your bar or standards too low? Have you allowed what you see, what you’re used to, what your family accomplished, or what some hater told you were not to be your standard? The Word of God gives us a standard. Which one will you choose? 

In my book, A Fancy Tale of Yesterdays, I share a woman’s journey through negative thinking, negative experiences, and generational strongholds. These things are critical in how we see ourselves, other people, God and His purpose for our lives. To purchase, visit bit.ly/EurekaLIce or email EurekaMomentNow@gmail.com for a signed copy.

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