28th, February, 2022.

RAISE THEM FOR THEIR FUTURE HOMES

Isaiah54:13 All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace.

I read the post of a young man on facebook who beat his wife. His complaint was that his wife reported him to some concerned authorities and he felt bad about it. What caught my attention in his post was when he said his father use to beat his mother and she doesn't report to anyone. He saw his wife's action as lack of endurance and he compared her to his mother who doesn't complain about his father's constant battery. Apparently, from my judgement, he didn't see anything wrong with beating his wife. Unconsciously, he picked up that habit or act of beating a woman from his dad. I'm sure his dad didn't coach him to beat his wife while growing but he picked up that negative stuff from his dad through observation. He walked in the footsteps of his dad because that's what his father modeled to him.

Research shows that what most people do in their marriage is a result of what they saw their parents doing while growing. A man that beats his wife is unconsciously teaching his sons that women are meant to be dealt with physically when they misbehave. A girl child may think nagging and verbal abuse is normal because that's what mum does to dad. Unfortunately, one would think such anomaly doesn't occur among Christians but some believers and even pastors are exhibiting in their marriages the negatives they picked in their parent's marriages while growing up. Some of those in this category may be nice to outsiders but they're beasts at home. We have untrained parents trying to train their own children. Bad marriage was modeled to them and they're modeling same to their children. In the nearest future, the world may experience chains of turbulent and broken marriages more than we're seeing today because the present generation of parents aren't modeling to their children what a good home should be.

You are not reading this devotional by accident. God doesn't want you to be part of rot. Your son, that little boy will be someone's husband tomorrow, raise him well. As a father, he is learning fatherhood and family leadership from you first hand. No other marriage seminar or book can be greater than the marriage you model to your children. If you beat your wife and starve her of love, care and attention, he may likely do same to his future wife except God intervenes. Your daughter, that little girl will be someone's wife tomorrow, raise her well. If all you do is nag and tongue lash your husband at the slightest provocation, you've taught her to do same. If you don't model submission and motherhood to her, she may not learn it anywhere not even in books. She needs a good model. Sometimes, bad husbands & wives are products of bad/ defective parenting. They take after their parents. They become what their parents model to them. The potential husband or wife of someone lives under your roof right now, raise them for their future home by being a good and godly model they can take after.