Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6
I was the second person behind a person doing banking transactions, and what a lengthy wait it was, but it gave me the opportunity to witness a developing situation. A gentleman came into the bank with two young boys about ages nine and six. The older boy had a fast-food drink in his hand. As the gentleman began to do his banking, the older boy stood close by sipping on the drink. Every so often the father would fiddle with the boy and his drink. He seemed obsessed to one and oblivious to the other, who was younger.
I turned around to the person in the back of me and said “I see trouble ahead.” Many would agree with me, because they have experienced it, but most times in families, the children with the lighter color, longer hair, straighter nose and a pretty face get all attention, love and care. Before long, there was chocolate milk all over the bank’s floor.
What followed after was so surprising. He asked for napkins and proceeded to throw them here and there on the spilled milk while the boy walked away as if nothing had happened. Completing his transaction, the younger boy walked behind the gentleman and milk spiller. I tried in the spirit to figure out what was happening. Was divorce in the picture or the sowing of wild oats sometimes extending beyond ethnic barriers? Was he the uncle? What made him completely isolate the other boy? But I tell you what, whoever that young boy is, he will never forget.
Perhaps many parents do not realize that children are gifts from God on loan and expectation from the giver is that appreciation, love and care would be for the “gift.” As I look around in our country today, many children are leading a hard life. I feel so sorry for children as I go from place to place and hear and see the insults, rough treatment, no care that is given. Just the other day in a food store in the inner city, I saw a little girl who placed a packet of biscuits in the trolley and the words that came from the adult with her, they almost “spoiled the meat “I had in my trolley.
I asked the lady if that was her daughter and she said no it was her friend’s child. I really felt so sorry for the little girl, who seemed to be a nice child. I looked at her hair and it looked as if had not been combed for days – just some tight rubber bands with some plaits on the top because all the sides had been stripped from the constant styling – poor child. I took it upon myself and told her to tell her mother Ms. Darling say take time and plait your hair properly.
Well, sweet Jesus, when I was getting to my car a young lady all dressed up in short shorts, hair slicked to the bone and in a bun, finger nails rainbow colored and long as bird claws, a sling bag and dazzling slippers, ask me, “You Ms. Darling?” I said yes and she proceeded to say her friend gave her one message from me. Oh, I said so the little girl is your daughter? Before she could answer, I complimented her on her appearance and told her that her little girl is her “inventory – her treasure” and she should take care of her because she does not know what this little girl would grow up to become. I gave her such a sermon and did not even take up an offering, but you know what? She remained quiet as a mouse as the little girl was clinging to her. Then she said “Thank you ma’am.” It was a moving and touching experience. Deep down in my heart I know God was at work.
Too many times, we as Christians are afraid to confront sin, giving excuses, saying you don’t know these people, they have gun and they could hurt you, or they could curse you. And God knows, especially some of these young women, they have summa cum laude degrees in cursing. You have to take a bath when they are through with you; but those who know me, know that I am not afraid of sin nor the sinner.
This country is the way it is because mainly mothers are not training up their children in the way they should go, so when they become older, they will not be falling prey to crime and evil vices. Forget about hotels, concessions, licenses and who gets what. What we need is to save our people from the extinction and degradation block.
How can we not encourage our young men to take care of their children when there is no fast and hard rule for child support. Our neighbor to the north protects the family by demanding that men take of their children. Other than that, the quickest way to jail is not to support your children. Here in our country, the young men can afford to get the girls pregnant and sit on the blocks because nobody is checking. The government is the daddy for the nation. They don’t have to train up, much less, support children.
The women, and I speak for the majority of them, because I am one of them so I know, have the strain to train, raise and provide for the children. Just like the man in the bank with the two boys, many men forget that they even have other children.
God knows our country is in deep trouble. Nothing is more precious than the people of a nation – no material possession, no natural resources, no nothing. People make a nation great. We have serious people problems because we have failed in training up our children in the way they should go.
Training calls for help. The Apostle Paul had traveled to Derbe and Lystra and then through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia. When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia. But the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, they traveled through Mysia and went to Troas.
That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” When it comes to leadership, eyesight cannot help in times of crisis and chaos. Sometimes eyesight is mixed with illusions and things are not what they seem. In times of national distress, leaders have to go beyond eyesight and close their eyes to all the changing scenes of life. Like Paul, they would have to go alone into the world where visions will provide the light that will dispel darkness. God knows our nation needs to send out a “Macedonia call.”
• E-mail haystreet241@gmail.com or rubyanndarling@yahoo.com. Write to P.O. Box, 19725 SS Nassau, Bahamas, with your prayer requests, concerns and comments. God’s blessings.
