TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN IN THE WAY OF THE LORD; LIVE RIGHTLY BEFORE THEM BY OLUWABUNMI AREGBESOLA

TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN IN THE WAY OF THE LORD; LIVE RIGHTLY BEFORE THEM BY OLUWABUNMI AREGBESOLA

When I was very little, I remembered a day playing outside with some children. A man was passing by, he was a perpetual drunkard. I called the man his usual name and mummy was told. Oh my my! She spanked me and told me never to say such thing again.

It is very uncommon to see the children of devout Christians growing wayward. Such parents have set themselves as pacesetters for their children, the children must surely take after them.

It is good to correct your children but the best way to instill discipline into them is to live an exemplary life before them. Imagine a mother telling her children never to curse but such mother's vocation thrives well in terms of raining curses on people. Such mother should not be surprised when the child becomes an expertise in raining curses on people.

Children are very sensitive, starting from their babyhood, they observe their parents and absorb both the good and bad sides of them.

Trace a girl child who dresses indecently back home and you will be surprised she inherited it from her mother. She can't teach the child decent dressing because she is defaulted in that area.

Do not blame some children for their gross misconduct in the society. You can blame the parents for bad parenting though that's not true in all cases. Those times they needed to discipline the child, they preferred to spare the rod to spoil the child. When people call their children to order, they flare up and take sides with their children.

Children should be taught the way of the child from infant. Pray with them, read the Scriptures to them, teach them how to live peacefully with others. Spank them in love when necessary. Commend them even when what they do, look insignificant to you. They will still do better.

Watch them closely and commit them into the hands of God. Children who will go wayward will not hide it from their childhood. They manifest it in petty matters that are of no or little importance to us.

If we must breed children that will be useful to their generation and that will stand tall even in the midst of challenges, we must live rightly before them and train them in the way they should go.

We have seen children whose parents didn't live rightly before them but they turned out to be a mighty instrument in the hands of God. Now that you are old enough to choose, forget the past and choose the way of the Lord. Don't blame your parents for how they raised you.

Don't fail God by raising dignified thieves as children. Don't fail as parents by raising prostitutes in this generation. Don't cause set back to the Nation by raising thugs as children.