Yesterday we had the delight and joy of celebrating Mothers Day. I am sure that you would agree with me that the role of parenting is very demanding and responsible, for the mere fact that all parents have to give an account one day to The Lord how they raised their children. When I consider the blessings of God I am of the personal persuasion that one of my greatest blessings ever was to reproduce after my own kind and that is not just in the natural but in the spirit as well. When I look at my three beautiful and respectful daughters (now Yolanda Penelope Choromanski, Evelyn Maud Covington and Michelle Anne Flinn) I am amazed how that there is such a remarkable resemblance of my dear beautiful wife (Dolores) and myself in each of them. At times it is like looking into a mirror; even their actions are so similar to my wife’s and my actions.
Over the years my wife raised them up on the book Proverbs. My wife was never to slow to chastise and discipline. She believed never to spare the rod of correction. Over the years our Good Lord taught me the three P.s of successful parenting, not that I was the perfect parent. I employed by God’s grace these three P’s of parenting both with my natural children and spiritual children.
Apply these principles and I can assure you, YOU will raise children that will influence The World and The Church for the better. PRINCIPLE 1 OF SUCCESSFUL PARENTING: PROTECTION PRINCIPLE 2 OF SUCCESSFUL PARENTING: PROVISION PRINCIPLE 3 OF SUCCESSFUL PARENTING: PROMOTION PROTECTION: How did we protect our children and from what did we protect them from. One of the greatest influences ever is THE LAW OF ASSOCIATION. We helped our children choose their FRIENDS. We kept them away from BAD COMPANY. We CHOSE WHAT TV PROGRAMMES THEY COULD WATCH. WE NEVER SENT THEM TO CHURCH, WE TOOK THEM TO CHURCH.
PROVISION: We did not just provide food, clothing and education, we were always trying to keep them healthy to prevent them from having any serious illnesses. By studying the bible we’ve learned how are body is our temple and how we should try to keep it clean and pure, therefore, we consumed only natural herbal medicine and were encouraged to learn more about it. WE through our lifestyle provided to the best of our ability a Godly lifestyle. As best as possible we lived out before them a life dedicated unto God. And whenever we failed we taught them the power of confession and the power of forgiveness. Whenever the wife or I failed each other by showing disrespect or talking unkindly to each other we would make certain that we would apologise in the presence of our children and without reservation forgive each other. This principle no doubt was carried over into their personal walk with God; they knew that God forgave their sins the way Mommy and Daddy forgave each other.
PROMOTION: How do we know that as parents we have succeeded in raising our children? My dear wife always reminded me that we were not just raising our children for ourselves, for our personal benefit and joy, but for God, His Church and even the world as well. No wonder she believed in discipline and correction with the rod. Though she and I were strict in discipline there came a time in their respective life’s that we had to stop using the rod, sit them rather down and reason with them, we had to start treating them as young adults, which we did but by the grace of God. We found that by doing this there was a greater response to our correcting them.
As we continued in this vein, we began to note that our relationship with our children began to grow for no more were they treating us as just parents but as their confidants and friends. They began to share most things with us. This was a sign to us that we as parents we were effective. As the years have gone by we further noticed that we were successful in our parenting for they had surpassed us in many a way. They all are successful in their respective jobs, their homes are far better, their children like them are very respectful and above all they are all serving the Lord. They are well respected in their churches and their communities.
Concerning all my spiritual sons and daughters they have outgrown me for I like Elijah had a single anointing; they have outgrown me for they like Elisha have a double anointing. They in many ways have surpassed me.., Praise God for this. As young parents let me encourage you to live out the THREE PRINCIPLES OF PARENTING. GOD GAVE THEM TO ME AND I NOW I GIVE IT TO YOU.
GOD BLESS DR JOSEPH AND DOLORES D’ALLENDE
