Watch Who You Follow?

We have become a nation of followers and we will sacrifice financial security, health, comfort and even our relationships just to fit in and become like everyone else. The sad thing is that most people don't even realize that they are following others to a life of destruction.

According to a USA Today story, a group of shepherds in Turkey were surprised when they saw a single sheep jump off a nearby cliff and fall to its death. However they were even more shocked when the rest of the nearly 1500 sheep in the herd followed him. When it was all over the shepherds lost over $100,000 in livestock.

Do you remember that the bible often refers to people as sheep?

"Yeah Bob but we are not that dumb".

Alright, how about this:

Psychologist Ruth Brenda tested a theory she had with teenagers. She put kids together in groups of ten. Members of the group were instructed to raise their hand when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts. What one person in the group did not know is that the other nine had been instructed ahead of time to vote for the second longest line. The lines were clearly different and not even close to being the same length.

As the experiment began, the nine plants quickly raised their hands for the second longest line. The tenth student glanced around, looked briefly confused, and then slipped his/her hand up with the rest. Time after time, the tenth student would agree that a short line was longest just to keep from challenging the group consensus. This phenomenon was played out 75 percent of the time, and was consistent with small children all the way up through high school.

How many times have you defied common sense and made the popular decision? Do you eat at that fast food burger joint because they have the best tasting and most nutritious hamburgers or is it popular with the kids? Do you think boys wear their pants 4 times their size because they like to hold onto them or because they want to "Fit in" with the rest of the crowd? Not to leave the girls out, do you really think wearing dental floss for underwear is actually comfortable? How about you, do you stay at your job only because of the benefits or the large paycheck or because you actually enjoy it? If you want to have the abundant life God created you to have, you must stop following sheep.

So what if everyone else has a brand new SUV, drive the second hand car and stay at home with your children, they will be better for it and you will have less headaches when they are older.

So what if everyone else wears expensive brand name clothing, shop at Goodwill or off the bargain rack and stop working overtime so you can spend more time with your spouse. The others can go to divorce court in their fancy clothes while you take that second honeymoon.

Don't worry what others will say when you brown bag it at work. When you retire early because you invested your lunch money and they ate it, they will wish they did the same. ($5.00 saved per work day and then invested will give you a return of over a half a million dollars in 40 years!)

Are you having relationship problems? Get some counseling! Stop just putting up with each other and learn how to love each other. Don't worry what the rest think, the rest will probably not make it either if they don't seek help too.

Are you having trouble with your children? Stop with the attitude where you don't need anyone to tell you how to raise your kids! You know if they respect you or not, you know what path they are on. You can be like everyone else and just pray they turn out OK or you can seek the advice of someone else to ensure they do.

Are you having trouble holding onto you finances? 9 out of 10 people are as well, however everyone thinks it is only them. The ones who admit it and seek help are the ones with all the freedom, and no longer in debt up to their eyeballs.

Why don't you stop worrying what others are doing or what they will think. You know what you need to do, what changes need to be made. Make them. If you have a spouse, make sure you talk it over with them first. Do what it takes. You only have one life down here. Why spend it doing what someone else wants?