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Opinions of Thursday, 9 May 2024

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Acquired knowledge and higher education qualifications are for a purpose

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We go to school to acquire formal education, knowledge, and paper qualification certificates. Isn’t it?

The paper qualifications and knowledge acquired are to serve your personal, familial, and societal interests.

You may decide to put the knowledge acquired to good or bad use, depending on the motive behind its acquisition.

Don’t some people use their higher paper qualifications and knowledge obtained to steal from the public purse, a common criminal practice within the public service in Africa in general and Ghana in particular? Others use theirs genuinely to benefit themselves, their families, and the society or country they find themselves in, if not for the benefit of the world, were they to become inventors.

I have heard about some people who brag about their higher paper qualifications but, unfortunately, don’t benefit from them. They never work throughout their lifetime, before, during, and after the acquisition of their qualifications. They simply laminate the certificates and hang them on walls in their room or put them in folders, archiving them only for them to gather dust.

What is the use of your qualification certificates and knowledge acquired if you don’t put them to any use to benefit you as a person or society but simply take pride in their possession for its sake? Is it normal?

The Bible says in Matthew 5:14–16, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”.

Why don’t you work in the field for which you obtained the certificates and knowledge, or, at worst, do any genuine job that will benefit you, your family, and society, but choose to roam about doing nothing from your infancy until your retirement age?

Do you blame Jesus if you don’t go to heaven? No! Subsequently, don’t blame anyone but yourself if you suffer in life for your failure to work.

For your failure to work, are you not acting in contravention of Matthew 5:14–16?

If you have failed to work your entire lifetime, have you not become an idle hand? What does the Bible say about idle hands?

In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, it says, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”.

Therefore, if you don’t let your higher paper qualifications work, you will not eat but suffer. You will lack the necessities of life, hence becoming jealous of those working and succeeding in life. This is the simple truth.

Finally, Proverbs 16:27–28 says, “27 Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and idle lips are his mouthpiece. [a] 28 An evil man sows strife; gossip separates the best of friends”.

If you happen to suffer in life, please don’t blame anyone but yourself for failing to work.

Instead of such people being humble enough to be helped by others, they rather quickly attack them, burning all the bridges that could possibly have assisted them in their vain pursuit of success.

However, the Bible says in Matthew 23:12, “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This publication, full of biblical quotations, is for whom it may concern.