Mum 4 Real Celebrating Parenthood
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Parents have so many growth plans for their children.
To achieve academic excellence, they employ lesson teachers.
To achieve extracurricular skills e.g music, swimming, dancing, etc, they enrol them in classes, pay and “do the runs” even when not convenient.
To achieve being “prim-and-proper”, they enrol them in the best finishing schools.
To achieve financial literacy, even as toddlers, they get them piggy banks and monitor their savings and spendings.
For the most important parts, they delegate to teachers and spend little or no time on it with them at home.
You may be wondering what the most important parts are, right?
Your children’s spiritual life should be the foundation to all other parts. Enrol them for Bible Study or hold short sessions with them daily and then train them to have a “me-time with God. Don’t delegate this to Sunday school teachers.
If you eat only once a week, you will have stunted growth. Therefore, don’t expect what your children learn in church – 2 hours in 7 days, a week – to be sufficient as the only spiritual diet they will have.
Feed them yourself at bedtime or get them books (devotionals and Bibles) that can do the feeding and ensure they eat.
The other most important part is good character. This should be seen and practiced at home. An adage says, “charity begins at home”.
If you aren’t intentional about your values – what your family stands for then your children are allowed to behave anyhow because nothing was defined.
Write out the values that are important to you, your family and communicate them per second to your children. By communicating, I mean you will have to teach them the definition and benefits, and your lifestyle must also showcase what you believe.
If you cannot afford to feed your children only on carbohydrates alone (for the rest of the time they have to spend with you) and expect healthy children, then you cannot afford to focus on one aspect of growth and expect balanced children.
Be intentional!
