It was a long hard road that took the Chandler family out of the cotton fields and out of poverty in Mississippi. All nine children have memories of the sharecroppers’ cabin and having nothing to wear or to eat. But today, all nine are college graduates! Here’s their inspiring story. Their parents borrowed two dollars to buy a bus ticket for their son Cleveland, who worked his way through school, and became Chairman of the Economics Department at Howard University. Luther went to the University of Omaha, and became the public service employee manager for Kansas City. He helped his brother James get to Omaha, and then to Yale for graduate work. James, in turn, helped Herman, who is now a technical manager in Dallas. Donald works in Minneapolis. The children also helped themselves—picking cotton, pulling corn, digging potatoes. Fortson went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, and became a Baptist minister in Colorado. Princess earned an M.A. from Indiana University, and became a schoolteacher. Gloria is also a school teacher. Bessie has an M.A. and is a dietician at a veterans’ hospital. In 1984, all the children got together and bought a home for their parents. The Bible says, ‘As he thinks within himself, so he is.’

If you convince yourself that you can’t, or allow others to convince you of that, then you won’t. But if you believe that by God’s grace you can, then you will! If the Chandlers can do it, you can do it too. Forget what has happened in the past! Every day God gives you the choice to begin your life over again.