The Progenitor II

‘On that very day Abraham took his son, Ishmael, and every male in his household, including those born there and those he had bought. Then he circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins, just as God had told him’ Gen.17:23

God expects the fathers to mold and determine the culture. Culture simply means ‘how people behave’. Every institution has a culture [church, family, business etc.] whether spoken or unspoken. The culture can either be directly and intentionally influenced or left to chance. God expects you as the father to determine the culture in your home. In other words your children know that there is a zero tolerance to stealing or gossip. As a progenitor, you need to be known for something and pass same to your children. In God’s Favourite House we do not gossip. It is a culture. Guess who created the culture – by the grace of God, me. It is my duty and I will shoot down every attempt for gossip to rare its ugly head. Culture is created by what you reward and what you punish. It is what you reward or what you punish that either flourishes or perishes. If there is something you reward, it will flourish. When there is something that everybody knows you will shoot down, it will perish. If your children know that weekdays are for intellectual work and as such you frown at the television being on. Guess what, if their cousins visit, your children will be the first to tell them about the culture of your home. Your culture has to be communicated clearly. God expects us as fathers to create the culture.

When I was in secondary school, every time my mother drops me off the last thing she says is ‘remember whose child  you are’ or ‘remember the child of whom you are’. And she says it in a tone that pierces my heart. I don’t know how mothers are able to do that. Some people don’t know how come mothers and sons have a special bond. It is because mothers know how to talk to their sons. So when I get to school and I find my self about to do something bad or already doing something wrong and those words come back to me. I immediately stop and walk away. Even though she was not there physically but those words influenced how I behaved. As parents we have to be deliberate about creating a culture because we are progenitors.

Prayer: Father, help me train up my children in the way they should grow so that no matter where they are, they will not behave contrary, in Jesus Name.