The Sunday Mail
Life Issues
with FGK
Proverbs 22:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
‘Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.’
Parenting is a demanding job, which calls for one’s presence 24-hours a day and 365 days a year. As long as one has a child, he/she is supposed to train them.
One has no other choice because this is what is expected of every parent. Are parents still devoting time to training up their children or the busy schedules and fast city life has distorted parental roles and left them to maids at home, and school prefects or teachers in schools?
The Bible is even reminding us of our role as parents. That the Bible reminds us of the need to take care of our children is a sure sign that there could be some parents who are relaxed on that role, hence the reminder: lest we have a child going other ways than that they should go.
Parenting calls for a calling. It’s not every parent who can raise their children well. Parents with a calling have raised even children who are not their own to be significant people in the society while some who have neglected the role fail to even raise their own.
Parenting is to be form of a covering so to say. The creative nature within parents is a gift they got from God which is rarely appreciated yet obviously conspicuous.
The ability of a man and a woman to come together and give birth to a living soul is in itself Godly in nature.
By the same ability, parents can help shape, mould and create an ideal future for their children by imagining the life their children should lead and pave way to it by taking the right actions, prescribing the right habits to their children and giving them a better education suiting that which they want their children to sum up to.
Even the words spoken by a parent are in themselves prophetic and creative in nature. They carry whatever is said onto the child. That is why it is not good to rebuke your child calling them “fool’’.
If you call them fool, then a fool you will get out of them; it will be your own creation.
So as much as training our children is important, the words we speak to them and about them are equally important.
It is these words that will shape their environment and set them up for success. The words you say to your child do not only carry spiritual significance but they are also an energiser and motivating agent as they ring in their ears.
When you tell them you are proud of them, the same words guide their thought process and see them do the things that they know you are going to find pleasure in; only because they want you to be proud of them. Words we say to our children need to be watched!
Raising children requires much more than feeding them, clothing them and paying school fees. Within our children are greater lights and it is up to us to torch those lights for them to shine bright.
No matter how much intelligent a child can be, they remain with some naughtiness and stupidity that only correctional means can drive away.
Some parents cannot differentiate love of their children and spoiling their children.
Some parents cannot differentiate being hard in order to get the best out of a child and abuse. There is a big difference between abuse and instilling discipline. Yes, we should love our children, but not to the extent that they stay away from the stove, the washing area or the ironing board let alone the broom.
The holy Bible even emphasises the need for us to teach, correct and train our children with an enforcement of disciplinary measures even at times with the use of a rod. The book of proverbs 13 verse 24 says, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”
It is no love when you fail to discipline your child but you are only setting them up for greater pain in future because society and law enforcement will discipline them for you mercilessly.
Every child is bright, but there is a foolishness that only you can drive away. The bible also says, ‘foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him.’ Let’s say your child begins to show signs of becoming a thief.
They begin by stealing money around the house, they steal pens and books from colleagues at school and bring home et cetera. You can tell as a parent that the behaviour that your child has begun is wrong but because we assume it is love not to correct them promptly, we allow the evil behaviour to breed freely and bloom to levels we can no longer control. Remember, they are growing up.
Soon they will be an adult. When your house and belongings can no longer satisfy your child’s appetite and greed, they then go to steal from neighbours. That is when you will see that you have raised your child with which will destroy them inside of them. When you were not correcting your child, you were watering the evil habit to grow inside of them and now it will begin bearing bitter fruits under your watch.
When your child steals from outside, society has no mercy. They will catch him; tie him like a dog, beat him like a punching bag, spit on him and that time they won’t call him son but they will call him nasty names – thief or murderer. After they are done with him, they will drag him to the police and courtrooms.
And when the judges look at your child, they will not see a child as you do but they will see a menace to society, they will not see the handsome looks that you are looking at; they will see the rot in his heart; they will lock him away from you for a long time. Regret will kick in.
You will sweat and grope for air to breathe at such moments. Tormenting thoughts will prickle you as with a devil’s folk just at looking what your child has become. Let us watch carefully at our children. Maybe they might be a girl child; they need to be taught on how to protect themselves from ravenous men out there who may be on the prowl to spoil their future. God has given children to us, trusting our ability to raise them up in a good way pleasing to us and to Him. Let us be very careful and take the parental role as sacrosanct.
