The state of many people’s lives were/are as a result of the conditions of the people in authority over them which they can’t/couldn’t control; Parents, teachers, or friends even.

A child is likely to be poor because his parents are poor; He is even likely to be ignorant if his parents are not informed or visionary. All these factors make a person who he/she is, even when he/she has better plans for himself.

If you were born in the village like your parents were and haven’t heard of the city or even seen how it is on TV, you are likely to be ‘disabled’ like your parents for life.

I want to say a word to those who have been pre-exposed to some conditions which their little arms can’t/couldn’t change at the moment. I call this piece of advice, 25 years of Suffering.

Sweetheart, there is a saying that when life presents you with lemons, squeeze it, add sugar and make yourself a lemonade. This saying is true, and it makes sense. But what if you don’t know that what life has presented you with are lemons? What if you think your current situation is the best because you have not known any other? Do you still prepare lemonade out of what you have and stay in your situation, just that in a better condition?

I want to give you a different perspective from which you can look at life differently and live life better; always moving forward, and not wasting any opportunity.

When you are in a certain condition and someone presents you with a different option whether in a magazine, movie, or any media, don’t instantly go into ‘emotional mood’ and start feeling sorry for yourself. NO! That is self-defeating. What you have to do is to create a reason for yourself and your current situation; “Why am I living in the village and schooling/working here?” The answer may be, “It is because my parents were born here.” or “My parents don’t have enough money to afford any other life.”

Try not to be emotional about it.

After you have gotten your answer for the above question, try and ask yourself this follow up questions, “Do I want to remain here? Do I want my children to be born in this condition too? What else can I do to change this condition of life I am in?”

After you have gotten the answers to these questions too, move forward. Before we even go ahead to change the condition we are in, I want to let you know something else: Every condition we find ourselves in carries in its womb some infallible life lessons: Some people don’t see these; they go through it blindly or emotionally, often losing all the life lessons and skills they could have gotten easily. They often set their focus on the goal (to go to the city, or get money as quickly as possible) forgetting character building. A person can be presented with one ladder, and another could be given 10 ladders, but it will require knowledge, wisdom, and skills for one to make good use of the opportunity gotten or presented to him. Like the ladder, it would surprise you that the one with 10 ladders may not know what to do with it. He may heap them up horizontally and would not be able to still climb over the ‘wall’. But the one with one ladder (“less privileged”), and with knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills and character would climb over that wall, because he knows that, if I put the ladder against the wall vertically, I will be able to scale over the wall.

This ladder example may seem simple, but there are lots of people presented with good life opportunities, but due to lack of knowledge and wisdom, they don’t make good use of it. That is why a statement goes like, “some want want but no get, some get get but no want…”

Life may be painful or unfair depending on how it dealt/is dealing with you, but as I said earlier, every life situation carries in its womb many infallible life lessons which if you are focus/attentive you could learn and have a better life.

Someone born in the Northern part of Ghana may seem less privileged, but should that person take his/her focus from his/her condition at the moment and ask him/herself, “Now that I have not been able to get myself out of this town, what can I learn or gain from life here now?” with focus and determination, this person could learn how shea butter is done, learn how herbs or other plants help the health of the people. He/she could learn about indigenous things which are likely not to be common in other parts of the country. With this knowledge, and wisdom acquired, should he get the opportunity to come to the City, unlike the others, he would have something to start life with.

Many people who were born in the North and other ‘deprived’ villages leave those places with a mono goal to get money when they get to the city, leaving all the good life lessons and skills they could have acquired in their various villages/towns.

I am not saying don’t dream big; dream big! But your dream would be bigger, better, and probably come faster when you make good use of every opportunity you get.

Is your grandmother a herbalist in the village? Is your father a fisherman? Is your grandfather a hunter? Do you people always go to the farm? Are you a little bit educated where you can get around the English language? Etc. Find that uniqueness you have now in your life, and try to get the life lessons available in there to sharpen the skills life is presenting to you now.

There are even people in the cities who are ‘less privileged’. Thus, what they only have available is money, but “no life”;everything about their life is all about the abundance of money. Don’t let that cripple your mind sweetheart; there is more to life than the money you see currently. Because of the availability of money, most of these people go into spending mode; spending every dime they get since they have a stable stream of income. I don’t wish for that stream of income to drain, but I will tell you that if you should let that money ruin your values of being frugal or wise, you will suffer in life. Children from such homes often know nothing else apart part from spending and enjoying the luxury of life. Often, these same children miss out on a lot of opportunities which those from the villages with wisdom come and see and grab.

Also, children from rich homes often are lonely, or inappropriately unsociable. Most of them become introverts. This is not a ‘but’, as It could be turned into a good if one should see the wisdom behind their current life situation. Being always left alone could make you feel bad, lonely, or even depressed, but if you should flip the coin over, you will see that there are more roses growing underneath for you. In the midst of abundance of money/wealth, but lonely, one could get the wisdom to become a ‘book worm’ or a researcher. One may defend that he/she is already a book worm. I tell you that most of these book worms are from negative energies like, ‘My father doesn’t care. My mother is too busy for me. I have no one. Why don’t I stay with my books, at least that makes them happy too?’ No! That is not the kind of book worm I am talking about. I am talking about being a book worm with a purpose. This takes your focus off your ‘current situation’ of loneliness and puts you in a state of mind of achievement: you become learned, you develop the habit of reading which is a great habit of leaders, you start thinking about your future and how you want to bless the world, and see how you can use the resources you have now to start something new – because mind you, wealth is not permanent. You decide to see which opportunity is feasible and which you could try.  You see, many people don’t get this wisdom. They just spend and consider themselves privileged, as others consider themselves less-privileged.

There are some people who always say, “If only I had money, I will do this and that, I will build or start this and that.” Meanwhile there are people who have the money and resources but haven’t started any of the ‘this or that’ why? Because they haven’t got any wisdom yet.

So, even in the midst of your 25 years of abundance/suffering, the acquisition of wisdom is key.

King Solomon was the greatest, and richest king of Israel, but he had something more, he was the wisest. He wrote the deep book of Ecclesiastes. You may say that God gave him all that wisdom, but check it out; God says that if you think you lack wisdom, ask him who gives graciously and he will give it to you. [James 1:5]. King Solomon asked for wisdom.

In the current situation which you are in, it will be prudent to ask for wisdom, even if you think your life is ‘good/bad’. The poor carpenter’s son could learn one or two precious things about life, be it how to spend wisely (taking the needs from the wants), how to live within one’s means aside the obvious of knowing how to make furniture. The poor uneducated fisherman’s son could also learn determination and hard work which he may have practiced. So should life present him with his share of the good cake, he would know how to eat to his fullest, and still have more left over. It is not automatic that a rich man’s son will become wise, nor a poor man’s son will become stupid: It is how you play the dice of life.

So, assuming that you have been able to gird yourself with all the wisdom you have been able to gather from your current life situation, and even from the counsel of older people, and have been able to build some good character of resilience, hard work, determination, focus, humility, open-mindedness, patience, etc what do you do with it? How do you change your life for good?

To change your life for good, you should start looking for opportunities, or be preparing yourself for a likely opportunity which you may be expecting. You can’t say that you wish to be a singer when you go to the city, and not be currently practicing some musical instruments which are available to you; xylophone, flute, etc. This may seem not the usual, but your ability to learn and master the skills in singing with these could make your music different and easily noticed should your singing dream come to pass in the city. So prepare! They say, “When opportunity meets preparation, the IMPOSSIBLE occur”. It is true: Opportunity may be in the same place for all, but it is the differences in our upbringing, or background which creates the/your uniqueness.

You can continue by looking for opportunities to change your current situation since you don’t want your children to grow up in the environment you are in. If the opportunity you desire in is currently unavailable in your vicinity, then psych yourself mentally as if you were currently living in those opportunities/dreams. Because in no time at all, those opportunities will be knocking on your door, looking for YOU. Are you prepared?

Do not let your current situation just pass without you grabbing the knowledge, skills, or wisdom of life available in it.

David didn’t kill Goliath because ‘he was strong’.  Aside the God factor, he was trained  while he was a shepherd: When a lion came for any of his cub, or got hold of any of his lambs, he TRIED to save the lamb. It was his action/movement which caused God to show up. If he didn’t TRY to attempt saving the lambs, God wouldn’t have gotten any opportunity to show up to teach him that He can save him from ferocious lions.

So, when opportunity presented itself while he, David was just running errands for his father, he told the opportunity (Goliath), “The God who delivered me from the lions will deliver you into my hands.” That was the wisdom! He had gotten his training well, from where? From his less privileged life as a shepherd, and even being hated by his own brothers. [1 Samuel 17:15,17-18 and 1 Samuel17: 20-52]

So my dear, even in the midst of 25 years of suffering, know that so long as your feet touches this ground, or earth on which we stand, you have a portion in life’s riches or abundance. For now, grab a hold of the wisdom packaged for you in this ‘ugly’ life situation you may be in, and run with it till your portion of life’s good abundance comes.

THE GREATEST ENEMY TO SUCCESS IS A LACK OF CHARACTER: A rich man without character will go bankrupt and be poor for good as if he never tasted life’s abundance.

Likewise, a rich or privileged kid without wisdom is like a fool.

Get wisdom, get knowledge, get skills, and get character, and you will know that come what may, your dreams will come to pass to the surprise of your peers because unlike them, YOU WERE PREPARING!

It even takes character and wisdom to discern which opportunity to go for, and which not to go for. If you learn how to not be desperate from your current life situation, you will go far. Because some people are leeches: When they see the gold in you, they try to present you with a bait which may look like food to you since you are/were ‘poor’. Should you not apply wisdom and turn this down, you would be hooked, and siphoned till there will be nothing valuable left in you.

Remember, life is full of diverse people; among the good people are people who are not willing to work, but are just waiting to manipulate people and siphon them of their riches and wealth. You can change these people. That is how they are. The only thing you can do to help yourself is to GET WISDOM to stay away from these kind of people. Don’t let your 25 years of suffering go wasted.

Amen.

#Get Knowledge!

#Get Wisdom!

#Get Understanding!

#Get Skills!

And

#GET CHARACTER!

And your life will forever be blessed. Stay Blessed. Amen.