Pleasant Feet

“Mummy, if you beat me, I will beat my own back.”
I sat across the other side of a restaurant waiting for my order to be served when I became intrigued by a conversation between a mother and her child.

At first, I thought it was a joke o. But when I looked at the expression on the mother’s face, I realized she was genuinely angry, yet seemed unsure of what to do with the child.
The next thing I heard was a slap on the child’s back, loud enough for my own back to feel it too. In local parlance, it is called “abara”.

As usual, what should have followed was the crying, the kind that starts gently and increases in frequency. But what I heard instead was the return slap of the child on the mother’s arm.
The speed at which my emotions moved from shock to anger was like the speed of light.

What exactly was the meaning of what I had just witnessed?

The child said it and eventually did it!

Well, my order arrived shortly after, and I left the “yamayama” scene because if I had remained there, I would not only have slapped the child, I might have landed the mother one as well. (It’s a lie o; it can only happen in my mind.)

But sincerely, as I drove home, I just kept wondering, where did we get it wrong?
In fact, as though the scene I witnessed was not enough, another image flooded my mind; a video I once watched online where a boy was beating his mother for waking him up. And to think he was being woken up around 10 a.m. to come and have breakfast!
What’s more, his mother was smiling, filming the event, and asking him what she had done wrong by waking him up at that time.

This is what we are gradually turning the younger generation into.

We call ourselves Gen Z parents or Gen Alpha parents, and it is no longer news that one day we will give an account of the souls God has given to us in custody.

The Bible tells us in Genesis 18:19 that God was confident in Abraham because He knew Abraham would instruct his household to uphold righteousness and justice.
My question to the parents of this generation is this:

Can God confidently say the same of you?

In the bid to make ourselves “woke” parents, are we gradually leading innocent children down a self-destructive path?
My question to these woke parents is simple:
If you had been trained the same way you are training your children today, encouraging them to retaliate whenever they are corrected, do you think you would have become the disciplined and responsible individuals you are today?

Ministry is not only standing on a pulpit to preach the Gospel. It is not only travelling around the world sharing the Good News.

Your ministry starts in that little home of yours.

See your children as the first set of souls you can present to the Father.
The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

The key words here are “the way he should go.”
What way do you want your child to go?
What values are you teaching today?
What habits are you encouraging?
What character are you building?

These are the questions I want you to take away from this read today.
Tomorrow, will you be able to live with a clear conscience when you look at the life your child has become?
Will you be proud of the life you helped mould?

The Bible remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is not woke. It is not influenced by trends. It remains the clear instruction of the Father on how to live a life that glorifies Him.

My dear reader, Jesus is all you need to make life’s best decisions.
If you have not yet made Him your Saviour, I encourage you to consider Him today.
Standing with Jesus makes all the difference.

See you soon.

God bless you.