I remember in my growing
up years, that my father used to talk to all his children every 5 am of the
morning Monday to Saturday (with my Mother in attendance) after which we would
proceed to the Family Altar for the morning devotion.
On Sunday mornings, they
would ensure that we were dressed up for Church service and actually take us by
hand to the Church.
After the service, my
Father used to conduct a kind of "test" to see who actually listened
and got the message from the service - he would ask us for instance "what
was the topic of the Pulpit Talk?" or where was the first reading taken
from? e.t.c.
Those actions of my
Father, though irritating at that time, but actually formed the bedrock upon
which most of us his Children grew up and prepared us to face the future
without fear.
That goes to confirm what
the Bible says "Train up a Child in
the way that he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it"
-- Proverbs 22: 6
This may therefore suggest
that there is a guarantee in life that if you do A B C, then X Y Z would be the
outcome or that if you choose to go left, definitely you would not encounter
any road blocks.
But that is very far from
the truth and the truth is that in life, there are no guarantees or warranties.
There is no guarantee that
the child who was raised in a home such as my Father's would not deviate from
the path set before him or her?
There is no guarantee that
all the principles, lessons and wisdom poured into the children when they were
growing up would stick with them all through their adult lives?
And all these are because,
we are all INDIVIDUALS and as the children make their way through life, they
not only drop some of the things they learnt at home which to them appear
depressive or out of fashion but also pick up other habits/characters that they
see most of their peers involved in. Because they do not want to be the only
sheep amongst the goats, they prefer to blend to be goats too just to flow or
tag along with their peers.
After all we have heard of
Children born to Pastors and Bishops who are way out of the Christian life that
their parents struggled hard to impart in them when they were growing up.
This therefore means that
while growing up may be limiting for the fear of Parents, being grown up is a sesame
street event where everyone is "free" to decide which path to tread.
We are obsessed with the
culture of getting ahead and ensuring a win.
We have little tolerance
for failure. We want guarantees on everything – purchases, programs, etc.
We want a 100% money-back
guarantee that this will work. “If you can’t guarantee the weight-loss
program, I’m not trying it.” “If you can’t guarantee that I will get a
job on the first interview by using your training program, I am not even giving
it an attempt.”
We want guarantees on
EVERYTHING – including raising our children to make wise decisions.
I have seen it happen
several times, individuals have refused to get involved in programs that
ordinarily should benefit them because they did not get any guarantees that
such programs would work.
And because they did not
get any guarantees they did not take part
not remembering that the life we live is predicated on seasons and
times, happenstances and ordinances which may not be clear to us.
Sometimes even when
guarantees are given, they fall short of expectations and make people lose
confidence and some even suffer from broken hearts.
It is therefore important
to know that while there are no guarantees or warranties in life, we can always
put FAITH in all out DOUBTS, that way we can be GUARANTEED of life transforming
actions.
Dr. Jerry - the First: JP
#DrJTF
I agree more with this, the more comfortable we get with being uncomfortable, the faster we grow. When we are moving forward and making progress, we will feel uncomfortable, and that’s okay, we only live once, but if we do it right, once is enough.
ReplyDeleteThere is only one #certainty in this world of uncertainties and that certainty is that nothing is certain
ReplyDeletetime and space happen to us all!!!!