Sometimes we go through life like we are in control of time. We go through life like it’s ours for the taking, almost like we determine how and when life happens. That’s how I’ve gone through life in recent times. In the last two weeks, the nation has been mourning, lives have been lost, innocent lives have been cut short. The agony and despair that runs through the hearts of men cannot be described.
People are gone and time cannot be redeemed, but we can do something about the living. I’ve learnt a lot of lessons from the Dana airplane crash. A series of emotions have passed through my mind; anger, sadness, despair, hurt, resentment, disillusionment and depression. I’ve asked God numerous questions and I’m still asking. The only assurance I have is that God is in control and I choose to trust that He knows what He’s doing.
But there are lessons to be learnt. One of them is to treasure our loved ones now. Not later, not when they grow up, not when we have time, NOW. One thing is a lot clearer to me; I don’t control how much time I have here on earth. God does. Because He is all knowing, it is his prerogative to decide when it’s time to leave, and when He does, I want to be ready.
So, what am I saying? Love those children that you have now. Pour yourself into them like never before. The true success of a person is the quality of the successor he or she lives behind. Therefore what determines if you really are a success is how well your children turn out. One day when you are gone, can people look at your children and truly say that you did a good job?
I have decided to take parenting to a whole new level. I’m determined to treasure these gifts God has given me now and present them as a gift to this world. I can hear someone asking, what does that mean? What do I do differently? Only you can answer that question. What heritage are you passing on to the children? Do they know that you love them? Do you make time for them? Do you make time to teach them and groom them? Do you exhibit wholesome values for them to emulate? Can they depend on you? Are you reliable? Would you want your children to be like you?
In the end, it isn’t how rich you are that matters. It doesn’t even matter how many accolades you have gotten. It doesn’t matter how many material possessions you were able to accumulate. What matters is the quality of life you lived and the impression you left on those that met you.
Now, I am armed with a new determination; to lead my children in the ways of God, to love them with all that I have and to prepare them for a life of purpose. “Why?”
So that one day, when I’m dead and gone, they would be able to say that they had a mother who did her best to raise them well.
Contributed by Sola Agudah
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