“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord” I Samuel 2:12 (KJV).
The responsibility of raising godly children is primarily that of the parents. The bulk should not be passed to the society. Every parent should take responsibility for their children. We live in a dangerous time where people give birth indiscriminately without plan to provide for the material, moral, financial and spiritual need of the children. The social malady we see in our society is as a result of parents abandoning their responsibilities for the society. As a result, many children turn out to become robbers, touts, cultists, rapist and prostitutes or sex hawkers. Majority of all kinds of vices we see in our society today are caused by failed parenting.
Eli was a public success but a private failure. He was busy ministering in the temple as a priest but failed in the home front as a father to his sons. A situation where children are allowed to do their own thing without anyone to guide, correct or rebuke them is very unhealthy for the children, the parents and even the society. The sons of Eli resorted to impunity and waywardness. They stole from the temple treasury, abused the women without anyone rebuking or disciplining them. The scripture warned that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverb 22:15 (KJV). If you spare the rod, you will spoil the child. In this age of clamour for the protection of the right of the child, the divine instruction to raise up a child in the way he should go should not be neglected. It is not necessarily, the way he wants to go, but the way he should go. “The rod and reproof gives wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” Prov. 29:15 (KJV). We raise godly seeds through godly instructions, corrections, discipline, prayer and godly example at home.
PRAYER: Lord help me to raise godly seeds in Jesus name.
Rev. Vincent Diolu