“Pastor, my son got a prize at their graduation ceremony and I feel it’s getting into his head. What can I tell him so that he can gear up for the next level?”

I love parents who think like this. While it’s a good thing to celebrate your children for every success, it’s important that you make them understand that the reward they got was only for the level they just completed. Research has shown that rewarding a student could either motivate the student while in the next level or destroy the student with pride.

That’s right! While some would work hard believing that they can surmount any obstacle on their path because they’ve done it before, some others get deceived by their pride and never put in the work. Rewards should serve as a motivation while in another level, not a license to be stagnant. If you don’t add more knowledge to what you already know, then you are stagnant – no matter how many rewards you have.

Having said that, let me show you a few scriptures that will keep you going:

SCRIPTURE 1:

Romans 12:
2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The journey of transformation is one that has no end. After completing grade 1, you transformed to a grade 2 student. After completing your secondary education, you transformed into a university level. One unique thing about each of these transformation is the renewal of the knowledge in your mind. You’re certainly not going to move to grade 2 if you didn’t pass the grade 1 exams. Likewise, you won’t gain admission into the university if you didn’t pass the entry exams.

I checked the meaning of the word “Renew” in the dictionary, and asides that it means to make something new again, it also means to begin again or to recommence a process. So whatever you did to your mind to succeed in the previous grade, begin it again in this new grade. Renew your mind with the knowledge required for your new level.

Even in the business world, when an employee completes a course, he has better chances of getting a salary increase or even bid for a new job. That’s because by completing that course, his mind has been renewed for a level different from where he was. Unfortunately, many graduates don’t understand this, and that’s why they’ve been in one position for years. They thought that education has ended after school, not knowing that the purpose of the formal education system is to teach them the need to always renew their mind. If you want a new level, then renew your mind. That scripture says, “Be transformed by renewing your mind”.

SCRIPTURE 2:

Genesis 11:
6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

You’d call what happened with the tower of Babel. Their minds were so renewed that even God testified that nothing could stop them from building that tower up to the heavens.

So you see, as long as your mind is renewed with the required knowledge, nothing can actually stop you from becoming who you want to become. If you want to become a medical doctor, you can become it. If you want to become a great engineer, you can become it. If you want to travel to space and return, you can do it. But you have to pay the price of renewing your mind, which simply means feeding your mind with the knowledge required for where you want to go.

SCRIPTURE 3:

Ecclesiastes 10(BEB):
15 The work of the foolish will be a weariness to him, because he has no knowledge of the way to the town.

If you want to do anything or become anything at all, the first thing you must do is to get the knowledge required. The King James version of that scripture says, “The labour of the foolish wearies all of them because he doesn’t know how to get to the city”. So, I know you want to become the president someday, but do you know how to become a president?

The desire to know how is the beginning of the mind renewal process. If you’re going to the next level, you have to know how to succeed in that new level. It’s truly foolishness not to know how to succeed in a level. When you see people who behave foolishly in school, it’s because they’ve not taken time to find out how to succeed in their level.

“The labour of the foolish wearies everyone because he doesn’t know how…”. Your results can be negatively influenced if you don’t know how to maintain positive results.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

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