By Dr. Stanley Mukolwe
Our brains are like the memory stick of a camera and our eyes and ears the lenses and microphones. We go through life re-cording what we hear and see. Often we have no idea what we have recorded until an event triggers a memory. Once the memory is prompted, we re-live the past as if it had just happened. As we raise children, memories of our childhood are triggered. Some of them may be painful. We are products of our past but our future need not depend on that past because we can make decisions today that change our future.
The scriptures claim that children are both a gift and a reward from God (Psalms 127:3). They further claim that God has seen our unformed substance and knit us together in our mothers‟ wombs (Psalms 139:13, 16). Do these truths affect the way we raise children? Is parenting today any different from 20 years ago? Is there a problem with “today’s children”?
In an age with invariable change, what must remain constant? What is the constant about schools that excel? The students are the variable – they study, graduate and leave. The teachers and school management are the constant. What is the constant in profitable companies? Employees are hired, some leave and others retire. They are the variable. Management is the constant. What is the constant in teams that win? When a team constantly loses, the coach usually re-signs, or is fired. It is understood that a different coach can transform a losing team to a winning one. The players are the variable. The coach is the constant.
But does it always take a new coach to transform a losing team? In the movie Facing the Giants, Grant Taylor is a losing coach with an underdog football team. He is bombarded by giants of fear and failure in his professional and family life. Like one pulling out weeds in a garden, Grant identifies the issues that affect his team’s performance and deals with them. The result is revolutionary!
So what is wrong with children today? Nothing. They just need to be raised. In a family, the parents are the constant. Unfortunately, some people have children but do not wish to be parents. Others provide for their children but haven’t the time to raise them. Some wish to raise their children but simply have no idea how to. Their memory is marred by negative childhood experiences. In the Parenting Class we expose you to a revolutionary way of thinking in the context of other parents using the Bible as our guide. Your children will become the beneficiaries of your transformation!
