Divine Help for Effective Parenting
By: Pastor (Mrs) Yomi Adewale
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? [19] For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Proverbs 15:20 (KJV)
A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
The work of parenting is a continuous assignment that one may not retire from as long as you are alive. Every parent must therefore see it a privilege to be called parent and never see it as a burden and extra load which you are compelled to carry, please count it all joy when you are blessed with children to parent whether they are your biological children or your spiritual children.
Parenting work should be seen as a ministry which must be done as unto the Lord because we are all going to give account of how well we have been able to fulfill the mandate and assignment, the bible says:
Psalm 127:3-5 (KJV)
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord : and the fruit of the womb is his reward. [4] As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. [5] Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
We must know that parenting failure is dangerous not only at old age for the parents, it has adverse effect on the family, church and the society at large, may we not witness any form of parenting tragedy at any stage of our lives in Jesus name, amen.
Modernization and divers development in the world today have made many parents to neglect parenting work, many have given up so soon because of erroneous belief that they are not seeing result yet in their children since they are not obeying them, some have abandoned this higher calling of parenting because of work and daily hustling in search of what to spend and eat, many have left the children so soon to become wandering sheep without a shepherd and so many so called parents have swamped their position with the children by turning themselves to children while children have become parent, since they have their ways even when they are not supposed to.
We must consciously make effort not to repeat the mistakes of our parent while raising our children, it is disastrous when you duplicate the error of your parent, you can only learn good things from them but not act like them especially when you yourself hated the way they raised you.
Brethren you will agree with me that you and I need God’s help to parent our children using biblical principles and obeying God at all time
Isaiah 50:7 (KJV)
For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
If God will help, there is a part of man in every assignment, God is ever faithful and available to help us but we must play our parts
The following will be useful tips to imbibe if truly we would qualify for the help of God:
(1) You must parent your children with PURPOSE
Romans 8:28 (KJV)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Parenting work must be done purposefully and with great vision of what you want those children to become in the light of God’s plan for their lives. You must not tamper with the purpose of God for their lives by your selfish motive and interest. If God wants any of your children to be a mighty vessel in His hand do not hinder God’s plan by forcing the child to study your own choice of course. Don’t compel them to dance to your thoughts that are not emanated from spiritual enquiry, please cooperate with God to raise Godly children
(2) Parenting by AVAILABILITY
Proverbs 27:23 (KJV)
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
Parenting should not be done by proxy or by delegation, you must consciously create time to be with your children. Many of us are already giving excuses, we are not saying you should not work but you must learn to sneak out of your tight schedule in order to impact your children positively. This you can do by deliberately creating Time to be with your Children.
Some children are left to be on their own at tender age, many are compelled to live with strangers in the likes of maid, gateman and drivers, it has lots of consequences, they may be sexually abused and molested in the process, the predator will oppress them never to confess to you by telling them lies that whenever they open up, they will die.
Your children need more than your TOYS they need your TIME, don’t just focus on MONETARY aspect of parenting, please pay attention to MONITORING.
Be diligent to know the way of your household, look at the scripture above again, take time to know your children, be available for them to ask you questions, live by example, let them see how you do many things, let them the kind of TV program, movie, books and magazines that are not allowed in a Christian home. Whatever good thing you preach to them, behave likewise not otherwise, children are sensitive to hypocrisy.
Yomi Adewale is a marriage counsellor, teacher of the word, a senior lecturer and Director of studies at college of marriage success, Vice President of Family Booster Ministries International
A chartered accountant and tax practitioner
Co-coordinator of Terrific Sisters Fellowship, an arm of Family Booster Min Int’l
Author of 21 secrets of Great Wives and co-authors of many books with my husband
CEO PIC Consulting. www.picconsultingng.com Email: yomiwale@gmail.com
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