Research has shown that majority of the problems in the world today are traceable to wrong upbringing.

We have heard on several occasions how some parents give birth to so many children and allow them to cater for themselves. That is an act of wickedness. And the annoying aspect is that these sets of people will continue to give birth like dogs or pigs. Even in the animal kingdom, the parents ensure that the babies are fed but humans will allow their offsprings to roam the streets and beg for alms.

Sunny Ade and late Onyeka Onwenu sang a song some years back about family planning, it says,”If you never ready to carry the load ooo, why put am for another person?” Some people will claim that it is God that gives hence they should populate the earth. Imagine if everybody is giving birth anyhow, what will become of the world by now or are they the only ones that have functional private parts. As wealthy as former American President, Bill Clinton is, he has only one girl child. The likes of Aliko Dangote, Otedola have a limited number of children with all the money they have. If you can cater for many, why not but if you can’t take care of one, and you are giving birth to more, believing that government will come to your rescue is wickedness.

Meanwhile, the main issue at hand is how to raise these children in the fear of God. Recently I came across some children, they don’t go to bed until 11pm, only God knows where their parents are, probably enjoying themselves in a beer parlour. These children mainly female, display all kinds of careless acts including dancing seductively with their male counterparts. Guess what, I saw one of them doing homework on a Monday morning when she has Friday, Saturday and Sunday to do it but she was playing with boys.

One of the things I discovered with children is that they are fast-learners. They don’t wipe out anything out of their memories except that same person that taught them, claims that he made a mistake. This is the reason why parents must be careful with the way they raise their children and what they do in their presence.

You are staying in a single room and having sex in front of your children, what are you teaching them. I came across a young girl of 13 years, and she narrated how the brother-in-law slept with her when she was 10 years old.

According to her, ever since that incident, she has been having the urge to sleep with men whether young or old. What about parents especially, fathers who drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes in front of their children, of course that child will be a chain smoker or graduate to smoking Indian hemps.

The implication of that, is that at old age, you won’t be able to control them. There is a stage in a child’s life that you cannot flog him again, you can only advice him except you want to engage him or her in a physical fight and they will definitely defeat you especially children of nowadays who are using all sorts of hard drugs.

I also came across a young lady recently who uses tramadol, a deadly hard drug that makes you misbehave. Whenever she uses it, she goes wild and wants to fight anybody including her male counterparts.

When you train your children right from childhood in the fear of God, you won’t need to bother yourself when they get to teen-age adulthood. The Holy Book says, “Train up a child the way he/she should go and when he/she grows up, he/she will not depart from it (paraphrased),” Prov. 22:6.

Some of us train our children in the way of the Lord but we don’t like spanking them when they go wrong, that is also wrong. The Holy Book recognizes flogging the child when he or she misbehaves. Provm 23:13-14

I have heard some parents say, “He/she has his/her life to live.” No, God will require you to give account of your stewardship on that child, her blood will be on your head especially if he or she dies out of your carelessness. Ezekiel 3:18-19. God does not joke with children, Bible says, “Children are the heritage from God.” Psa. 127:3-9. When Jesus was busy preaching, children came to greet Him and they were trying to stop them, He told them not to hinder them. Matt. 19:14

So, your contributions to your children is very essential. Your contributions will impact either positively or negatively on the next generation and by extension on the world. As we speak, some children don’t know how to greet, especially people who are older than them and some of our parents don’t see anything wrong with that. Some will even sit down while they allow older persons to stand, this is common in commercial vehicles.

We were told that one of the richest men in Africa, Alhaji Aliko Dangote became wealthy from the prophecy of late Bishop Benson Idahosa. According to the story, Bishop Idahosa was traveling with a friend and there was no seat for his friend. He announced if anyone could volunteer his seat, christians were there but it was a Moslem – Dangote that gave his seat and Idahosa prophesied that he was going to be the richest in the continent. Giving respect to people will take you to places you least expect, meet with people you ordinarily wouldn’t have been possible or jobs/contracts you don’t qualify for.

We must train our children well so that it will reflect in them wherever they go, whether you are around or not. I would have been a chain-smoker because everybody in my class then were smokers when we were in secondary school (SS3), and when they wanted to teach me, I remember that nobody has ever smoked in my family and my father and mother used to warned us against bad company. So in order to escape from probably, their attack if I don’t smoke, I asked what they benefit from smoking and none of them could tell me and that was how they left me.

One of those guys graduated from cigarette to Indian hemp, and on a fateful day after taking it, he ran into the street and got knocked down by a vehicle. He died on the spot.

Finally, parents, if your child or children become great people in the society, all the accolades and goodies will come to you and you won’t remember some of us but if it is the other way round, you will also enjoy the shame alone. How would you feel when your child or children are being paraded as armed robbers, kidnappers, prostitutes, God forbid that won’t be our portion but let’s do the needful. They said, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Know where your children are, at every point in time, give them attention and tackle their problems, train them in the way of the Lord and God will keep them even when you are not around. Remember , God is the owner of the children, we, parents are mere caretakers. A word is enough for the wise!

For suggestions and comments, or you have a story to tell or an advert to publish, kindly contact us, email: chrisonokpegu@gmail.com or Whatsapp on +2348165273757 (messages only)