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 5th grade to 12th
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.
