Thursday, 8^th July, 2021

Bible Reading: 1 kings 22: 51-53

Memory Verse: And after being prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. Matthew 14:8 (NASB)

Parenting is one sacred opportunity God has given to many in order to nurture a life or destiny for Him. Unfortunately, many have fallen short of this sacred responsibility. Shina Rambo’s dad is probably one of such. Shina Rambo was born in 1958 in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria to a military officer who married 18 wives! Shina’s father was a corrupt military officer who used his influence as an officer to extort and rob people of their valuables, and took huge amount of money home. Shina could recall how his father came home with a lot of local and foreign currencies stained with blood and a woman’s scarf was used to wipe off the blood.

At that tender age of 7, he asked his father if it was animal or human blood but his father and his other corrupt officers simply ignored him while they kept drinking, smoking, and merry making. Also at that tender age, his father taught him how to dismantle and assemble all sorts of weapons and how to service guns. “Children are instinct imitators,” says expert child trainers. To a child, what you do is more important than what you say. Can you see how a father carelessly paved the way of destruction for his child? I’m sure he must have started drinking, smoking and sniffing drugs as a teenager. No wonder he took armed robbery to a higher level. Grace, whether good or bad, multiplies from one generation to another.

Parents, we have to be warned. We are custodians of heritages. We have to be more careful of how we raise these lives committed into our hands. It takes a lot to father or mother a child. Be careful of the seeds you sow consciously and unconsciously. Are you a parent that tells your child to tell the visitor at the door that you are not at home whereas you are in? You have just sown the seed of lies that will grow and germinate into more terrible sins. That’s how it works. It’s a simple but destructive chain reaction. Some parents smoke and are quick to lick peppermint or Tomtom to kill the smell. Too bad. The 21st century children and teenagers are way smarter than that. They really know who you are. Your strengths and weaknesses are bare to them. Dear Parents, anything you don’t want your children to be, do not practice. Talk it, do it. Next after God are parents. A good society is the aftermath of a good home. May God help us, in Jesus name.

Quote about Parenting:

1. Kids are like a mirror, what they see and hear they do. Be a good reflection for them  – Kevin Heath

2. Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk – Carl Jung

3. If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent – Bette Davis

4. It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men – Frederick Douglass.

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Prophetic Decree: May the fire of the Holy Ghost consume any evil parental seed in your life, in Jesus name.

Prayer Focus

1. The Giver of all good things, we thank You.

2. I command the fire of the Holy Ghost to consume any evil seed I might have planted into my children, in Jesus name.

3. Holy Spirit, please perfect the work of genuine salvation and conversion in the lives of my children, in Jesus name.

4. Lord Jesus, work in me that I may reproduce your exact image in my children, in Jesus name.

5. I receive grace to be a parent unto honour, in Jesus name.