OSTRICH PARENTING

JOB 39: 13-18

Having an opportunity to carry ones child in the womb for nine months and bringing forth with joy is a great privilege. Mothers are endowed with strength and vigor to keep human race in place, but the work of the woman does not end there; aside these, mothers are given the task of watering their plants (Children), timely and correctly till they grow and become the pride of nations and useful vessels for God in the society where they are born.

Job 39:13-18 describe the parenting pattern of the Ostrich, big but deprived of love and wisdom in raising her young ones. The life of the Ostrich is such that does not care, nor considers it necessary to water her plants (Children); she leaves them right from birth to survive on their own (vs.14 -15); “she is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers” (Job 39:16). She’s so deprived of wisdom she neither care nor correct them in love so her labour won’t be in vain; yet with a heart puffed up with pride, she mocks others, pick holes and faults in other people’s sincere efforts at good parenting while ignoring her own obvious foolishness as if all is well.

It’s so easy to ignore ones own weaknesses and focus on the perceived errors of others who may even be doing better than we are currently doing. I have seen parents whose children are exact replica of what they correct in other people’s children and you wonder if they ever see the faults in their own children. It is so easy to see the sturbon behaviors in other people’s children, the waywardness in neighbors teenage children while turning a blind eye like the Biblical ostrich to the decays and bad behaviours of those under your own roof.

I think it is hypocritical to ignore one’s own obvious parenting lapses and sit in the judgement seat pin pointing other peoples failure just because your position gives you opportunities others do not have. That’s ostrich kind of parenting and in all fairness, one should ask him/herself, especially we mothers, I’m I an ostrich kind of parent? Do I spend more time pointing out others parenting inadequacies while mine is left unattended to? Do I spent my whole time watering others garden, cultivating and pruning others plants to desirable stature while mine is left overgrown and unattended to? Your answers to these questions will define you and define your parenting style.

Mothers are blessed by God with the responsibilities of caring for their children; they are given wisdom and good sense to water their children to maturity but this God given duty can be ignored or discarded in its entirety if we allow ourselves to fall in the same pit of pride and self centeredness that focus on what other people are doing wrong rather than what others are doing right that I can learn from and what I’m doing wrong that I need to discard.

It is the plant we water that will bring the right kind of harvest in its full season. The future of our children lies in our hands, the godly care, love, training, teachings and discipline we give them, gives them strength to grow to maturity in Christ and in the society. If we focus more on ours, and those other people are left to do theirs their own way, it is a matter of time, those with the right intention and method will be openly displayed for the world to see. If we do our duties correctly and wisely, though unnoticed and possibly unappreciated by the world around us, soon they will come back and ask us how and why we are so blessed with better harvest and when that time comes, it will be our best opportunity to show them our God and how in His name, we have raised our seeds to His glory alone.

The world is waiting for Jesus-like children, that is the gospel God expects us to preach to the world around us and what better way to do it than through the way we raise our own children. Children are what we make them, if we value them, cherish them as God given gifts that they are to us, then we must take the pain, and the time to water them with the Word, prayers and instructions in righteousness so that they can grow to be as strong, hardworking and devoted to God as we will like them to be.

Our children should see our Jesus in us, our behaviour and lifestyle must show them the God they cannot see. We are their first Jesus, we are the Bible they read, and they learn from the way we deal with them, the way we treat their fathers, the way we relate with people around us and our devotion to God and the things of God. We are their first Bible. Let us not live like the Ostrich so that we will have rest and joy (Proverbs 29:17).

May God grant us grace to stand up to our responsibilities as mothers that by us and through us our children will take their first steps toward Christ in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen

Mrs Adeoye Racheal, lives in Ilorin Kwara State and writes for Praying Parents Prayer Group Christian Ministry (3pG).