A child is an innocent soul gifted on this earth. Children are sweet, charming, fun to be with, humble and friendly. They are priceless treasures and gifts from God, they are the heritage of the Lord. The word heritage means a special or individual possession; an allotted portion, this means they are an allotted portion of the Lord and they are individual possession of the Most High God, which means they are primarily owned by God. This leaves me to believe that parents are simply care takers. Children are the future of this world, the next generation. They are the buds which need proper care and attention for it to be a beautiful flower someday.
This shows how really treasured children are in the hands of the Lord and as a result, it is quite imperative that the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of children should be amply and competently met by their parent. Parents shouldn’t in any way shove their responsibility to others to cater for them. It’s important that parent understand the extent to which children are taken by God and replicate this also. There should be an understanding of how children should be correctly perceived, this will help parent attend to the children the right way and not end up been guilty of irresponsibility. Correct perception of your children will also assist in training them up appropriately in the way they should go.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Training a child should always be done in love, don’t despise your children, even when you need to correct them by spanking them, children need the rod of correction to drive foolishness away from their hearts, this should be done in love and not in anger. As a parent, never correct your child in anger, some parent, in a bid to correct their children have ended up with children in hospitals. Please parent, if you know you do have an anger problem, manage it effectively and decide consciously to leave your child alone at that point and get back to the situation afterwards. I believe no one wants to end up with a deformed child as a result of anger.
Children are precious and they won’t always think like you, truth is, you were like them at a point in your life. This is why it should be a mindful decision not a mindless one to give birth to children. Giving birth should be deliberate, it’s important that you consider several important matters before you decide to give birth to a child or should I say, join God in giving life to someone. Many at times, it is when parent don’t deliberately do this that they end up giving birth to children they cannot take care of. If you are not ready for it financially and emotionally, it’s better to simply wait. Giving birth to children you are not ready for will adversely affect not just you and the child, but the society and the community as well. This is because children that are not well taken care of at home becomes the liability of the community. We should consider the care of the little ones God entrusts into our care to be a very important responsibility.
Children are;
To be loved, cherished, and supported
To be treated with respect and dignity
To receive responsible care and to be handled with kindness
To be encouraged and nurtured emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually
To have their physical needs adequately met, including nutrition, housing, and medical care
To receive a good education that provides competence and empowers them to be self-sufficient
To be taught good values and morals to guide them in life
To learn about God’s personal love and care for them
To be taught boundaries and self-discipline
To be empowered to realize their full potential
To be prepared for the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood
To develop their individuality
To be treated fairly and justly, without discrimination
To be in a safe environment; to be protected from harm and danger
At Flickers of Hope Foundation, we consider that it is the God-given responsibility of every parent to impart to their children the proper manners to help them in life and destiny. Overtime, we engage in a variety of character-building, value orientation programs for children and youth. This is our own way of joining the society in bringing up children with the right values.
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Taiwo Oyewole (Business Development and Sales Enthusiast)