PART 5: 5-POINT AGENDA TO TRAIN YOUR POSTERITY (1)

#pastorbiodunsoretire

I cannot be exhaustive within the scope of this discourse. But I will quickly roll out some five points to help us out on this matter:

1. First make the fountain of the good and godly virtues you want to pass across deep in you yourself. If you want to provide water for your immediate family you only need a drum, if for your immediate community you will need a well, but if for a town, you need a dam. So, the more influential you want to be, the deeper your fountain should be. Look at Abraham! He was all over the place with altars. Every new place he got to, he built an altar to God and called on God there. No wonder, Isaac easily called on God at his trying time - when his wife was barren. And the grandson, Jacob, quickly raised an altar of pillar to God, with a solemn vow, when he saw a heavenly vision while sleeping on a pillow of stone. The rule is: fake it, and you will fail in foisting it. You have to first own it before you can bequeath it. Superficial and shallow virtues don't often get transmitted to the next generation.

2. First initiate them into the virtues and over time grow in them the capacity to take the initiative themselves. Every child looks towards his or her parent for direction, don't miss the opportunity. Remember what the scripture says again: train up a child in the way he should go. You must first command the child to do what is right and then come around to explain to him why it is right and you keep encouraging him to do it through your own life's deep fountain of examples and firm correction from time to time.

3. Let God, the ultimate owner of your child, be the alpha and omega of all your training strategies and schemes. I remembered when our son was in pregnancy, I went on a three-day marathon fasting and prayer retreat to have some time with God over the coming child. He revealed some things to me and I too told him some things about the boy. Now, that the boy has come, at every point of his development, we thank God for things that make us happy and tell him about the changes we want about things that make us unhappy about him...

Part 6, the final part, comes up tomorrow