Excerpt XXII, from Moral Goodness In Our Life-time, By Pastor Ajayi James B. C., continues
The Bible tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go,and when he is old,he will not depart from it.” Do not leave the children idle for long hours.An adage says, “An idle hand is the devil’s workshop”.Yet another warns, ” Too much play and no work makes Jack a lazy boy, while too much work and no play makes Jessica (names and emphasis mine) a dull girl.
A good parent should learn to balance up the training of a child to avoid lopsidedness and wasteful efforts . Keep them doing useful work or fruitful exercises. “A young father, finding his son with nothing to do, tore a map of the world out of a magazine and gave it to the boy to piece together again. A few minutes later the job was finished, and he asked his son how he ever did it so quickly, ‘Well, Daddy,’ said the boy, ‘on the back of the map was a picture of a boy.l knew if l could build the boy right, the world would come out right too.’ This thoughtful allegory given by an Evangelical Visitor in Soul Sculpture reiterates the significance of children training as a strong factor in nation building. According to the last census held a few years ago, Nigeria had a population of over 180 million people.By now an estimated population of over 200 million would not be far-fetched, with a corresponding children population of over of 85 million under fifteen years being contributed by Nigeria alone to the world population. Now, let us consider the population of the whole world vis-a-vis the number of children there under fifteen years of age, many of whom are engaged in evil already.We can easily know that the world would soon be overwhelmed with evil if the current pervasive permissiveness of parents and guardians for the children continues.Many parents are either too busy to monitor their children or simply misguided in the options for their training.For example, many parents……..(TO BE CONTINUED IN EXCERPT TWENTY-FOUR).
LEGENDARY QUOTE: “SOME CHILDREN IN A FAMILY FOUND THAT THEIR MISCONDUCT FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH THEM.AND THEIR FATHER WAS MAD AT THEM.THE CHILDREN AT NIGHT PRAYED ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR FATHER.THEN THE NEXT MORNING THEY PUT THIS SIGN ON THEIR PARENTS’ BEDROOM DOOR , ” BE KIND TO YOUR CHILDREN, AND THEY WILL BE KIND TO YOU…YOURS TRULY, GOD.”
