By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The Senior Pastor of Divine Grace Of Glory Church, Benin, Pastor P. I. A Obaseki, has advised Nigerian parents to instill the right morals and values in their children in order to have a better society that everyone could be proud of.
He made the call while speaking as a guest on Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) Programme, Marriage Matters with the topic “Bringing Children and Youths Up”.
Pastor Obaseki said that bringing up children, requires a huge sacrifice from the parents which they must have to make if they want a better society.
Obaseki added that a lot of parents have abandoned their duty for material gains to the detriment of their homes.
“Bringing up your children in the fear and ways of God, in the way that we will be proud of them, in a way that our legacy will continue after us, requires a lot of sacrifice which we the parents have to make.
“It is very important to bring up your children in the fear of God so that later in life, you will not regret it.
“The way you bring up your children inside your house determine what they become tomorrow. Today, you see parents moving from one place to another seeking for a solution because of their children.
“This problem actually started from the beginning because most parents are very careless in taking care of their children and in bringing them up, they don’t have time for them.
“When you have time for your children while bringing them up, you are blending them. And when you don’t have time for them, someone else will bring them up for you and when someone else bring them up for you, it will not befit your family and the future of your family is in trouble.
“Remember as parents, what you impact your children with, remain in them and if you refuse to impact them, someone else as I said earlier, will impact them.
“So, the structure of the family depends on how you prepared your children, the counsel you give to them. When you see them misbehaving, do you advice them? When you see them dress, do you advice them? When you see them talking somehow, do you advice them or you just laughed over it? When you laugh over it, remember, that child is already changing and gradually, someone else is already bringing up your child for you and by the time it becomes spoilt, what happened? You know, charity, they say, begins at home. So, it is very important that this matter be looked into”, Obaseki said.
The Television Evangelist who is known and famous for his philanthropic gesture, said children should be rebuked when they should be and should be counseled when they should be, adding that, while doing this, it must be done with love.
He admonished parents to also imbibe in their children the culture of hard work and not to yield to their demands always because doing so, will make them think that life is a bed of roses.