Starting a life of service, reward, and achievement, it begins with parents doing the right thing --- discharging their responsibilities to their children which include training, care and protection . They must know that children have right to these things and so they must not be denied of their right. Anyone hoping to be a parent must recognize and be ready to face the challenges associated with the upbringing of children and managing a family. It is a huge responsibility, so they must be purposeful in their approach.
Purposeful Parenting
You need to have a source of steady income (regular salary or wages). Establish yourself in a platform where you can leverage on the effort of others to earn passive income (i.e. a platform where you don't have to work alone to make money or platform where you don't necessarily have to participate actively or have to be physically present every time before making money.
Expenses will increase - Recurring expenditure like: feeding, school fees, medical bills etc. You are going to provide all these and much more for people who will be totally dependent on you and who may not contribute anything financially for years.
Food. Is the most important necessity and must be provided at all times for the family. It is what sustains life before any member of the family can undertake any other endeavor. Without food there is no home. Food consumes a considerable chunk of your income, so you must have a steady source of income to be able to provide food for the family and make your house a home.
Education. Education and training is the best thing you can give your children. It is where you'll spend the most money. Apart from school fees, books and uniforms, you'll also spend a lot on extra lessons and home lessons for each child. If you don't have the time to inspect their books and keep close watch on their academic progress, you must pay someone to do it, if you really want them to do well in school.
Health care. Try your best not to run out of cash. This is very important with regards to children health. Their health issues often arise spontaneously and a delay in getting the needed health care can be disastrous. Usually, you have to rush them to a health care facility. If you lack cash at that critical moment, something unpleasant might happen.
Clothing
Recreation, Entertainment, Excursion.
Emotional need
Spiritual need and moral instruction.
Culture. You owe them a duty to ensure that they have identity. So you must make them connect with their root by taking them to the village regularly so that they can imbibe the various aspects of their culture such as food, language, dressing, greetings etc.
You would not be done with your children training until they are employed and you would play an active role in getting them employment.
Children -- A Precious Inheritance
Children are inheritance from God.Their arrival is an event that brings great joy to the family. It is expected that anyone bringing them into the world has a good reason for doing so, otherwise it is better not to bring them to surfer or to constitute nuisance to the society.
You must be focused on achieving your aim of bring children into the world. It begins with a vision - a mental picture of the kind of children you want,the kind of life you want them to lead as they are growing up and what you want them to become when they grow up.
Every responsible parent, of-course, would like his child to grow up to be, responsible and successful, an achiever, capable of delivering value and getting rewarded, a leader and a role model. If that is true of you, then you must guide your children to develop properly in order to achieve this. Prepare them for success right from the cradle.
To this end you must make their development and empowerment a priority. You have to help them acquire the productive resources with which to sustain and develop themselves in readiness for laudable achievements in life. The quality of the productive resources you give them matters a lot. It is a major determinant of how far they'll go in life and what they can achieve. Some of these productive resources set them in the path of constant achievement while others leave them in a state of perpetual struggle for survival. The process of acquiring productive resources starts with education. Apart from the basic necessities of food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare, the most important thing your child needs to develop is training. Lots of it. Training is the key to success in anything they would do. And the training has to be holistic.
This involve helping them to develop their abilities through education, training and exposure, with particular attention paid to their moral, spiritual,emotional, cultural and social needs as well as skill development, talent discovery and career pursuit.
Leadership is the ability to influence, inspire and motivate people without using force or coercion. If you can inspire others to dream, learn and become more, then you are a leader.
It is often said that children are leaders of tomorrow. A leader must impart and impact the life of others in the society. While children are born with a measure of leadership qualities, however, such qualities must be nurtured and refined. Others are acquired. So parents must do all in their powers to help them acquire leadership qualities and develop their abilities to do things and take up responsibilities, by giving them wide exposure early in life.
One of the most important leadership quality is discipline. Once you can instill discipline in them, other qualities could be learnt easily.
You can start by establishing common rules and regulations - dos and don't s at home. Then gradually introduce other crucial moral values that contribute to the building of good character and good reputation. These include:
GIVE THEM GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Principles are fundamental truths from which laws are derived. For example, "fire is hot" is a fundamental truth. From that you can derive laws as "do not touch", "do not go near" etc.
Knowing the fundamental truth about anything or situation can enable your children to make informed choices and also set for themselves necessary safeguards to avoid disasters. It can also help them to set limits that promote discipline and enhance productivity. It is only a person who knows his left and right that has a direction in life, and this put him in a good stead to lead others. There are good principles to guide your children in specific situations and in various aspects of life. These include:
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN
Protect your children from harmful cultural practices and child abuse. E.g. Early marriage, hawking, female genital mutilation etc. Be careful not to leave them in the hands of those who could take advantage of them or in situations where their safety is jeopardized.
Uphold children's rights
INSTITUTIONALIZED FAMILY Routine
Establish certain family rites that must be fulfilled whether parents are there or not. These include activities like family devotion and other religious programmes. Others are : home work, study, recreation etc.
HELP YOUR CHILDREN TO ASPIRE
Achievement engenders feeling of fulfillment, satisfaction and confidence.
Exposure inspires achievement so expose your children to a wide range of productive endeavors early in life so that they would be motivated to take up some as career or hobby. A major factor responsible for inequality in the society is the quality of exposure and training that one has got, as well as opportunity that one has. Education, training, and exposure are the keys to success in today's network high society. These are factors that bring one closer to opportunity.
These factors enhance skills. Improved skill attracts attention, admiration, good-will and patronage. Education, training and exposure also contribute to forging relationships and getting connections by making friends with their course mates and with others they may come in contact with. This process increases their fan base and put them in a good position to encounter opportunities, as they could be patronized by those who know them or be recommended to those that matter thereby increasing their connections and chances for success.
Help them to develop confidence in themselves - the "i can" mentality by entrusting them with responsibilities according to their abilities. Inculcate in them the habit of setting goals, pursuing and achieving them. Give them short term, medium term, and long term goals to achieve. Start by breaking the processes of achieving the goals into short projects that could be achieved in a short time. As they continue to accomplish these projects bit by bit, they develop confidence and believe that they can achieve the ultimate goal. In fact, the belief that they can achieve anything. Once they develop such confidence and imbibe this habit of achievement, the sky will be their limit.
You can help your children to appreciate and imbibe the habit of achieving goals by:
Engaging them in projects within and outside the family. Engaging in projects is a fine way of acquiring skills, discovering and showcasing talents. Project may be anything you or your group set out to accomplish. It could be presentations or performances. It could be for a competition, for leisure or for adventure. It may also be meant to discover and showcase talents.
Project as a competition.
Competition is a sure way of achieving goals. Apart from the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment it generates when a person comes up on top, it also broadens one's knowledge and increase one's skill even if he did not win. It is also an incentive to study more. People generally do not study hard unless they have an incentive to do so. The rewards derived from a competition are incentives to study harder as you need to give you best to win in a competition. Hence if you engage your children in competition, they will learn faster and increase their skills vastly.
Project as a means of discovering and showcasing talents.
Project, whether for competition, for leisure or adventure, whether in form of presentation or performance is a great way of discovering and showcasing talents. It generates feelings of satisfaction,fulfillment and confidence. It is one of the surest means of discovering who we are and what we can do. Sometimes, we think we know something or can do something, it is when we engage in it that we can get to know how we really fare. A good presentation or performance would naturally elicit applause, an indication of how well you performed. For the one who participated in such performance or competition, it is an indescribable feeling of joy and satisfaction. An ecstasy that one lacks words to describe and also the urge to want to do more. It is also an incentive to do more, and do so willingly, because before participating in a presentation or performance, you'll want to be at your best.And that requires learning and studying more. So to help your children develop fast and achieve more, enroll them in platforms that afford the opportunities to take part in presentations, performances and competitions. Such platforms include schools, church groups, clubs etc. In the school, the classwork, homework, test and exams as well as inter house sport and the various clubs afford children ample opportunities to engage in competitions,presentations and showcasing of their talents. In the christian congregation of JW, platform such the "Theocratic Ministry School" enable everyone to learn more. The assignment given prompt individuals to make research and presentations. This makes them more skillful and knowledgeable.
Leave A Legacy For Your Children
A legacy is something you leave for those who come after you or for those who look up to you. It could be material, financial or intellectual property. It could be procedures for doing things or desirable qualities. If you are really interested in the success of the next generation, then, you owe them a legacy. By mentoring or imparting knowledge to others, you can help them achieve greater feats within a shorter time than you did. One of the regrets often expressed by older people is that they "didn't have the knowledge they now have, early enough". Imagine passing on knowledge that took you 20 years of pains taking research and experience to acquire, to a teenager; he can achieve a lot with it when he is still young and can even surpass your achievement when he is your age. Note that early achievement is a foundation for further and greater achievements. So give them a legacy that sets them on the fast track to success. Achieving success is not necessarily about how old one is, but about what training and exposure one has got. For example, a 40 year old man who has not been trained to drive a car can not be employed as a driver, but a 20 year old who is trained and licensed can.
Help them to appreciate that they'll face the consequences of their actions or in-actions. So they should cultivate self discipline and strive to build a good reputation for themselves. It is in your own interest that they do this because they will one day be in a position to take decision in your behalf. You would like to be in safe hands when that happens.
Purposeful Parenting
You need to have a source of steady income (regular salary or wages). Establish yourself in a platform where you can leverage on the effort of others to earn passive income (i.e. a platform where you don't have to work alone to make money or platform where you don't necessarily have to participate actively or have to be physically present every time before making money.
Expenses will increase - Recurring expenditure like: feeding, school fees, medical bills etc. You are going to provide all these and much more for people who will be totally dependent on you and who may not contribute anything financially for years.
Food. Is the most important necessity and must be provided at all times for the family. It is what sustains life before any member of the family can undertake any other endeavor. Without food there is no home. Food consumes a considerable chunk of your income, so you must have a steady source of income to be able to provide food for the family and make your house a home.
Education. Education and training is the best thing you can give your children. It is where you'll spend the most money. Apart from school fees, books and uniforms, you'll also spend a lot on extra lessons and home lessons for each child. If you don't have the time to inspect their books and keep close watch on their academic progress, you must pay someone to do it, if you really want them to do well in school.
Health care. Try your best not to run out of cash. This is very important with regards to children health. Their health issues often arise spontaneously and a delay in getting the needed health care can be disastrous. Usually, you have to rush them to a health care facility. If you lack cash at that critical moment, something unpleasant might happen.
Clothing
Recreation, Entertainment, Excursion.
Emotional need
Spiritual need and moral instruction.
Culture. You owe them a duty to ensure that they have identity. So you must make them connect with their root by taking them to the village regularly so that they can imbibe the various aspects of their culture such as food, language, dressing, greetings etc.
You would not be done with your children training until they are employed and you would play an active role in getting them employment.
Children -- A Precious Inheritance
Children are inheritance from God.Their arrival is an event that brings great joy to the family. It is expected that anyone bringing them into the world has a good reason for doing so, otherwise it is better not to bring them to surfer or to constitute nuisance to the society.
You must be focused on achieving your aim of bring children into the world. It begins with a vision - a mental picture of the kind of children you want,the kind of life you want them to lead as they are growing up and what you want them to become when they grow up.
Every responsible parent, of-course, would like his child to grow up to be, responsible and successful, an achiever, capable of delivering value and getting rewarded, a leader and a role model. If that is true of you, then you must guide your children to develop properly in order to achieve this. Prepare them for success right from the cradle.
To this end you must make their development and empowerment a priority. You have to help them acquire the productive resources with which to sustain and develop themselves in readiness for laudable achievements in life. The quality of the productive resources you give them matters a lot. It is a major determinant of how far they'll go in life and what they can achieve. Some of these productive resources set them in the path of constant achievement while others leave them in a state of perpetual struggle for survival. The process of acquiring productive resources starts with education. Apart from the basic necessities of food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare, the most important thing your child needs to develop is training. Lots of it. Training is the key to success in anything they would do. And the training has to be holistic.
This involve helping them to develop their abilities through education, training and exposure, with particular attention paid to their moral, spiritual,emotional, cultural and social needs as well as skill development, talent discovery and career pursuit.
3.
HELP YOUR CHILDREN TO DEVELOP LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND GOOD REPUTATIONLeadership is the ability to influence, inspire and motivate people without using force or coercion. If you can inspire others to dream, learn and become more, then you are a leader.
It is often said that children are leaders of tomorrow. A leader must impart and impact the life of others in the society. While children are born with a measure of leadership qualities, however, such qualities must be nurtured and refined. Others are acquired. So parents must do all in their powers to help them acquire leadership qualities and develop their abilities to do things and take up responsibilities, by giving them wide exposure early in life.
One of the most important leadership quality is discipline. Once you can instill discipline in them, other qualities could be learnt easily.
You can start by establishing common rules and regulations - dos and don't s at home. Then gradually introduce other crucial moral values that contribute to the building of good character and good reputation. These include:
- Discipline: One of the most important values to live by is discipline. Once discipline is imbibed, other values can be cultivated easily. You especially need to inculcate discipline in areas such as: (i) Time consciousness, (ii) Punctuality, (iii) Morality (moral uprightness), (iv) Physical cleanliness and Grooming, (v) Diligence (doing things well).
- Politeness
- Respect for people
- Honesty
- Loyalty
- Chastity
- Fear of God.
GIVE THEM GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Principles are fundamental truths from which laws are derived. For example, "fire is hot" is a fundamental truth. From that you can derive laws as "do not touch", "do not go near" etc.
Knowing the fundamental truth about anything or situation can enable your children to make informed choices and also set for themselves necessary safeguards to avoid disasters. It can also help them to set limits that promote discipline and enhance productivity. It is only a person who knows his left and right that has a direction in life, and this put him in a good stead to lead others. There are good principles to guide your children in specific situations and in various aspects of life. These include:
1.
Success does not come by chance. You set it in
motion by the actions you take or the decisions you make. The success you
record today is a product of the action you took or the decision you made
yesterday. Quote: “Today’s reward is a product of yesterday’s choice”.
Conversely, “tomorrow’s reward is a product of today’s choice”. So what choice
are you making today?
2.
(a) There is a time for everything. A time to
work and a time to play, a time to be serious and a time to be jovial. So be
time conscious. Allocate time for everything you do. Set agenda for the day,
write it down if necessary and follow it through religiously. Do one thing at a time so that you can focus all your attention on it in order to do it well. Be conscious of
when to start and finish one thing and then move on to another.
( (b) Whatever you are doing, do it with all your
heart. Concentrate all your effort there and avoid distractions. (c) Don’t stay idle. Always engage yourself in a
productive venture. Schedule time for the different things you want to do.
3.
(a) Always
prepare in advance for whatever you want to do in order to do it well. (b) Pursue excellence in all you do. Training,
research, experiment and practice are essential ingredients for excellence.
4.
Opportunity comes but once. Get prepared to take
up opportunity whenever it comes. Do not miss opportunity. Develop yourself in
readiness to take up an opportunity when it comes. Opportunity comes to those
who have prepared for it. Those who have developed themselves.
5.
Whatever passion you have that is good and
admirable, continue considering and pursuing it. Be focused on your dream or
goal.
6.
Do not seek to earn more. But seek to be a
better person both in character and at what you do. Learn more and become more,
then people will be attracted to you. The more people come to you, the more potential
opportunities you have. Remember, two things that would enhance your fortune in
life are what you know and the people you know. So learn more, become more and
people will be attracted to you. Then the money will come effortlessly.
7.
Imbibe discipline. There are rules guiding
everything in life. Discipline means that you observe those rules. If there are
no rules set, set up some. Discipline requires that you do not overstep limits.
Play by the rules.
8.
Be responsible. Take responsibility for your
actions and be mindful of the consequences of your actions and the fact that
you would be held responsible if something goes wrong.
9.
Have a quest for knowledge. Be a learner. The
learned are leaders and achievers. When you know something, you have an edge
over those who do not know. And that makes you a leader over them.
10.
Define your goal. Always ask yourself why you
are in a place or why you are doing what you are doing. The answer will show
you what your priority should be. Be focused on your goal and avoid
distractions.
11.
(a) Always
aim high so that in case you fail to achieve your ultimate goal, what you
eventually achieve is not abysmally poor. (b)
Always have a target in whatever you are doing to ensure high
productivity.
12.
Always have a dream, and a plan to achieve it.
Define your dream.
13.
Do not despise small beginnings. They are
stepping stones to greatness.
14.
There is no straight road in life. Things may
not always turn out the way you plan. So be flexible and follow directions that
life presents.
15.
Structure and flow: In your business or work,
set up structures, processes and procedures for doing things and let it guide
you and the people who work with you.
16.
Always do your best and leave the rest to God.
Having done all that is required of you in a matter, do not worry about it,
allow God to play His role to bring you success.
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN
Protect your children from harmful cultural practices and child abuse. E.g. Early marriage, hawking, female genital mutilation etc. Be careful not to leave them in the hands of those who could take advantage of them or in situations where their safety is jeopardized.
Uphold children's rights
INSTITUTIONALIZED FAMILY Routine
Establish certain family rites that must be fulfilled whether parents are there or not. These include activities like family devotion and other religious programmes. Others are : home work, study, recreation etc.
HELP YOUR CHILDREN TO ASPIRE
Achievement engenders feeling of fulfillment, satisfaction and confidence.
Exposure inspires achievement so expose your children to a wide range of productive endeavors early in life so that they would be motivated to take up some as career or hobby. A major factor responsible for inequality in the society is the quality of exposure and training that one has got, as well as opportunity that one has. Education, training, and exposure are the keys to success in today's network high society. These are factors that bring one closer to opportunity.
These factors enhance skills. Improved skill attracts attention, admiration, good-will and patronage. Education, training and exposure also contribute to forging relationships and getting connections by making friends with their course mates and with others they may come in contact with. This process increases their fan base and put them in a good position to encounter opportunities, as they could be patronized by those who know them or be recommended to those that matter thereby increasing their connections and chances for success.
Help them to develop confidence in themselves - the "i can" mentality by entrusting them with responsibilities according to their abilities. Inculcate in them the habit of setting goals, pursuing and achieving them. Give them short term, medium term, and long term goals to achieve. Start by breaking the processes of achieving the goals into short projects that could be achieved in a short time. As they continue to accomplish these projects bit by bit, they develop confidence and believe that they can achieve the ultimate goal. In fact, the belief that they can achieve anything. Once they develop such confidence and imbibe this habit of achievement, the sky will be their limit.
You can help your children to appreciate and imbibe the habit of achieving goals by:
Engaging them in projects within and outside the family. Engaging in projects is a fine way of acquiring skills, discovering and showcasing talents. Project may be anything you or your group set out to accomplish. It could be presentations or performances. It could be for a competition, for leisure or for adventure. It may also be meant to discover and showcase talents.
Project as a competition.
Competition is a sure way of achieving goals. Apart from the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment it generates when a person comes up on top, it also broadens one's knowledge and increase one's skill even if he did not win. It is also an incentive to study more. People generally do not study hard unless they have an incentive to do so. The rewards derived from a competition are incentives to study harder as you need to give you best to win in a competition. Hence if you engage your children in competition, they will learn faster and increase their skills vastly.
Project as a means of discovering and showcasing talents.
Project, whether for competition, for leisure or adventure, whether in form of presentation or performance is a great way of discovering and showcasing talents. It generates feelings of satisfaction,fulfillment and confidence. It is one of the surest means of discovering who we are and what we can do. Sometimes, we think we know something or can do something, it is when we engage in it that we can get to know how we really fare. A good presentation or performance would naturally elicit applause, an indication of how well you performed. For the one who participated in such performance or competition, it is an indescribable feeling of joy and satisfaction. An ecstasy that one lacks words to describe and also the urge to want to do more. It is also an incentive to do more, and do so willingly, because before participating in a presentation or performance, you'll want to be at your best.And that requires learning and studying more. So to help your children develop fast and achieve more, enroll them in platforms that afford the opportunities to take part in presentations, performances and competitions. Such platforms include schools, church groups, clubs etc. In the school, the classwork, homework, test and exams as well as inter house sport and the various clubs afford children ample opportunities to engage in competitions,presentations and showcasing of their talents. In the christian congregation of JW, platform such the "Theocratic Ministry School" enable everyone to learn more. The assignment given prompt individuals to make research and presentations. This makes them more skillful and knowledgeable.
Leave A Legacy For Your Children
A legacy is something you leave for those who come after you or for those who look up to you. It could be material, financial or intellectual property. It could be procedures for doing things or desirable qualities. If you are really interested in the success of the next generation, then, you owe them a legacy. By mentoring or imparting knowledge to others, you can help them achieve greater feats within a shorter time than you did. One of the regrets often expressed by older people is that they "didn't have the knowledge they now have, early enough". Imagine passing on knowledge that took you 20 years of pains taking research and experience to acquire, to a teenager; he can achieve a lot with it when he is still young and can even surpass your achievement when he is your age. Note that early achievement is a foundation for further and greater achievements. So give them a legacy that sets them on the fast track to success. Achieving success is not necessarily about how old one is, but about what training and exposure one has got. For example, a 40 year old man who has not been trained to drive a car can not be employed as a driver, but a 20 year old who is trained and licensed can.
Help them to appreciate that they'll face the consequences of their actions or in-actions. So they should cultivate self discipline and strive to build a good reputation for themselves. It is in your own interest that they do this because they will one day be in a position to take decision in your behalf. You would like to be in safe hands when that happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment