I believe poverty is the richest experience that can come to a boy...... Napoleon Hill
Until you have lived in poverty, you'll never know what it feels like to be poor.
Poverty makes you feel valueless or less important before others. As a child, when you see other kids carrying their plates of ice-cream, you'll wish you had rich parents.
When you have to work like a slave for other people, yet your wages can't sustain the basic necessities of life, you'll understand why some people prefer death to life.
When you see an investment opportunity that will help you get out of poverty, but you don't have a dime to invest, you'll know how much it hurts to be poor.
When someone intentionally humiliates you because he feels you are too poor to fight him back, then you may agree that it is a curse to be poor.
When you see quotes like this, some poor people will start thinking they are cursed. I'll like to look at it from a different perspective.
Being poor is not a curse, but allowing yourself to remain in poverty is a curse.
Despite all the stings of poverty, I'm glad to tell you that poverty blessed my life in some amazing ways.
Last year when we had our annual winners youth conference, one of the speakers was our Bishop's son. He was teaching youth on how to overcome poverty and live a successful life. I heard him talk about so many things, but I never appreciated his teachings and I have my reasons.
I came to church that day feeling depressed because I was in need of so many necessities of life but there was no money to take care of them. They preached to us that a way to come out of poverty was to give a Shiloh sacrifice. Out of my state of being poor, I still had to give a sacrifice and the son of the man who is in-charge of all the sacrifices is teaching me on how to come out of poverty. He has never tasted poverty. All he knows about poverty is what he was told or what he read. This young man's father is the richest African pastor, I'm talking about Bishop David Oyedepo. I really don't think such people earned enough right to teach on such matters.
But when someone like Napoleon Hill talks about poverty, I listen to him. Though he wasn't born poor, at some point of his life, they became poor. That's a case similar to mine. I wasn't born poor. We lived in the Northern part of Nigeria until the Sharia crises that had so many people killed and properties damaged. We were lucky, nobody in my family was killed but life wasn't the same again.
We started life afresh. Looking for new business to start, new school for us kids, the new business crashed, life became miserable for our family. At a very young age I started working to support myself and our family. I didn't have the opportunity to attend university(college) like my friends because there was no money for that.
All the hardships I had to pass through in life, made me who I am today. Poverty made me do things I never thought I could do. It brought out the genius in me. It humbled me and made me very passionate towards the plight of others.
Poverty prevented me from following the conventional way of schooling. Perhaps, I might have graduated, get a paid job, then live all my life working for the government without discovering who I am or realize the potentials embedded in me.
Poverty helped me develop my mind. I am educated because I've passed through the life's school of experience.
My passion to help the poor and needy is directly related to the fact that I've been there once and I know what it feels like.
I go to hospitals and help people I don't know pay hospital bills, because I almost died of a treatable disease only because I didn't have the money for treatment. I'm alive today because a pastor from Assemblies of God church helped.
Do I believe poverty is a blessing? Yes.
Do I want my kids to pass through poverty? No.
Is this contradictory? Not at all.
I'm glad that I went through all the stings of poverty and came out of it stronger.
I found myself in poverty not by choice, so I will not wish my kids that awful experience. The essence of this post is to encourage everyone one going through one form of hardship or the other.
We should never allow any prevailing circumstances to overwhelm us. Wherever we find ourselves, it's important to pick the lesson there and use it for our own good.
If only we can persevere, there is always a treasure to discover in most of life's horrible situations.
Poverty is not just a blessing to me, it's a an instrument in the hands of the Porter used to give my life a touch of humility, passion, strength and uncommon wisdom.
This post cannot end without acknowledging the people who encouraged me here the most. A special regards to all those who have consistently got my back here.
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