THEIR SUCCESS IS NOT YOUR FAILURE

This weekend I finally watched the movie Jumping The Broom. What was interesting to me was that I had already considered writing a blog about someone else's success having nothing to do with your failure. The movie provided a couple of perfect examples of that. Sadly, I think more so in the African American community people down one another that are doing well instead of celebrating them. On top of that instead of using someone else's success as motivation and asking them to mentor or give advice on how they did it most people point fingers, snicker under their breath, and become jealous.

I don't remember any of the characters names in the movie but I do know their real names. So Laz Alonzo comes from what would be considered humble beginnings and his mother is played by Loretta Devine. Paula Patton comes from a wealthy family and her mother is played by Angela Bassett. Before even meeting Paula and her family, Loretta Devine has already written them off as goody two shoes uppity black folk that think they are better than everyone else. She even goes so far as to let them know at the rehearsal dinner that they are black.

I always wonder, what is black? Meaning many people have their own perception of what it means to be black and they don't all agree. Some people feel if you use proper English you are speaking white. If you dress a certain way etc you are trying to be white. Do does that mean being black means using slang/ebonics?

Then I think about schools, how children that receive good grades are sometimes ridiculed for their achievements. They hear things like she/he isn't all of that because they get good grades. Well of course they aren't they are just as human as the children who don't receive good grades. Chances are those who do receive good grades aren't walking around with their noses up in the air pretending to be better. They are simply automatically being labeled and judged based on their achievements and the others lack of.

THEIR SUCCESS IS NOT YOUR FAILURE.

In the movie DeRay Davis was Laz Alonzo's cousin and they had been best friends. Laz Alonzo completed school and ended up with a great job and he was successful. He had a party to celebrate his success and everyone showed up but DeRay. Laz explained to DeRay that he didn't change, DeRay did. DeRay was the one who didn't show up for the party and became distant. Laz let DeRay know that his money didn't change him, it changed DeRay, Laz was the same person. In essence

Laz SUCCESS WAS NOT DeRay's FAILURE.

It is time for us as a community to learn to celebrate one another and strive for our own successes, victories, and accomplishments. Especially if you are in the body of believers. If you are in Christ you were blessed before the foundations of the earth were made. If you look at someone else's success and feel jealousy and envy you really need to examine yourself and your motives. As long as you have breath in your body you have an opportunity to make changes in your life.

Use other's success as inspiration to create your own success story.

Be a blessing and be blessed,
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