Beyond Statistics

I should have been a statistic. But I am a walking display of God's grace, and I bet you are too. 

I wasn't raised in a Christian home. My parents separated when I was very little and my mom raised us for several years alone. She often worked two jobs to make ends meet and relied on me to help out at home beginning at a very young age. She did the best she could and it didn't kill me. She later married my step dad and we moved around quite a bit. To add to the cards stacked against me, I witnessed abuse more times than i can count and experienced some forms of it myself. But I was an ambitious child nonetheless. 

I often heard these words in my head: You're just a statistic. And key studies and leaders documented it abundantly. It was a common belief, and still is, that children raised in divorced homes, abuse or by single parents ultimately grow up to be non-productive members of society and become what we saw. I did my best to ignore those words because I had deep internal drive to do and be more. All I knew was that I had dreams and I wanted more. 

I'm not famous or rich, but I'm not a statistic either. I tell you these things not in pride or out of self-hate, but because I believe some of you can identify. I wonder if you've heard those words in your head or even aloud. I believe you are a walking miracle, evident of God's grace in some way or another. You have overcome something, not by yourself, but by God's gracious mercy and strength. And you have dreams and ambitions in you, of which the purest form are mere gifts from your Creator. And I believe that if you were meant to live a defeated life or fall into any category of statistics, you would not have them. 

Don't let anyone tell you that you are defeated or that you have no hope. Don't let anyone lump you into any category, regardless of what you've done or what has been done to you. The very desire you have in you for more comes from Him. He hasn't given up on you, and  He won't. Let him guide you in your ambitions and dreams.  Let Him develop them and He will build on and multiply these things.