The Consequences of Ignorance

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The consequences of ignorance are better not imagined. While education is said to be expensive, ignorance is even more expensive considering the unpleasant consequences of ignorance. Some of them are:

Captivity which occurs because an ignorant person or persons lack direction and lack of direction leads to captivity as in the case of the Israelites described in Isaiah Chapter 5 verse 13. They had no idea where to go and even if they had an idea of where to go, they had absolutely no idea how to get there and they ended up in captivity.

Hunger – even the honorable men amongst them who ideally should have had abundance suffered hunger because there was no food for them. Beloved, can you imagine what the commoners would suffer if their honorable men suffered hunger? Famine! This is to say that famine can be occasioned by ignorance.

Run Away from Strife and Contention

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Contentions start with words, snowball into the strife of tongues and escalate to fisticuffs and who knows what next – sorcery as in the case of Moab, murder as in the case Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brothers, Daniel and the satraps, Haman and Mordecai.

Strife and contention are akin to thorns and weeds in a farm that pierce the plants, compete for nourishment and space for growth. Strife and contention is the same as thorns piercing the plants – daily strife and contention can erode confidence, faith and determination as well as courage, the same function thorns perform to choke out life from plants. Strife and contention can wear out your resolve to excel which explains why the best solution to strife and contention is to always walk away from the strife and contention. Like weeds, they also contend for space in your mental processes - introducing bile such as anger, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness that if not wisely and instantly thrown out can block out productive, fruitful, spiritually, physically, mentally and financially rewarding mental processes. So rather than pay attention to your field, you expend energies fighting battles you should not be fighting because you are paying attention to strife and contention.

Isaac avoided contentions. Rather than contend with the Philistines who closed up the wells dug by his father, he dug new wells and when the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen over the new wells, Isaac and his herdsmen dug other wells and when there was no more contention over the new well, Isaac named the new well ‘Rehoboth’ meaning God has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

Mind Your Business

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Know your sheep by name: carefully attend to your flocks; (Don’t take them for granted; possessions don’t last forever, you know) and then, when the crops are in and the harvest is stored in the barns, you can knit sweaters from lamb’s wool, and sell your goats for a profit; there will be plenty of milk and meat to last your family through the winter. Proverbs Chapter 27 verses 23 to 27, Message Translation

Pay attention to your fields, which is MIND YOUR BUSINESS. It is not the fields of other people that you pay attention to that will yield their strength to you. It is your fields that you mind and pay attention to that will yield their strength to you. Therefore, do not leave your fields fallow and unattended to while you mind the fields of other people. Mind your fields and pay attention to the details of your fields.  You can actually enhance your brand by minding your fields and paying attention to the details of your fields.

In Proverbs Chapter 12 verse 11, the Bible refers to the person who follows frivolity as a person devoid of understanding while a person who tills his or her land will have plenty of bread. This is further reiterated in Proverbs Chapter 28 verse 19 (plenty of bread for land tillers and poverty for those who follow frivolity).