PARENTS OR SPONSORS

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Ex 6, Luke 9, Job 23, 1 Cor 10

Proverbs 22:6 train up a child in the way he should go: when he is old, he will not depart from it.

There are two types of parents; real parents and sponsors. The sponsors are the parents who cater for only the financial needs of their wards. They pay the tuition fees, buy books, give out pocket money, get personal tutors for their wards, arrange after class lessons e.t.c. They ensure the children have all they need, just name it but when it comes to mentoring they are unavailable. The real parents go a step further than the sponsors. They not only cater for the financial needs of the children, they cater for the spiritual needs and emotional needs. They have a personal relationship with the child. Their children can approach either Dad or Mum to discuss any subject. They monitor the type of friends the children keep. Bad company spoils good morals. They are interested in the child’s daily activities. They ask questions not just swallow everything the child says. They ensure the child does his or her homework. They attend Parents Teacher meetings. They even take it a step further by visiting the school to check the child’s performance with the teacher- they check test results, home work results, conduct at school and all. The sponsors on the other hand does not even know the number of hours their children spend watching TVs, they have no clue of what sites the children visit on the internet at home. Some cannot even remember the last time they saw their child reading or spent time with their child talking about life.

Many a time when a child begins to misbehave or we begin to hear bad reports about them we blame the devil, nine out of ten times it is not the devil. Most of the time, this is as a result of us not having time for them. This is rampant with ministers of the gospels; they are busy organizing this seminar, doing this and that and have no time for their children. Do you know that if your child knows you come to school from time to time to check on him or her, he will sit up? Many have passed the full responsibility of training their children to the teachers at school. Many even leave it to the TV or the Holy Spirit. It is your responsibility as parents to teach your wards about sex education and chastise them when they misbehave. The Holy Spirit will only bring to remembrance what you have taught them not teach them about sex education or discipline them for you. If you do not talk to them about sex education, they will get it from outside sources which could be their friends or magazines and that is very dangerous. A wise parent will never curse his or her child. How can you build a house and out of anger set it on fire? Instead of cursing them, call them early in the morning ask them to kneel down and begin to prophesy good things in their life. Tell them it shall be well with you. Before they go out spend time saying good things into their life. A wise parent never compares his or her child with other children. Doing this never improves a child; all it does is make that child feel unappreciated. There are many parents who have never appreciated their child over one good thing they did in their life. Many children are even scared of talking to daddy or mummy. If your child is scared of talking to you, you are not a parent but a tyrant. One way to mend the relationship between you and your children is to call them and pray for them. Everyone loves prayer. The moment you tell a child my son or daughter it shall be well with you, the attitude of that child we will change for good towards you. If you abhor bitterness against anyone of them and you want to rid yourself of it, call the child and begin to prophesy good things into their life. Before you know it that bitterness will vanish. Also children, call your parents from time to time and tell them to say good things into your life, it helps!