PARENTS FAILING AT LEADING THEIR CHILDREN

Ever thought of the possibility of a home being under the authority of a father who is supported by a mother yet led by a child?


The dawning reality today is that parents are rare; and where you find them they are fully booked! Many children are growing up without the privilege of effective parenting and leadership. These children grow up to hold leadership positions where they misappropriate the opportunity to serve their communities, and everybody criticizes them for their mess. Why? Where we all these people when the parents were setting up these "now-old-children" for a life of ineffectiveness?


I believe that we ought to have criticized the parents many years ago when they were messing up the lives of their children. Our outcry against these children who have grown to become menaces to the society is far too late.


I have said it before and will repeat it here: "The home is the breeding ground of street children; the street is their training ground."


When will we redirect our focus to where it ought to be? Let's give attention to leadership in the home as much as we give to parenting. Many children have begun to assume the leadership responsibility in their homes simply because their parents are defaulting. I hope it doesn't happen to you.


The failure of the children when they grow up indicates the failure of the parents in training their wards effectively. Teenage years are the real test of effective parenting. When a child leaves home, the quality of parenting (s)he has received show up while he is away from home. So parents, this test awaits you.


Take your place as a leader in the home and earn the right to influence your children; that way we can preserve the dignity and sanity of our children in the years to come. Remember, train a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it when he grows up.


The ball is in your court

HUMANS LIVING AS ANIMALS IN HUMAN SOCIETY

Humans are not animals.


Whatever postulates evolutionary theory say matter little.


We are made to be humans, live as humans and think as humans. The uniqueness of the human race and specie is the ability to think. Animals are wired to react instinctively; they lack the faculty that enables them to think.


When humans fail to think and use their initiatives, they are living below the capacity and natural order of the human nature. Whatever is not used is as good as non-existent.


Many biological humans are living as animals in human society. We see them daily. They appear as humans but they live as animals; but we often mistake them for humans. Anyone who doesn't think is no better than an animal. Humans are humans are humans because of our difference.


Our thinkability allows us to be sophisticated in our reasoning, creative in our disposition and simple in our perception. So why should we live as animals in human society?

MANIACS, ADDICTS & 'HOLICS (2)

GET ON THE MANUFACTURER’S TABLE

Every product is the brain child of its manufacturer. No product suddenly appears on the shelf; neither do products disappear like ghosts. Similarly, you are a product of God’s creativity. You did not fall from the sky like the terminator. You were created or manufactured by God.

We all know that no one knows a product better than its manufacturer, and no one can fix a product’s malfunction better than the manufacturer. You are best fixed on your manufacturer’s table. So how do you get yourself on the table? Prayer.

Some attempt to play neutral by employing pre-emptive tactics. I’m not the religious type; even if you consider yourself to be an atheist, you can’t deny the fact that you still owe yourself to a manufacturer – God. Prayer is not so much what it is portrayed as. In fact, it is one of the most commonly engaged forms of communication: a dialogue. Yes, a dialogue. An exchange of words, thoughts and feelings between two people. The uniqueness of prayer is that it is specially designed for God and you; not you and another human.

So when I say pray, I simply mean express your thoughts and feelings to God, your manufacturer, through words. I know of no greater listener; God listens to and monitors His over 6 billion products including you. He is by far the most excellent post-manufacture personality. Why should you deny yourself such grace? Teilhard de Chardin says, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience.”

Prayer brings the spiritual to bear in the physical. God is spirit, yet he can and does operate in the physical since spiritual laws supersedes and suspend physical laws. Every time you pray, you secure spiritual intervention in your situation.

You need fixing? Want to get on the manufacturer’s table? Pray.

Bring It To Life

1.     Remind yourself how limited you are and how omnipotent God is. Your little problem is not any problem to him.

2.     Determine the areas where you need God’s help. Locate the places where you need fixing. Now, express how you feel about each of those points and what you need God to do for you. Be sincere and open about your prayer and watch how peace will flood your heart.

Key Points

1.     Prayer is a dialogue; an exchange of words, thoughts and feelings between you and God.

2.     Every time you pray, you secure spiritual intervention in your situation. 

MANIACS, ADDICTS AND 'HOLICS

How Much Can Buy You Off The Shelf.

If you were an item on the shelf of a store how much would you be worth? What price tag do you think the owner of the store would attach to you?

In the university, every student is given a grade point of 5 once they are admitted. But rarely does anyone graduate with a GP of 5. While that is exceptional, majority fall below 3.5- the borderline for second-class upper division. Why? They lost touch with their education.

At birth we all have 100% worth. That’s why everyone gathers to celebrate the birth of a new child. The hopes are up, the aspiration and expectations are high, everyone just naturally accepts that the child will be the greatest human that ever lived. But what happens afterwards? You can tell the remainder of the story.

Your personal value is a function of your relevance to the peculiar needs of people. A refrigerator is of no value to an Eskimo because it is not relevant to his needs, but the same Eskimo will be willing to pay as much for a boiling ring or a box of matches.

Addiction derails the mind from the proper course of reasoning and when you can’t think straight and constructively you cease to be relevant. Praise Fowowe defined addiction as “a distraction that side tracks you.” The sequence is this: get addicted, get side tracked; lose relevance, lose value.

Give up your addiction, mania, alcoholism or workaholic so you don’t get side tracked and ultimately lose value. Sincerely observe to see whether you are as valuable as you were before your addiction issues began. I doubt it. But note that value can be built as much as it can be depleted; in your own case it begins with giving up your addiction.

Bring It To Life

1.       Evaluate yourself: Are you better off now compared to how you were before the addiction issues? Are you satisfied with your life now? To what extent can others entrust valuable information, possessions and their selves to you?

2.       Your current value notwithstanding, decide to build your value beginning with giving up your addiction.

3.       Overcoming addiction is a process. Clearly write out a recovery plan stating a gradual depletion in the rate of frequency of your engagement in the habit with time frames. E.g. Sex everyday 1-week >> 3 times a week >> once a week >> once in 2 weeks >> once in a month >> once in 2 months >> once in 6 months >> once in a year >> stop.

Key points

1.       Addition is a distraction that sidetracks you

2.       If you are not relevant to meeting the needs of others, you are low in

value.