…says society bears brunt of faulty grooming
Panelists at a Church programme on Sunday advised parents to inculcate right values early and be friends with their children, to ensure healthy child development for a better society.
The event held in commemoration of children celebration at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry (MFM), Region 50, Cement, Lagos.
Mrs Modupe Fawole, a retired director of education and a teenage church coordinator, urged parents to lead by example, reward excellence and punish wrongdoing.
Fawole stressed the need for parents to always open lines of communication with their children for the right feedback, in order to guide them properly.
“We ourselves should be disciplined. Don’t be too tired of listening to the children,” she said.
She said a disciplined parent would be able to transfer the right values while listing godly values that must be inculcated in children to include punctuality and money management.
Mr Olusegun Agboola, another panelist, listed three important principles parents must impart for right upbringing as “the three Ds” — determination, diligence and discipline.
He urged parents to teach virtue of patience and let children know that there were seasons for both positive and negative experiences in life.
Mrs Olufunsho Oladiji, a teenage church coordinator, said the amount of the word of God in children was important to guide them against peer pressure.
Oladiji, who is also a lawyer, gave example of Joseph in the Bible who was able to resist temptation of sleeping with Potiphar’s wife because of his word knowledge.
She urged parents to always keep channels of communication and ensure right knowledge was impacted especially on teenagers likely to be confronted with various exposures.
“Let them know the positive and negative exposures,” she said
She also joined other panelists to admonish parents to teach virtues of hard work.
Mrs Oladipo Niyi, another panelist, urged parents to become role models to teach the right values so that children were not misled.
She advised parents to teach values such as contentment, respect, performing house chores, humility and prayerfulness.
Giving a sermon, Pastor Timileyin Oni described children as projects to be handled and account rendered to God by parents.
Speaking on the topic “Bringing up Children of Destiny in a Godly Way”, the cleric said God Himself gave the Bible as manual on how to train kids.
Oni, a youth pastor, said a parent’s first responsibility was to understand God’s blueprint for a child, which starts from things as simple as choosing the right or proper names.
Reading from Romans 8:28-30 and several other scriptures, he said parents were just custodians and caretakers assigned by God to take care of children.
He said that children learned from observations, and parents must be role models for right character formation.
Oni stressed the need for financial empowerment of parents, to be able to take adequate and proper care of their children.
Children of various ages marked the occasion with songs rendition, dance, scripture recitation, among several other activities.