It was early in life as a child that I learned the importance of not following the crowd. I can remember one day in Sunday school as a child, that the teacher performed a test on all the students. He offered a piece of candy to all the students. But instead of it being a whole piece of candy, it was only half. As he offered the broken candy, each student either declined or asked for another piece. But if they asked he did not give it. I observed that the students were not getting the candy. So when the teacher came to me and offered me the broken candy, I accepted. He smiled, as he not only gave me the broken piece, but also a full piece. The lesson was twofold: accept the gifts you are given and don’t follow the crowd.
Because I didn’t follow the crowd, I was able to be rewarded differently from the others. I didn’t let the influ- ence of others affect my choice. This was a very important quality that I began to apply in my life. There were things that I was able to accomplish in my life because I chose to be daring and different. Friends and family may have con- sidered these things strange, but I knew that it was what I wanted to do. I could look back and see how that child- hood experience helped me to be willing to be different and achieve the things that I wanted.
In your life, you may be tempted to follow what the crowd is doing. And there can be nothing wrong with this if your crowd is doing good and positive things. But more than likely, God has a specific purpose that has been created solely for you. You may have to break away from the crowd in order to accomplish this purpose. But you can be sure that when you step out on faith and seek to fulfill God’s plan, you will see a reward that will exceed your greatest expectation.
