EQUIPPING OUR CHILDREN FOR LIFE’S JOURNEY

Today I was reading a passage of the Bible and I was reminded of God’s providence towards his children and I also recall how he likened his relationship with us as a father-child relationship. And just with that, I somehow have a better understanding of how a parent should truly care for his or her child and training them to be the best they can be. In God’s relationship towards his child, we see that he is always willing to hear us, he wants us to always come to him when we are having challenges, if possible he should be the first to know because he is always capable to give us what we want.

Now, from this first instance, here we can see that as a parent, it is a necessity that we have the capability to always meet our children’s needs. Besides some people that had to give birth to their children out of some unfortunate situations, as parents, we are to make conscious efforts towards being capable in all aspects of our lives so we can truly be a good parent to our children. Money is needed but that is not all that is needed as a parent for you to give your children the best life they deserve. We can’t take away our children’s challenges completely but they should always be willing to come to us to ask for help because they know mummy and daddy has got them.

God always wants the best for us, and even though he doesn’t give us everything we ask for, he always gives us something even more valuable than what we’ve asked for because he knows and sees everything that we the children can’t see no matter how we try. As parents, we have to be vigilant and well informed about different aspects of life. Children are always curious, you know how we always go to God and try to question him, our children do that too and if we don’t remind them of what our takes are on things, they might start loosing their trust in us.

As a parent, if I’m privileged to make my children’s lives easier I’d be grateful to God because he is the one that has made it so. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be grateful if it happens the other way. The thing is, having the capacity to be able to provide all your child needs is something that will make parenting a lot easier for anyone. But for the fact that I have all it takes to give my children the best things of life doesn’t mean I should give it to them once they come asking for it.

Just because I have the capacity to buy a car for my 12 year old child and because he comes asking for it I should immediately buy it for him, no. Giving him or her that car at that age would only put him or her in danger and as a parent it is my duty to protect my child from harm. I will have to turn down such an offer even if his or her intention is to help his friends get a ride to school. Then, I will tell him why he can’t have what he is asking for at that time but if he could work hard on being a good child and he might get it someday. Just saying that alone will encourage that child to want to be a good person.

So for me, as a parent, I just want to have the capacity and capability to provide for my children everything and anything both materially and non-materially. But having these things doesn’t mean I’d give them everything once they come asking for it, as a parent it is my duty to know what is best for my child and anything that I know would serve as a threat to them, I will try as much as I can to avoid giving them access to it and also make sure to let them know why they can’t have access to such things even though they know their parents are capable of letting them have it.

Children or Adults, we all are humans and as humans we are always faced with one challenge or another, so trying to shield my children from facing challenges is something that I can only attempt to do but then it’s only a matter of time before they realize that the world is indeed spherical. I will try my best to always make sure to let them know that life is not always perfect and I will teach them the much I know of how they can overcome any challenges or difficulties that they might be faced with. But, it will be a privilege to know that what ever my children need is something I can give to them.

This is my response to the Hivelearners topic on “SAY NO TO CHALLENGES”.