EVERY GOOD PARENT NEEDS TO READ THIS!!!!

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Ephesians 6:1-4.

This knows also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away, 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Finding the appropriate title for this piece was such a hard thing to do because everything that comes to mind doesn’t seem to depict the whole picture that I’m trying to portray.

Living in Russia has afforded me the opportunity to witness, compare and contrast the stark (but gradually fading) differences between the (Eastern) European and African culture in light of The Bible. One way you could measure or gauge which direction society is headed by taking a peek not only at its youth but at the children and their worldview (yeah they have worldviews too -it’s what parents, TV or whoever brings them up gives them). For those who know me well, its no secret that Charles W Colson is one of my favourite authors because he asked a ‘simple, yet difficult for so many to answer’ question-what is your worldview? When I’m not studying at the University or attending to scholarship students’ affairs, I’m out in a high school which I will not name for confidential reasons teaching English to children from 5^th grade to 12^th grade and my experience has been quite educational and a little bit disturbing.

Back in Nigeria, the norm was raising godly children and moral agents of society. The teacher’s job at school was made much easier because morals and life’s secrets were taught and in grilled into the child’s heart by not just the parents but by the community. If you did something wrong, you got punished/rebuked, if you did something good, you got rewarded and being known as a good kid by all was a reward itself. Of course there were always meant to be bad fruits to the bunch but at least the family, neighbourhood and community never ignored its social and moral obligations and so a teacher could walk into class confidently knowing that if he gave an order, it would most likely be obeyed because the students were taught to obey authority and be blessed or disobey and face the consequences. The family was sacred and even if the home was a boxing ring between the parents, they were still smart enough to remember God and society’s stance on divorce and respected the sanctity of marriage and children never had to fear for one day that his dad or mom would get fed up and leave.

Over here in Russia, it’s almost the opposite the teacher walks into class with only one thing in mind-giving the children the materials needed to keep them up to standard-that itself is an honourable thing no doubt, but does it really have to be so? The teachers’ hands are tied because the worst he could do to the child is to kick him/her out of class (which would make the student only happier-less learning to do) or call his/her parents (which will achieve little). My point being the students’ fears that nothing is at stake here. That brings us back to the family and society. In Nigeria, if any passerby were to see a 6 years old for example smoking a cigarette, as Mr.T would say ‘I pity that fool’ because he’s gonna get it not just from his parents, but the passerby alarmed at that sight would also take the right action by scolding him how he dims fit and making sure his guardians know about it so the lesson never leaves.

My point being, I don’t have to know whose child it is to care, we’re talking about a future generation but over here, a minor walks up to an adult and asks for a cigarette or a lighter and gets one. Some are even bold enough to walk into stores to buy. The kid doesn’t really care how his parents his parents ‘will react to it after all their not doing a very good job making their marriage work so why should he care. Russia has one of the worst divorce rates in the world and with the kind of kids they’re raising, chances of those statistics going downhill look dim.

What do these comparisons and the quoted scriptures have to do with my piece. First of all, the events taking place should not alarm us because the Bible said they would happen and they are happening and is as much as its effects are vivid in Europe and the west; they’re gradually sipping into our lives in Africa. There was a time we took the positive things from the west and let them keep their sadist life-style but we have taken to that now. But does that fact that the Bible says that they will happen mean we should do nothing because whatever will be, will be? No! Jesus told us to make disciples. God called us to redemption. He gave us a cultural mandate to redeem culture and transform society. Save the ones that are lost and to protect the ones in danger of being corrupted. Lots of religious holidays have been commercialized but I still decided to take advantage of that to teach a lesson to my children. It was unbelievable no one could tell me completely the nativity story
but thankfully I think most can now.

Usually children make a list of the good thing they did to show to Santa and that was the perfect opportunity. I asked all my children to write a list of 10 good things they had done in 2011 and can you believe that was probably the hardest class work they had done that year? Some couldn’t get to 5 things and the others it was a list of things they had done for themselves and not for others and those didn’t count. That taught me a lot, children know very little about what good deeds are. We also have holidays celebrating men’s day and women’s day in Russia and they were to write essays on the importance of men in this world and when it was time for women’s day, they were also to spell out the role of women in our world today but all they could do was to point out why men are better than women and vice verse.

All these pointed out to one thing but I didn’t want to jump into conclusions just yet. I decided to get close and find out how the kids are doing. Now these are children of millionaires and celebrities. Children that never lack material things, travel the world when they wish and yet were troubled and lacked a special kind of love and on closer inspection, most were from broken homes or homes waiting for the final crack. Most don’t respect teachers because their parents never taught them to or never told them the importance. Most find out important things they should be learning from their parents through their friends who are just as much from broken homes without sound instructions. The proverb said ‘spares the rod and spoil the child has no place here’ and so it goes. People keep moaning that this is a lost generation.

Well whose fault is it? TV?  The internet? Did you equip your children before sending them out into the world? Are you telling your children what you know just by theory or what you practice? I taught adults too and part of the reason they did anything to keep me as a teacher was not because I was good at teaching English. It was simply because I could share the little ‘secrets’ that I learnt from my parents and how they treated me in different situations. Grown-ups are at loss at how to handle their children and I’m at loss for words when they turn to me for help when I’m not close to being married talk more of having a kid and yet I can share answers with them because of what I’ve seen my parents and neighbours do. God’s truths aren’t just for Church, they’re for everyday living and they affect not just the home, but school, work and society on a whole and that’s why when America decided to kick out the ten commandments out of their classrooms, words like,’ Thou shall not lie, kill’ and the likes became alien language to the children and guns started coming into schools. If this generation is going to be lost, then it shouldn’t be because we never gave it a fighting chance.

Let it be that, just as God did in the Garden of Eden, He let them choose knowledge of good and evil or life and let them make the choice while we earnestly continue to pray for them. With the rate with which we’re absorbing western culture, it won’t be long before we’re confronted with some of the issues that parents there are facing. So dear parents, when you spend 16 hours a day at work in the name of providing for your family or fulfilling a career dream, while ignoring to spend time with your children at the park, teaching them godliness, someone else is raising him/her for you.

 Making him/her go to Sunday school isn’t it, sending him/her to a Christian boarding school isn’t it. Listen to his/her type of music, watch the movies he/she adores and you’d be surprised how much you’ll learn, connect and bond and how you can use that to teach him/her and while you’re at it make sure your marital relationship is as solid as a rock because at the end of the day no matter the alarming divorce statistics, there’s only one that matters-YOURS. As long as your marriage works 99.99% divorce rate won’t convince your child that marriage doesn’t work. Your faithful 0.01 will do just that. So lets stop weeping for a lost generation and redeem it by looking inward and making sure we’ve given them the right tools to battle and once we’ve done that, we can challenge the media and others for trying to corrupt for precious generation. So now that we’re finally here, what would you title my piece to suit your situation?

By Big-Brother.