If your child scored highly, praise be to God. Celebrate. Rejoice. Take photos. Call aunties. Post the status (responsibly). Then sit down together and chart the way forward. Let them go to the next step— and let them pursue the path that God has ordained for them. Remember: success is not just a door that opens; it is a road that must still be walked with humility, discipline, and grace.

If your child did not score as highly as you had hoped, please—do not bash them. Do not turn the dining table into a courtroom. Do not turn results day into a family memorial service. Life is much more than marks. Let them still go to the next step. Let them try again. And if, later on, they do not score highly enough in the exam that decides who goes to the next step and who goes to “the university of life,” please—do not bash them then either. Life is still much more than grades.

Marks measure performance. They do not measure worth. They do not measure character. They do not measure destiny. And they most certainly do not measure the size of God’s plan for a child.

Now, let me be clear (before someone quotes me out of context at a parents’ meeting): we do push our children. We must. Sometimes they are simply underplaying their potential. Sometimes they need encouragement, structure, and a loving nudge (or two). But we must never push them in a way that kills their spirit while trying to improve their results.

There is a kind of pressure that produces diamonds. And there is a kind that produces crushed souls. Let us be wise enough to know the difference.

Our children need to know this:

That we love them before results.

That we believe in them beyond results.

That we will walk with them after results.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Notice it does not say, “Force a child into one narrow definition of success and hope for the best.”

Parents, breathe. God is still writing their story. And He is a far better Author than any one of us!