Our Heritage

OUR HERITAGE
Children are a heritage from the LORD Psalms 127:3a
 Have we ever had a thought on this?
Heritage can be referred to as an inheritance or a gift handed over to a person.
In relation to this definition, it indicates that children are gifts handed over to their parents to nurture and bring out the best in them.
God’s heartbeat, when it comes to children is that they grow in the fear of God through guided principles with a show of care and love even from the society at large.
Most times, children are not given enough attention as regards their well-being and development. We should understand that any child brought into this world as a “gift” packaged into homes. Children according to the Bible, should be nurtured and given platforms to develop themselves as Proverbs 22:6 pointed out “TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO AND WHEN HE IS OLD, HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT”
If we critically examine this scripture,we will discover that what has been instilled or implanted in an individual from a tender age tends to make a lot of impact and highly contributes and influence the character and lifestyle of that person. Parents should consider this promptly and take it into action that good habits, conducts and beliefs should be imputed into their children early enough so that, they will grow in the knowledge and understanding of how they should pattern their lives through the guided principles given to them by their parents at a tender age.
Having established the biblical perspective and it's take on the importance of an early rightful training of a child, let's take a look at it from the psychological point of view. It is believed that the mind of a child is a mere Tabula Rasa, meaning blank slate or empty state. With the child's mind like that at their early stage, anything fed to that mind, is taken up, processed, digested and acted upon by the child. As such, if a child is fed the wrong ideas at that early stage, the child grows up, believing and holding tenaciously to those ideas, on the one hand, if a child is fed with good virtues, beliefs and teachings, the child grows up, inculcating and practicing those ideas and beliefs. The lifestyle, practices and day to day involvements of a person, is determined by the injected and sowed teachings and practices of all those they were exposed and came in contact with at their tender age.
“Don’t just condemn the wrong actions of a child, educate them on the right choices they should make”. I have discovered that most times, children quest for love, attention and patience. These three factors are prominent points every society must understand and consider.
Let’s login to these three factors I have choosen to call the "KEYS TO A CHILD’S HEART".

KEYS TO A CHILD’S HEART

LOVE: When a child is not given the required affection at a very tender age, it builds up depression, frustration and other psychological effects. The truth is that Christ pointed out instances of how a Christian’s character and nature should reflect the love of God. He stated vehemently that any person who stretches his or her hands to receive a child with an intention to show love to them from that tender age, that person surely has the love of God in him/her.  If only we could plant in the heart of our children to imbibe the attitude of seeking knowledge, forgiving easily and trusting wholly on their parents for guidance and protection, then, we can be sure to have won their tender hearts.
The heart of a child is soft and therefore,for us to be able to penetrate into their lives, we must give them the best of our affection and care, through which, they will have an open heart to accept our corrections, advice and trainings.

ATTENTION: Children get attracted to what excites them and add a bit of value to their lives. They tend to treasure these things and hold tenaciously to them for the rest of their lives. Therefore, we should understand that as a society, we must feed their eyes and mind with valuable information such as the truth of the gospel, investing in their character and conduct through making sure the environment they live in will be conducive for enacting godly values, correcting in love when they do wrong and ensuring that they understand the intention of your disciplinary actions. We should create time for our children and give them our utmost attention especially when it is highly needed by them and at the same time be watchful on what they give their attention or time to, making sure it is something worthwhile and profitable. Remember, it is said, the ears and eyes are windows to the soul.

PATIENCE:  This is an intrinsic point because, it takes understanding to be patient with a child who hasn’t submitted fully to the instruction of their parents. Most times, the society gets withdrawn from implementing reliable social conducts that can help the children in our society especially for those who are at their tender age. These children have been denied the appropriate and necessary disciplinary measures and actions that would have put them on the right path. By that, leaving them to be uncultured, disrespectful and rude at an early stage of their life.
Nevertheless, the fact is that it takes process and time for a child to emulate a Christ like nature. Therefore, continuous teaching, instructing and impacting of the child will at the end produce a young epitome of greatness that will make great impacts in our world.  There should be no room for impatience whereby, parents especially, may want to give up on their children because of  their wrong attitudes, but that should not happen, rather, parents should continue to love and do as the bible instructed in Proverbs 22:6  “Train up in a child in the way he should go, so when he is old, he will not depart from it”.


Final charge
These keys to a child’s heart should be actualized in order to bring the best out of the lives of our children in the society. Children are indeed a heritage from God and as such, should be nurtured with love, attention and patience so they can grow in the fear of God and as well become great in life.


Written by Zina Kalio [writer_zik]
Edited by Andy Victory