PARENTAL MONITORING AND DISCIPLINE OF CHILDREN
Proverbs 22:15
“Foolishness is
bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far
from him.”
Dear people of God, the Word of God speaks about events of the
last days and how people would behave in many verses one of which is 2 Timothy
3:1-5.
Having described the characters of such people, verse 5 ends
with an admonition that we should avoid such persons.
This admonition appears to be falling on deaf ears the world
over when we observe the behaviour of our youth of today. Rather than take the
advice, they are exhibiting the very characteristics the Bible warns against.
Here in Nigeria, a country where churches are springing up and
many display religion, it does appear nothing much has changed in the behaviour
of the youth.
There is a Nigerian musician whose label as a bad influence
appears to appeal to a number of youth who have formed themselves into a
cult-like followership.
Social media has details of the rules members of the ‘cult’
should exhibit to belong such as:
(1) Drop out of formal school
(2) Sag your trousers – no belt
(3) Take drugs, alcohol and engage in sex
(4) Internet fraud is permitted
(5) No respect for constituted authority
(6) No panties for girls Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
There is a report of a lady whose 15-year old daughter in JS3 (junior high school) was
suspended from school for being a member of the cult and the girl went ahead to
name between 25-30 girls all in SS1 – SS3 who are members of the cult.
Many
parents who are aware are apprehensive of the situation and wondering what to
do to stem the danger as it concerns their own kids.
My simple
advice is taken from God’s Word in the lead text above. Many kids are
influenced by peer pressure so it takes a parent to understand this and be a
friend of his or her kids to find out what is going on in their young minds.
You as a
parent must balance love and discipline. Where parents miss it is that they
wait until their kids have reached the age of reason before introducing
discipline for wrongdoing.
No!!
Discipline must
start once the child starts displaying unruly behaviour no matter how young.
You must
engage the child early (from age 1) on spiritual matters because this is where many
parents fail whose main concern is just the material welfare of their kids. The
Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV), “Train up a child in the way he should
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
What you
must understand here is the Bible says to train up a CHILD. So this training
must start from age 1 as I mentioned earlier.
Some parents
would want to argue with me that it is too early to start at age 1. But these
are the same people who take their kids to DayCare for others to care for them
while they are busy chasing money.
If you can
trust someone else to cater for your child at such young age of 12 months or 1
year as some experts recommend, is that child not being taught things there? Do
you know what the child is being taught?
I have seen
videos of children as young as 2 years of age reciting Bible verses. How did
they learn it? They were taught by someone obviously.
So age 1 is
not too young to begin to engage your child in spiritual matters if you want
that child to turn out well in life as the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6.
Where you
fail to take this instruction from God’s Word, you can be sure that the devil would
take advantage just as we see in videos of terrorists who take kids as young as
2 to 4 years and begin to indoctrinate them to hate others and become
accustomed to killing, violence and suicide bombing.
These are
the ones the devil enters and uses to cause catastrophes in terror attacks.
Humans beings
must understand that in this life, the spiritual happens first before the
physical so there is a battle for the human mind where the devil tries from
outside to influence the person and gains control to enter the person once he
or she accepts.
On the
other hand, the Spirt of God operates from within to caution the person and
when the person believes and accepts, he is always able to resist and defeat the
devil.
This can
only happen when the person is consistently exposed to God’s Word in the Holy
Bible.
This is the
reason I continue to emphasise on the need for Christians to expose themselves
and their family members to God’s Word on a DAILY basis.
The Word of
God is Spirit and Life – John 6:63b. When the Word saturates the human mind
through study and meditation, it connects with the human spirit and activates
the life of God to guide and direct the person.
This is my
advice to parents if you want your kids to successfully wade through this life
without being influenced negatively by the devil and his agents.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on
it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Righteous Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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