CATCH THEM YOUNG By the Son of man (Apostle Peter Odoemena)A Publication of the Bride of Christ Ministry World Wide
At times, parents program their children with very nice programs that if life tarries; that the least must have a degree. It is a very nice program and I have nothing against it. But you can hardly see parents that will join their hearts together and conclude that they must train their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It is very hard to see something like that. They can purchase millions for their children to become something in the society but nobody thinks of training his own child in the fear of the Lord.
If you are a father, you have a qualification to attain. If you are a mother, you have a qualification to attain. In every examination, two things are involved: you either get “pass” or “fail.” If while you call yourself a father, your children are stubborn, armed robbers, hooligans, always putting you to shame;
you failed in your duty as a father. If you are a mother and while you are still alive, your daughter is a prostitute, sleeping from one man to another man, travelling from east to west, lacking manners; you failed as a mother.
After all, a daughter can never grow above her mother. The same way, a son can never grow above his father. But they are “growing wild” because you have dodged your responsibility.
A Word from the Author
I decided to write to our children because they are the one to take after us. When I mean children, I mean all that are of “school age.” I mean from nursery 1 (one) to S.S.3 (three). I don’t care about your height; you may be taller than your father, you may be taller than your mother, but you are still a child.
As I am talking to the children; the adults also, are not excluded. When you see what will help you as an adult, you take note of it. After all, “learning starts from the cradle to the grave.”
At every stage, God will set out time to Minister to the children for their own good. Once the foundation is good, the building will stand the test of time.
Necessity is laid on Me to write to our children, because the problem of human race has been identified. The problem of the society has been identified and it boils down to one thing: the inability of parents to espouse their children to God at their tender ages; the inability of parents to spare time and instruct their children on the right way of living so that their future can be guaranteed.
Lots of people here on earth lose bearing because they were not properly guided. Any child that is not properly guided must lose his or her bearing, and must be a disappointment to himself or herself, to his or her parents and to the society.
You may doubt what I am saying, but cast your mind back on what you were before you came into this Faith (Bridal Ministry). If you were left alone to continue that way you were heading to, where do you think you would have landed?
So, it is necessary that we spend time in finding out what the Almighty has to say concerning our children.
If you are not careful about the Message of Grace, you will “grace” away your responsibilities towards your children. Mothers should please take note, for it is your job. At this stage of life, it is your responsibility. Your husband has little or no say.
Little children, when you come before the Lord, you are obligated to worship and sing praise(s) to Him. It is written in the Holy Scriptures,
“From the mouth of the suckling, thou have perfected thy Praise, Oh, Lord”. From the mouth of suckling babes, God has perfected His praise.”
To you parents, if you can cast your mind back to about ten (10) years ago, did you know these kids? They were unknown. They were somewhere in the blues.
I don’t believe that the population of Nigeria is too great until I have added my own children.
Parents, there is no one among our children who is without a talent. Identify their talents while they are young and help them to develop it.
Talents are developed. Talents must be identified. If you don’t identify them, you cannot develop them.
We are still riding on in this Ministry, which is the BRIDAL FAITH. If I should stay with you here at least for the next three, four years, God will use this Ministry to develop talents. I can see them coming up gradually. Something we could not identify among the Elders, we can see them coming up among our children and I am very grateful.
Looking at our children, we will see that they are coming up faster than we think. That is why we have to bend down, even now, to train them, bringing them up in the fear of God.
When we carry out our “homework” very well, they (our children) can never pass through the sad, sad, experiences in life (just as we did in our own time); because we were espoused to idolatry. Our parents were idolaters. They espoused us to idolatry. The highest training they could give us then was to serve us with big food, finish! We thank God who redeemed us.
Little children, listen to me. For sometime now, your parents have been receiving Education from God. Nobody has ever cared whether you receive the Word or not. Each time God speaks to them, they will dance and feel happy and then go away not caring about you. But to you, now is your own time.
May the Almighty God grant you faith, wisdom and revelation so that you may be able to follow and understand Him. I love you all, remain in your Sanctified Estate and remain blessed in Him eternally.
CHAPTER ONE
MONITOR YOUR CHILDREN WHILE THERE IS HOPE (1)
I am grateful to God for bringing this opportunity where our children will know the Mind of God concerning them. No matter your age, in the sight of God, you are still a child. There is no preacher that has ever appeared here on earth and omitted children in his preaching. Not even Jesus, the Christ of His day. He went as far as even encouraging adults; using children as examples by saying, “Except you make yourself like little children you will in no wise enter the Kingdom of God. Do not prevent these little children from coming to me because the Kingdom of God is made for such people.” So, children are very important.
CHILDREN CAN BE BLESSING OR CURSE
Our fathers said, “Marriage is honourable in all and is ordained of God.” Note that children are blessing from God. But if we are not careful, if we do not understand the essence of God blessing us with children, what God “intended” to be a “blessing” to us can “turn” out to be a “curse.” Something God intended to make us feel happy can break our hearts.
3. Please take note: We are human beings, we move about freely, we interact with fellow human beings, we have seen many families; nothing causes heartbreak to parents more than children. I repeat: Nothing gladdens the heart of parents more than their children. Nothing breaks the hearts of parents more than their children. If what I am saying is true, the choice is yours. In addition, any choice you make will determine whether you will obey what God is saying or not.
4. A good child is a blessing to his parents. A good child brings honour to his parents, but a bad child brings dishonour, disgrace to his parents. A bad child is a curse to his parents. The day a bad child is born on earth is a cursed day. God never created a man and then said, “This is a bad man or woman;” and create another one and then said, “This is a good man or woman.” No! To be good or bad is a matter of “choice.”
5. The choice you make beginning from this your childhood will determine what you will be.
6. God did not say any of you should be bad. He never created you to be bad; otherwise, you will not be a blessing to your parents. As long as God created you, you are a blessing to your parents. Nevertheless, you can be a curse depending on the “choice” you make.
7. This matter is a very serious matter. So many children today in our society, when I say children, I mean all that are under the “authority” of their parents, have caused heart attack to their parents. Parents spend their fortune to train their children even to university level and in return, what do they get? BROKEN HEART.
8. What do you think can prompt a child that is born in a family, to think of taking the life of his mother or the life of his father for any reason at all? What do you think that will prompt a child that is born in a family, who should be a blessing to his parents, to become an armed robber? What do you think can cause that? What do you think can cause a girl, a child that is born in a family, who should bring honour to her parents, to become a prostitute? What do you think cause it? Who will like to have such people as children?
WE ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING OUR CHILDREN
As a father, as a mother, will you like your children to be armed robbers, prostitutes? The answer is “no.” But the truth of the matter is this: You don’t want it, but what effort(s) are you making to make sure you don’t have them?
10. If you are not careful, that which you do not want is what will fill your home. Why? By neglecting your responsibility, by refusing to do that which you ought to do, beginning to train them from this tender stage.
11. You see these little children, you think they are little; they are little in appearance but they are great in reasoning. They are very great in minds. Whatever they see and appreciate it, it registers in their minds. It can never be erased.
12. We are in danger of losing our children. Why? We are living in an age where our children are exposed to very rough life at a tender age. The society we are living in, is very rough, very ungodly. The situation we are in is such that if you do not join others in training your children, in exposing them to that “hopeless education” including pre-nursery to nursery, if you do not join them, you will be considered the poorest person on earth, but these things have their problem. Why did I call it “hopeless education?” Whatever that is good can have disadvantage(s) also. Amen.
13. Let us read what our fathers said, “It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a rebel who has no heart for truth.” (Proverbs 17:16, Living Bible).
14. It is useless; it is unprofitable to spend money, paying school fees, training a useless, stubborn and rebellious child. – It is useless, it is unprofitable. It is a waste of time to educate, to train a child you know is rebellious, stubborn, disobedient, arrogant, and naughty.
15. In other words, training such a person means training your enemy, arming your enemy against yourself. That which you do not want is what you are using your money to import.
16. For that reason, I say, MONITOR YOUR CHILDREN WHILE THERE IS HOPE.
PRIME MOVERS
Many people live their life trying to please other people by fulfilling their (others’) expectations, while they themselves remain inwardly dissatisfied with the field of study and job suggested for them. This is why parents should allow their children and wards to pursue their discovered destiny and not the profession they want. They should be guided but not dictated to.
When we mentor people, or when we raise children, we should try to help them develop as individuals according to their “natural selves,” and according to their “own wishes”, not ours.
The secret of success is to understand your peculiarity (idiosyncrasy) as a person. You will be free when you know who you are. Be your true self and develop your individuality.
Know the subject combination that will help you accomplish the course you wish to study.
CHAPTER TWO
WHAT YOU DO TODAY DETERMINES WHAT YOU WILL BE TOMORROW
Whatever you are doing today will determine what tomorrow will be for you. Whatever you are doing today will determine what your future holds.
2. A child that is left to have his or her way, a child that is left on his or her own must surely bring disgrace to the parents. So, little child, take note. If you are stubborn, disobedient, and arrogant, it is not a good character. If your character is bad now and your parents are talking to you, God is talking to you that what you are doing is bad and you don’t want to change.
3. Remember that you add to your age everyday. Every passing year you add to your age. The more the years pass by, the more you are hardening until “hardening insensitivity” will becloud you fully. If your parents like, let them flog you. It will not achieve anything in your life again.
4 In other words, you have hardened beyond correction. What do you think will be your future in that condition? Surely, your future is very bleak.
5. Firstly, you will die younger than you think. Secondly, you will never find favour with any man and you will never find favour with God. Thirdly, that stubbornness in you will destroy you. That stubbornness in you — your inability to change — will destroy you. You will never live long on the land
6. That is why the Scripture says, “little children obey your parents that you may live long in the land which the Lord had allotted to you.”
7. If you do not obey the instructions of your parents, you will never live long on the land because a wicked man doesn’t live long on the land. If you are in school, your parents put you there because they want you to become someone reasonable in the future.
8. Foolishness is always in the heart of children. Our fathers identified it. But flogging, chastisement can drive away that foolishness! So you children, whatever you want to be will start from today.
9. If you want to be an armed robber, it will begin today because the scripture says, “a child that steals his parents money is no less than a big robber,”
10. A child that steals his parents’ money and says it means nothing is no less than a big robber. If you are fond of stealing your mother’s money, ranging from Five Naira, Ten Naira, or Twenty Naira to buy things like biscuits or any other thing; sometimes you refuse to eat in the morning because you have stolen some money that you hope to use in school, you are a robber. I repeat: You are a robber.
INSTRUCT YOUR CHILDREN IN THE WAY OF THE LORD
You are acquiring the spirit of stealing. Stealing is a spirit. You acquire it. Nobody is born with the spirit. You acquire it through exposure.
12. Sometimes, the parents are to be blamed. Who would like to be an armed robber? Surely nobody would like to be an armed robber and nobody would like to have an armed robber in his house as his child.
13. Then the question arises: All these armed robbers today who terrorize the whole of Nigeria and the world at large, where do they come from? Do they come from the moon? They came from families. Don’t they have parents? Do you think that some of them didn’t go to school? Many of them are graduates. But they are what they are today because they missed this particular “all-important matter.”
14. I remember some years ago here in Nigeria, there was an armed robber who was to be executed. He asked to have a word with his mother before his execution. He told her to come closer so he could whisper in her ears.
15. The mother was weeping and then went closer to the boy, leaning her ears towards the boy; the boy turned to her as if he was going to talk to the mother and bit off her ear before witnesses. It happened in Igbo land.
16. Pressmen gathered everywhere and people were confused. They said, “Ah! Young man why are you so wicked to your mother?”
17. He said, “No. I am not wicked. I am dying because of my mother. She refused to train me seeing that I lost my father when I was too tender. If she had trained me, if she had instructed me in the way of God, I don’t think I would become what I am now, and look at me dying like that.” We learn from such things.
18. If you do not train your child and he turns out to be a hooligan, who will you blame?
19. Little children listen to me. You are now in the nursery schools while some of you are in the primary level. Some are in the secondary and some are about gaining admission into the university.
20. I will begin with the nursery school. Ninety nine percent of the children in the nursery schools are from ungodly homes. Most of the children you see in the nursery schools are children that are just sent there by their parents because they have no maids or baby-sitters. They have nobody to look after them at home.
21. The parents simply drop their children and go away. In the evening they go there and pick them.
24. Nursery school can cause sorrow to some families if we are not careful. That is why you must monitor on a daily basis the activities of your children, starting from nursery school.
22. When are you going to do that? I don’t know if there is any other proper time than now. When they are on holidays, do you notice any strange thing in them? Do you see them be somehow? Or are you impressed by the way they behave?
MAKE GOOD PLANS FOR YOUR CHILD (REN)
Because there are some people that call good bad and call good evil. There are some people that have no standards at all. They have no future for their children. They just have children; have no plan for them. So, no matter the way their children behave, they take it as normal.
24. A mother once came to me and was telling me about the behaviour of her grandchildren. The matter was taken to their mother. Their mother said, “Don‘t trouble them. There is nothing wrong in what they are doing. That is what is obtainable in the society today! Their case should not be different.” And that is the much she knows.
25. Whatever the children might be tomorrow is not her business. Even if they turn out to be hooligans, it doesn’t disturb her. Can we pattern our lives after such a person?
26. I know of a man who lost five children in the hands of the police because they were armed robbers. I went to him, and I said, “It is unfortunate that your children are just dying like this.”
27. He said, “No! All I know is this: I came alone and I am going alone. Anybody can do whatever he wants and go away the way he wants.”
28. Then the question arises: Was his aim in raising children just to raise them and hand them over to be killed? Was that his aim? You married your wife only to raise children that the police will kill overnight because of bad behaviour? See, that person is wicked.
SPIRITS ARE ACQUIRED
To little children, I write again. Any child that steals the parent’s money and says it doesn’t matter is no less than a big robber. You are a criminal. If you are fond of stealing your parent’s money, no matter how small that money might be, you are acquiring a stealing spirit.
30. You will notice that no matter what you eat in the house, you would still be restless until you steal some money. If you don’t steal money, you will not go to school.
34. What do you do with the money? You either buy biscuits, chewing gum or buy nonsense. Sometimes, you don’t eat those things. You give them out to your friends.
31. Sometimes, your bad friends can push you into stealing, because there are some bad children in the school who will come to school with plenty money to buy many things and be giving it to their fellow friends just like that, and you will emulate them
32. This is because if you follow your friends to canteen everyday, one day, it will be your own turn to provide food. From then on, you start stealing money. You can hardly drop or stop it.
33. Let me point this out: A little child that is stealing his parents’ money at a tender age can never complete his studies in the school. He must drop half way because he will prefer making money to reading. To him, going to school is a waste of time.
34. That is why you see many of them, who are in school, they are at the same time doing their merchandise, not to help themselves in the school, but because they can never stay without money. it has been their habit.
35. Watch all such children, they don’t complete their studies. Before you know it, the money they have saved will influence them. They will say goodbye to education.
36. A child that steals his parents’ money and thinks it doesn’t mean anything, is no less than a hardened criminal no matter your age or class, whether in the nursery, primary, secondary, or in the university level.
37. There are many ways you can steal your parents’ money. If you are telling lies so as to extort money from your parents with the pretext that you are buying textbooks or you are making some contributions to the school and things like that, just to extort money from them, you are a hardened criminal. You are acquiring a spirit, and when that spirit settles in you, it doesn’t go off again.
38. If you are a girl and you develop yourself with that spirit, you are in trouble. You will bring disgrace to your husband. Before you know it, you will be stealing little things. When you marry, that will bring trouble to you. From time to time, you will be having problems with your husband over money because you acquired a dangerous spirit during your school age.
39. Why am I stressing this? The love of money is the root of all evil.
Educational tips 1
The instruction you follow determines the future you create. It takes more time and energy to be a success than it takes to be a failure. Success is the end product of hard work; it is not based on chance or luck. Prepare, and opportunities will come, and you will access it.
Have a goal so that you know why you are reading. Organize your reading pattern. Have a scheduled timetable and follow it religiously. Do not read one subject at the expense of the other.
Organize your use of time and set your priority right. Never postpone, procrastinate or delay. Do not play, watch T.V., video, films when you should be reading. Be seriously disciplined – it is a must.
Avoid cramming what you read. It is not a good way to study. Understand your body system and follow it. A scholar knows when to read. It is not necessarily when others are reading.
CHAPTER THREE
DO NOT RUIN YOUR FUTURE
A child that steals the parent’s money is telling the parents to stop training him. When you steal money that is meant for your books; money that is meant for your feeding, you are frustrating your career.
2. A wise child encourages the parents to train him by making sure that nothing is wasted in the house because every waste in the house involves money. If you are wasting food, you are wasting money. Whatever you are wasting in the house, you are wasting money. That money could have been used even in training you. When you are stealing your parent’s money, you are making it impossible for them to support your education, to support you in any type of endeavor. You are frustrating them.
3. A child that steals the parent’s money is spoiling his future. Do not spoil your future.
DO NOT EXPOSE YOUR CHILDREN TO TEMPTATIONS
Sometimes, our parents contribute greatly in spoiling their children. Recognize that these kids are exposed to very rough conditions in their schools and colleges where they are under ungodly influences of their colleagues and friends; why should we “fuel” this particular evil by exposing them to danger in our home?
5. Hear me very well. I am speaking to you from the Throne of Grace.
6. If you don’t want to raise criminals in your house, male or female; a female can be a criminal, do you believe that? If you don’t want to raise criminals in your house, please do not keep your money within the reach of your children. Parents please note it: if you are fund of keeping your money “within the reach of your children,” in no distant time, you will raise robbers in your house because money carries temptation.
7. Any parent that is exposing his money to his children is exposing his children to great temptation.
8. I don’t care how small that money might be. Don’t say, “For convenient sake, I try to keep it on my table. My children don’t touch it.” Don’t worry, one day, they will touch it. “I know my children, they can never touch it.” Don’t worry, one day you will never know your children again.
9. I hope somebody is taking note of it. Remember as long as your child is coming up, he is growing in knowledge, wisdom, of both good and evil because, everyday he is having contact with other people. People whom you do not know. One day, you will begin to look for money in your house starting from Five Naira to Ten Naira; from Ten Naira to Twenty Naira; from Twenty Naira to Hundred Naira. By then, it will be too late. Who caused it? You.
CHILDREN SHOULD NOT HOLD MONEY
To little children, God is saying, “If they love eating snacks, don’t give them money to buy Snacks. Buy snacks for them. DON’T ALLOW YOUR CHILDREN TO HOLD MONEY. Little children, you are to take note of this. Looking at them, you will think that they are minors (small). They are not minors in things concerning money.
11. How would you know when “another spirit” is trying to creep into your child? I will show you a “sign” why you should monitor your child while there is hope:
12. At the beginning stage of his life, if somebody gives him money, he doesn’t know what money is all about. He may be playing with that money until an adult will come and take it away from the child’s hand. A time will come when somebody will give the child money; straight away, he takes the money to the mother or to the father and hands it over. This is another stage; he doesn’t know what to do with the money yet.
13. At the first stage, he doesn’t know what money is all about. He thinks money is a fanciful paper but at this second stage, he has identified the money but he doesn’t know what to use the money for. He gives it to the mother or the father.
14. At another stage, that is the third stage of identifying money and handling money. Watch, that child when people give him money. She will just put it in her pocket or hide it in her school bag. The parents wouldn’t know about it. Before you know it, he will be taking the money to school to buy snacks, which he may not eat; he may dash it to friends, claiming it is his money: “Brother gave it to me, uncle gave it to me, daddy gave it to me.” – This is another stage.
15. Then, at another stage, which is the most dangerous level (stage), you will be there, you will know about the money. Money will be given to your child before your very eyes; he will just take it into his bag or pocket and then tell you plainly that it is his money. You will be arguing with him over the money. I don’t know whether somebody is taking note.
16. So little children, if you don’t want to be a robber, if you don’t want to die young, if you don’t want your future to be spoiled, if you want your parents to help you become useful, avoid buying snacks in the school. Avoid going to school with money, because if you don’t go to school with money, you will have nothing to spend. –Don’t go to school with money.
17. To those in the secondary school that use buses, only take your transport money and don’t ever be tempted to save your transport money for snacks and trek. If you do that, you are learning stealing. If you want to trek to school, or if you trek to school, when you come back, hand the money over to your parents. Tell them that you trekked, or that somebody helped you.
18. You will use that money the following day. By so doing, you are encouraging your parents to train you. You are even restoring confidence in them that they are not using their money to train a stupid fellow, a hooligan, one that will bring shame and dishonour to them.
YOUR FUTURE STARTS TODAY
The Igbos say that “a child that will be a perpetual debtor is known in his early life.” Whoever gives birth to a hooligan and says he did not discover it early enough, be it known to you that such a person is telling lies. Parents should discover early enough that they have produced a “hooligan.” Parents should discover early enough that they have produced a “prostitute.” It is noticed from the very beginning. When it “breaks loose,” it is no longer a surprise if people can speak the truth.
20. To the children, “WHAT DOES MY FUTURE HOLD?” The life I am living today, my character today, the person I associate with today, will he help me to be a responsible, reasonable being tomorrow? Will he help me to be a child that will gladden the hearts of his parents? Or will he make me become a source of sorrow and agony to my parents? Will he help me to be a responsible child, useful to myself? Or will he lead me to being a useless fellow? AMEN.
Your dream!!!
A future without direction is like a ship without compass, drifting in the middle of the ocean. If you do not know precisely where you are going, anybody is free to point the way to you. And you may be misled. You must have something to live up to.
Who is your icon?
Where will you be in the next 5 – 6 years and what will you be doing? Decide now and know well how to get there. Your desire to succeed must be very hot and strong inside of you, because that is what will drive your determination. Dream it, wake up and think about it, let it subsume the whole of you.
Look at the mirror and tell the other man/woman who you want to become. Never be passive about your desire in life. It will be a mere wish that will never be actualized. Action is the word! Back up your desires with necessary action for its actualization. Start now!
CHAPTER FOUR
WHO IS YOUR FRIEND
Another stage is this: who is your friend? Who is your friend in the school? Why is he your friend? Why is she your friend?
2. Are people friends for nothing? Whoever you befriend, there is a reason why you are friends. The person you go out with in school, who is he? Who is she? Why are you compatible?
3. Will that thing that makes two of you compatible help you become successful tomorrow? Or is it what will make you useless or even ruin your future?
4. The friend one has in the school has something to do in the life of the person. There is bad friend. The worst friend is a school friend in the primary, secondary or even the university level.
5. A lot of evil character seen today is the product of friendship.
6. Women that went to school, especially those that were boarders in their time, don’t you know what was happening in the dormitories where you lived and schooled? Some of you were among such people, if God did not come to help you, wouldn’t you have continued with that type of life? What would have been your future?
7. Would you allow your daughter to experience what you passed through? Did you see any evil in the life you lived? Why did you indulge in such a life? Don’t say, “It is the reigning fashion there. Everybody is known for that. As such, my case is pot different”
8. If we lose control of our children, who should we blame? We should blame ourselves.
9. Is there nothing God has given us with which to control our children? The hope of the parents lies in their children. The consolation of parents lies in the children.
10. You that is a child, will you be a consolation to your parents or a source of agony and broken heart?
11. Who is your companion? Find out who the person you keep company with is. What good thing do you learn from him or her? Can you find out that the only thing for which you know this person is evil? Can one learn a good thing from somebody that does not know God? I do not know how that good will look like.
12. Children in schools listen to me. There is one with whom you enjoy whatever you buy with the money you steal at home. The person in turn steals his parents’ money to buy snacks which two of you enjoy. If your friendship is friendship of eating snacks and stealing, what is your hope tomorrow?
13. We got a report sometime ago of a little girl that was in primary school. Every time school dismissed, little boys of almost her age would lure her out and would be putting their fingers into her private part. Can you believe this report?
14. What do you think will be the future of little child that has started living such life style at this tender age? What does the future hold for her? What does the future hold for him? Both the boy and the girl, what do you think will be their future?
CAUSE YOUR CHILDREN TO HATE EVIL
Don’t be surprised that some little girls and boys know very well about this issue. That is one of the reasons why some parents say they will live to borrow just to make sure that their children are in a private school. It doesn’t mean that the evil is not there, but it is not so much as it is in the public school.
16. I read in a Vanguard Newspaper where it was reported that the public school is the number one breeding ground for hooligans. The paper called it “nursery for all ungodly characters”. A nursery school is a breeding ground for hooligans. In other words, if you want to raise hooligans, begin their lives with public schools.
17. Then the question arises: Recognizing that all hands are not equal, what will happen to families that cannot provide that private education because of poverty?
18. You see why it is necessary now to monitor your child while there is hope. I don’t think there is any time our children should be strictly monitored more than now. If we miss them at this stage, we have missed them till eternity.
19. If we can inculcate a culture in them to avoid such evil friends, evil association in their schools and colleges by making them know what their future holds for them if they should continue with such evil association; if we can succeed in inculcating this knowledge in them, God will bless them abundantly and they will be a blessing to us.
20. Why am I stressing this? To you that are still coming up, you don’t know what you are benefiting by hearing and obeying my Messages until you see mothers who raised adults and the trouble they encounter with them everyday. Go into the society, even in the yard or compound you live in, and see what is happening there.
21. To the young boys, the highest they can now attain is J.S.S 3. They will run away from school and then try to enlist in one business or the other. Before you know it, the business will crumble. They will be threatening their parents to sell off properties and sponsor them. They will like to go to Germany or South Africa or any other place abroad.
REDUCE CRIMINAL TENDENCIES IN YOUR CHILDREN
It will take a dropout to go to Germany. No place is better than home. Only hooligans venture abroad. What do they do there? There is nobody there that has a viable and visible occupation. Watch the calibre of people that go there: Nonentities that have lost bearing in life.
23. They just go there to steal. They go there to kill. They go there to do drug pushing just to make money. Intelligent people don’t indulge in that nonsense. You can hardly hear of somebody going abroad to study now.
24. Before now, people go abroad to study. But now, nobody goes there to study. They just go there to make money and their parents are happy when they don’t know how they made the money. They sponsor death! I thank God they receive reports especially from South Africa, how they are killing themselves there.
25. When you don’t train your children very well, they are in danger of dropping out from schools; they are in danger of even dropping out of their apprenticeship. A child that is not well trained can never complete his period of apprenticeship with any master. He can hardly be trained by any man in any business in life because he is a criminal
26. The first step in training your children is by reducing criminal tendencies in them, because we are living in a society that is highly criminally minded. Reduce the criminal tendencies in them!
27. It is the criminal tendencies that are in ladies that push them into prostitution. They turn to prostitution to make money. What they use the money for, I don’t know. They just want to buy very nice shoes, reigning fashions. That is all!
28. Help your children to understand that there is nothing greater than virtue. That a virtuous child is a blessing to himself, to herself, to the society! A Virtuous child commands respect, honour, integrity, and receives favour from men and God.
29. Train a child in the way he should go and when he grows up, he will never depart from it. Amen.
Examinational tips 2
Ask questions on any subject or topic you did not understand. Practice soon after class in order not to forget the formula. Ask someone to teach you what you do not understand. Do not delay about this.
The best way to read is to read a few pages and pause to recall what you have read before you continue. Try recalling what you have read at intervals when you are alone, and if you forget, go back to it and refresh your memory. It helps register the facts solidly in your heart.
Take pride in teaching others what you know willingly. It helps to get it crystallized more in your mind. Read wider than your subject and class work.
Set target of the grades you wish to get before the exam. It helps you to work harder. Aim very high, aim at the sun and you will hit the sky.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE DREADFUL REPERCUSSIONS OF TELLING LIES
It is written, “A liar is a criminal; a habitual liar is a murderer.” Little children, listen to me. A liar is a criminal. A habitual liar is a murderer. How many will like to be criminals?
2. How many tell lies? If you know you tell lies continually, if you do something wrong, you will deny; you steal money, you will deny; whatever evil you do, you will deny. Why do you deny? It is because you know that what you did is not good and you know that you must be punished if you reveal yourself. For that reason, you begin to tell lies.
3. In other words, you are a criminal. You are acquiring criminal mind; criminal spirit. How many children would like to continue telling lies after reading this? Parents, monitor your children when there is hope.
4. If you are a liar, a habitual liar, first of all, people will not trust you. Secondly, your parents will loose confidence in you. Thirdly, whatever you do, your parents will not defend you whether you are right or wrong.
5. When you are accused of anything, your parents can never come out to defend you because they don’t know when you are speaking the truth and when you are telling them lies. Why? You are a habitual liar and a habitual liar is very unreliable.
6. If you are a very good child, if you do something wrong, you don’t need your parents to come to you. You report the thing to them and they will be happy. If you don’t report it, they will punish you.
7. Tell them the truth why you did it. Nobody will kill you. You will only be warned. If you are a good child, you will never try it again because your parents are not happy with it, the same way also, God is not happy with it.
CHILDREN, YOUR PARENTS ARE YOUR GOD
Little children, if you want to please God, please you parents. When you are pleasing your parents, you are pleasing God.
9. Without your parents, you have no other creator. Nobody created you except your parents. You couldn’t have come to this world except through your parents. Nobody is taking care of you but your parents. So your parents remain the “visible God” you know.
10. How many believe this even among the adults? If you know any other person that created you other than your parents, you are a liar, for there is no other way you could have come into this world except through your parents. So they remain the number one creators whom your eyes can behold. Nobody took care of you up to this very moment except your parents.
11. What if your mother killed you in the labour room or at the backyard where you were born? Do you think you would have seen the light of day? That is why you must be grateful that you have parents that care for you.
12. So little children, do not place yourselves in a situation where your parents will deny you; where your parents will not defend you when there is trouble because you are a liar.
13. If you don’t tell your parents the truth, who then will you tell the truth? Is there anybody that loves you more than your parents? The answer is no. You see why you must tell your parents the truth on every matter at all times. Even if they flog you, it is for your own good.
14. It is written in the book of Hosea 7:8—9, “My people mingle with ungodly men and women;” and nobody makes friendship with a leper and refuses his handshake. That is why we keep on saying that evil association spoils good character.
DO NOT ARM YOUR CHILD AGAINST HIMSELF
I am telling you the truth in love. Monitor your children when there is hope. If you want your children to be godly and you notice some children who do not receive good training from their parents, who are not behaving well, separate your children from them. Let them call you whatever they like. Why? All that glitters is not gold.
16. There are some children that are not worthy even to sit on the same bench with your children. They are very, very bad.
17. When you see your child manifesting bad traits, do not close your mouth. Don’t say it is a way of life. It is not a way of life. You are making the child worst.
18. That is why, if there is a problem, we don’t know where to begin to handle it because sometimes, parents show unnecessary and ungodly love to their children. It is not good at all.
19. Do not arm your children against themselves.
20. A child that dishonours instruction, and refuse counsel, is arming himself against himself because whatever a man soweth, that he must reap.
21. What does my future hold? From the way I am behaving now, judging from the type of company I am keeping, what does my future hold for me?
22. To you parents, from the way you are accessing the performances of your children in every aspect of life, what do you think the future holds for them? Do you see something in your children that will make you bank your hope on them? Or do you see them manifesting some traits of ungodliness that tend to create some fears in you that you may be wasting your time?
23. What do you see in your children? Is it encouraging or discouraging? Monitor both your male and female children. It is a joint responsibility for both the father and mother. Amen.
Advice to admission seekers
Before looking for admission, get your results correctly. Remember that a farmer who wants to do his work well must first sharpen his tools.
Do not think about how to find the money to further your education. By this, I mean you should not let the absence of money withhold you from doing the foundational task of passing your qualifying exams. Money does not come first. But it will always come.
Be conscious of the stiff competition you will face in securing a space in the universities and higher institutions.
Widen your chances by applying for POLY-JAMB, Direct Entry, Pre-Degree Programmes, Remedial Programmes, Diploma, and Part-time degrees like in the National Open University and in some other universities where such opportunities are abundant.
CHAPTER SIX
MONITOR YOUR CHILDREN WHILE THERE IS HOPE (2)
To the youths who are still aspiring to be graduates; is what you see in them encouraging you to sponsor them? Are they humble enough? Are they obedient enough? Are they respectful enough? Have they manifested at least some elements of godliness that can make you courageous in backing them up in their university careers?
2. Or are you seeing signs in them that this university may be the end of their lives, may be disastrous to the family? You have to watch the males, watch the females because in the university, you see a lot of characters there and whatever your child is in your presence will determine what he is going to be there.
3. If he is accustomed to keeping bad company, there, he will perfect it because in the university, every kind of character is there.
A BAD CHILD IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE INDIVIDUAL IN THE WORLD
What if you do not catch them young by creating enmity in their hearts against evil conduct and they get there? I wonder if you can even sponsor them because a bad child is the “most expensive child” in the world.
5. A bad child is the most expensive individual in the world. You may not know what I am saying because your children are still too young. But I thank God who is still training them in their youth so that we can face the challenges of time.
6. Go to G.R.A.s and you will see rich men that have money, that have raised adults, some of them have turned to be hooligans. Go and enquire from them how much they are spending on those children, just begging them to calm down their hooliganism to no avail.
7. When you go to the University, you will see many of them spending fourteen years, fifteen years without graduating. Their parents are tired of them. They don’t sponsor them anymore but they are there making money anyhow, making money by all means to sustain themselves there. They are not reading and they are not with their parents, and they will never graduate till the end of the world.
8. The University has expelled some, but they are still there. These are the people that form secret societies, cults, and foment troubles in all the Universities.
9. Expelled students! After fourteen years, fifteen years, what caused it? Their parents didn’t give them proper upbringing. And with that reckless living, they secured admission into the university using the wealth of their parents.
10. You know there are many ways of securing admission into the universities. Sometimes, parents use money to get their children away from home, to see whether the university will help them “refine” such children, not knowing that they will go there to be worse.
11. So, I am saying that if we do not monitor our children that are aspiring to be in the universities now, assess them very well and know whether they are worthy of our confidence, whether they have developed themselves to the point that they can never, never erode the confidence we repose on them; if we embark on them, after spending money on them, we will die of heartbreak.
12. We will die of heart attack because the amount expended on a child will determine the level of sorrow that will come to the parents if there is demise on the way.
13.That is why, if you notice in your child, male or female, some signs of stubbornness, lack of humility, insincerity and pride, if you notice this spirit in your child, please don’t sponsor him or her in any university.
14. One thing is sure: You cannot succeed in sponsoring the person because he is going to be over expensive. I say over expensive!
INFLUENCE
Secondly, you are sponsoring your child into a cult or into an “American world,” which I call “Hollywood Gang” because when you get there, you will see “Texas Gang,” “Arizona Gang,” “Hollywood Gang,” or “Californian Gang.” They’re all there. You will see the “Hippies” with their round caps and jeans, with their very dark eye goggles. If you see them nobody tells you that these are just film stars, American hippies, cow boys! To be a cowboy is not a good thing; to be a violent man is not a good thing.
16. Just see the ladies. Because you are going to a place where there is no uniform for your school; where you are permitted to come to class even naked, you can attend lectures naked; where you see ladies going there in brassiere alone. Some go in pants alone. You see the boys, oh, no! They are something that resembles human beings.
17. What if you have not killed that urge in you, won’t you be influenced wrongly to think that is a way of life? Why am I reminding you of this?
18. A child that is not well disciplined, highly organized with high morals, which can only be generated in him or her by the fear of God, must surely be influenced wrongly in the university. It is a place where nobody controls your activities.
19. It is another “Calacuta Republic.” Just behave as you like. If you want to kill yourself, kill yourself because it is believed that only adults come there. It is a place made for adults only. So if as an adult, you want to be naked, fine! You want to be corrupt, fine! You want to read, fine. You don’t want to read, even better.
20. Have you obtained a habit, a culture that cannot be influenced away from you? From S.S.1 to university aspirants, have you acquired a habit, a culture that can never be broken, which is the essence of God teaching his children?
21. What and what do you notice in your child and you know that pride has set in? If you are a man, did you just come up and become a man like that? If you are a man, whatever your son is today is what you passed through. Wherever your son is today, you were there sometime ago. Where you are today, by God’s grace, your son will come there.
TEACH YOUR CHILD(REN) THE FACTS OF LIFE
I was at the corridor one day, I saw an old man wearing his red cap. He was stooping low, leaning on his walking stick and I was counting his steps as he marched. I summoned my sons. I said, “Little children, do you see this man?” one of them said the man is stooping. I said, “Yes. Very soon, that is how I will be walking. I will be like he. He shouted, “God forbid! Daddy, you can never be like that” I said, “Whether you like it or not, very soon, I will be using walking stick, stooping and counting my steps’
23. You know, infants do not believe that their parents can grow old. So keep on telling your children this truth. Tell them the naked truth that a day is coming when you cannot run again, when you will be depending on them even for feeding.
24. Tell them this truth that a day is coming when you will depend hundred percent on them for feeding. That if they don’t bring food for you, you will die. That you won’t be making money again, you will be weak because old age has set in.
25. When you tell your children these facts of life, they will be looking forward to the future. Amen.
A WORD OF ADVICE
If you want to go to school, you can sponsor yourself. Believe that where there is a “will” there is a “way.” If you are very hard working and strong, you will be able to take business endeavors which will help you meet some of your needs at your school.
Find out any creative talent and skills you have and exploit them. You can cut hair, plait hair, buy, dry-clean and sell clothes. There are other non-time consuming ventures you can embark upon to help yourself.
Be active in Fellowship, in school, on campus and in your family. Do your best and see how God will take care of the rest.
If you are not gifted towards academic work, quickly identify what you want to do and go into it. It might be business, trade or other creative talent. But never lose sight of the fact that education gives a lot of leverage in life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
PARENTAL IRRESPONSIBILITY
Now, this is what I am trying to point out. Watch your child. If he is a young man, any step he takes will tell you the spirit that is operating in him because, you as his parents passed through that stage. No matter how religious you were, nobody uses religion to cover it. It is only in the Faith of Christ that God helps them by giving them sound teachings at an early stage.
2. As many as were too tender and their parents brought them into the Faith of Christ, which we have, and God began a good work in them, they are happy! They are blessed.
3. Without this Faith, they would have tasted all that we tasted. When you reach the stage of going to night parties, you must attend nightclubs. When you reach smoking stage, you must taste smoking. This is the truth. It is this Faith that saves you from all these troubles.
4. Looking at the king’s mouth, you won’t believe that he was breast-fed. Why do we have to talk to our children this way? It is because we don’t want them to pass through the sorrows and agony we went through due to our parents’ stupidity and ignorance.
5. Our parents thought that all it took to raise children was to only give them food, buy clothes for them and that was all! Whatever their children will be in life, God will determine. We were left at the mercy of nature.
6. I thank God that we are still alive today with our senses correct. Some of our mates ran mad; some of our friends ran mad! Some died because of rough life!
7. Maybe you do not know that due to ignorance, our parents were taking delight in our evil behaviours. They were bragging with it.
8. While I was a smoker my father never discouraged me. He was smoking and I was smoking. He was buying cigarettes for me. He would drink; I would drink. I pitched tent with him, more especially when he quarrelled with my mother. I would always be on his side. We would pass cigarette together and we would say, “Leave the woman alone.” We would leave her alone. That was why my mother hated me and I hated her until this Faith was revealed.
9. I am stressing that our parents sponsored our destruction ignorantly. Some of our parents were even encouraging us to go and impregnate women and bring them to the house instead of asking us to go to school or to learn one trade or the other. Some would even get us girlfriends, encouraging us to impregnate one telling us that they were there for us and that they would take care of us. This is to show you their level of exposure, and what they desired for us. Can we desire such for our children now?
10. Likewise, some of the women were encouraged by their parents to become prostitutes, commanding them to go out and get money from men. They would say, “Don’t stay here to bother me every time. I want to buy this. I want to buy that. Why not go and collect money from men; follow them and get money.” And they would follow them. Imagine such training!
RECOGNISE AND RESPECT AUTHORITIES
What I am pointing out is this: Do not lavish your money, or spend money on the education of a rebellious child. If you see your child full of himself or herself, don’t ever sponsor that person into the University ground because if he gets there, surely, birds of the same feather must flock together and he is gone.
12. How do you know a child that is not worthy to go to the University? Here is how: the pride in him or her would not allow him or her to recognize authority.
13. Authority must first be recognized before it is respected, and the first authority one must recognize is the authority of ones parents.
14. If you don’t recognize the authority of your parents over you, you will never respect them because every authority calls for respect. Charity begins at home.
15. If you don’t honour and respect your parents’ authority, you can never honour, respect or recognize the authority of any other person and you are not worthy to go beyond where you are now.
16. A useless fellow is the most expensive fellow in the world, and a bad child is very expensive. You know very well that this is true, and nobody can afford to train such a person.
17. If you have your daughter and she is full of herself, you will know. After all, you passed through that stage. Is there any trick she plays of which you cannot catch her?
18. There are many ways your female child can tell you that she is of age even without opening her mouth. Give her instructions on what to do, and she would look at you and turn her eyes away. If she will obey you, it will be at her own convenience and not because you said it, but because she wants to. She is telling you that she is of age.
19. At that stage, if you send her out for anything, she would like to stay back and look at herself in the mirror and beautify herself before going out because she feels that somebody is watching her.
20. If it starts from your home, don’t train that person. She will put you into trouble. The best thing you can do for that person is to command her to marry so that you can have rest.
AIM AT HAVING A FUTURE
Listen to me very well. A child that is not worthy of the parents’ confidence is not worthy of training.
22. Can any parent afford to train somebody that they know will disappoint them? You know that the person is showing signs of disappointment and you still invest your money on that person. Are you not a fool? Why not use that money to buy a goat? It is better! Because from all indications, it appears that the best way to spoil our children is by sending them to school. But they must go to school. They must.
23. I believe that it is only an idiot that would like to be influenced out of the way of truth. It is a fool, he that lacks understanding, he that has no future that would easily be influenced out of the way of truth.
24. A wise child that aims at having a future; a child that has understanding, would always appreciate the parents’ efforts in helping him or her become something useful and would never be a disappointment to the parents. After all, parents train children for their (children) own good, and not for the parents’ own good.
25. The school holiday period comes with several holiday programmes coupled with their accompanying evils. During these holiday periods, many young ones take excuses to attend such programmes.
26. Before you know it, from holiday programmes or lessons, to too many unwanted pregnancies. Before you know it, death signs will begin to ring bells everywhere. Sorrows will fill the hearts of parents but wise and intelligent ones will use the period of holiday to look into their life activities; to look into their studies and do some necessary corrections.
27. Those that have already passed out from the secondary schools should use the period of holiday to prepare themselves for admission into universities. For once somebody is busy on something that is useful, foolishness runs away from such a person. This is so because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
YOUR DREAM DETERMINES YOUR ATTITUDE TO LIFE
Your preoccupation in your mind will determine your attitude to life. I mean your life ambition determines your attitude to life. What you want to accomplish in life must surely determine what your behaviour would be.
29. There are some people that have no life ambition at all. They just accept whatever comes their way. While there are some that have lofty ambitions to accomplish, and they are looking unto God everyday for the fulfilment of their life’s ambition.
30. A wise man doesn’t rest until his ambition in life is accomplished. That is what it means to live a fulfilled life. When you fulfil your life’s ambition, you have lived a fulfilled life.
31. But if your life’s ambition is not fulfilled because of your stupidity and recklessness, you have made a shipwreck. You have no one to blame but yourself. When you fulfil your life’s ambition, you brighten your future.
32. The same thing applies to business boys. When they are apprentices, they did very well. When they finished the period of their apprenticeship, they were blessed by their masters. They took off very well, they commanded respect, and they were behaving well. Their parents were happy with them. They were making progress.
33. But immediately pride set in, the reverse became the case. That is when they would hire their own private apartments. They begin to let people know that they are no longer boys, that they have become adults.
34. What they understood by adolescence is to gather every kind of male and female hooligans in their house to make unnecessary noise in the compound where they live, drink excessively, keep late at night, gather foreign women. To them that is what it takes to be an adult. That is stupidity!
35. A wise businessman would always like to be greater than his master. The same way, a wise son would always like to be greater than his father.
YOUR PARENTS ARE YOUR BANKER
36. To children in the secondary school level, that is where your trouble is for now. There is no type of hooligan that is not found there, and that is where you begin to spoil yourself because it is at this stage that you think you can have money that can be called your own.
37. Sometimes, you can even lend it to your parents not knowing you are spoiling yourself. You have no right to hold your money.
38. If you have a right to have money that can be called your own, you can as well sponsor yourself in school by paying your own school fees, buy your books and buy your school uniform.
39. Every kobo in the hand of a child that is under the parents’ authority is the parents’ money and must be handed over to them because your parents remain your banker. You cannot even keep the money for you don’t know anything good money can fetch. Nobody knows what is good for you at any time more than your parents.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF
So I plead with all of you children. Avoid stealing your parents’ money, which would lead you into stealing some other person’s money, for a petty thief is no smaller than a big thief.
41. Stop telling lies so that your parents can trust you, stand for you, and defend you in all matters.
42. Don’t extort money from your parents so that they can encourage you to continue in your studies because that money you are lavishing would help your parents to train you. And if you really want to be trained, if you understand that it is a privilege and not a right, you will constitute a big encouragement by encouraging yourself and also by taking your education as a challenge and not as a necessity or as a right.
43. Take it as a challenge. Challenge yourself. If it means going without food to make sure I succeed, I will do it because, I want to be something. I want to achieve success in life.
44. When your parents see this type of spirit in you, they will encourage you the more. But if you lavish the little resources at their disposal, they may be forced to withdraw their aid. Who then suffers in the end? You!
45. Parents, do not say that your children are infants. They are not infants. Punish your children when they err but don’t starve them. No matter the offence, don’t starve your children. If you starve them you expose them to temptation. Feed them very well. Don’t give them money to buy snacks; buy snacks for them.
46. Find out the company your children keep by visiting their school from time to time. Take the child by surprise. Go to their form master or mistress; find out how your children behave in school. Meet the classroom teacher; find out the type of company your child keeps in the school and how responsive he or she is to his or her studies.
47. Don’t end up enrolling your child in school and just go away. This is a joint responsibility. Both the mothers and fathers are involved. If you do not monitor your children while there is hope, the tendency is there for you to lose them and you will surely regret.
48. The joy of the parents remains their children if they are useful. But if they are not useful, what is meant to be a blessing can be a curse. It can cause sorrow, pain, agony, and can bring shame and disrepute even to the entire family. Amen.