On January 26, 2009, U.S. News & World Report released an interesting story entitled, "Is There An 'Obama Effect' on Standardized Test Scores?"¹  This article describes research conducted at Vanderbilt University prior to and during Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency.  The study involved black and white participants taking comprehension tests.  At one testing point dated while Obama was still relatively unknown there were substantial scores gaps between black and white test-takers.  However, after Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC and after he won the presidential election, scores disparities "all but closed during his moments of greatest accomplishment."  The study was designed to test how racial stereotypes affect test-taking and whether a prominent figure like Obama could influence or change norms.

This was the research team's concluding remark:
"What helps close this gap may be as simple as parents getting their kids to think about the extraordinary things Obama has achieved before heading to school to take a test."

They seem to be implying, what you focus on is what you will produce.

But before Obama and before Vanderbilt researchers, before standardized tests and test disparities, the bible describes this spiritual phenomenon in the story of Jacob, his hustler Uncle Laban and some oddly reproducing sheep.

In Genesis 30, Jacob was getting pretty tired of working for the man, his uncle Laban, and had turned in his two-weeks' notice.  But Laban was not having it.  He may have been arrogant but he was NOT dumb.  He admitted Jacob was an uncommonly productive human resource, even though he treated him like a dog, and begged him to stay.  NOW a brother's in a position to negotiate.  But surprisingly, Jacob went low, or so it seemed.  He told Laban, I don't want anything from you.  Just give me what you don't want - all the defects, all the sheep with discoloration issues.  This was actually a brilliant move for two reasons.  One, he knew Laban was the "If-It-Wasn't-For-Me"/"I-Made-You-Boy" type.  And every now and then you need to CLEARLY delineate between being a beneficiary and a true producer.  Secondly, Jacob was a baller.  He knew what he could do even if he had almost nothing to work with.

Yet even though Jacob "negotiated" to work at a disadvantage by only taking the discolored sheep, incredibly in verse 34, the same day they shook hands, Laban plucked out all the scrap sheep himself and sent them on a three-day journey!  You talk about unfair employer oppression!

So here's Jacob with NOTHING to work with - or so it seems.  Being left with only solid, unspeckled sheep, he needs these sheep to produce differently.  These sheep need to produce with some color or markings at a higher rate than just some chance recessive gene might yield.  Maybe these sheep need the "Obama Effect."  Maybe they need to focus on what they need to produce.

Genesis 30:37-39, 43
Jacob … took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.  Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink.  When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

Despite their own genetic colorlessness, the sheep were viscerally influenced by what was "in front" of them.  So much so, that they began to produce like what they were exposed to, what they saw, what occupied their focus.

As spiritual sheep, God is trying to show us the power of FOCUS.  If Jacob's story seems indiscernible, look at today's research.  FOCUS on God's plan for your life.  FOCUS on what your future needs to look like.  Help your kids to FOCUS on high achievement.  Talk about it.  Put it squarely, plainly in front of you.  Let images of where God wants you and your kids to end up influence and affect your thinking and doing.  Find friends that will help you stay FOCUSED and drop the ones who keep you off-focus.  Ask God for help through prayer and reading His Word.  God showed Jacob how to create a vast fortune from nothing by shaping a sheep's focus.  What more can he do for you and your kids, if create your own "Obama Effect" and put in front of you the accomplishments God is calling you and your family to achieve.