Good Evening ladies and gentlemen,
Hope you’re well and have had a great day at work, ministry, home, school? It is well! I started thinking of what to write for this post about a month ago and things have since progressed and by God’s Grace, I have two testimonies to include in this post. You may remember me writing about Rev Funke Adejumo’s sermon about excelling as a mother; this was directed towards parents in general.
My 12 year old nephew lives with my parents in Lagos! They currently take care of him and have done so for the past eight years! So, I decided to share the message with my mother and I also put the things she mentioned in practice. My nephew and I are very close and he speaks to me about very personal things and so I am in a good position to implement these things.
1- The first thing we did was to be positive and always encouraging! His report came back in July and he got 2As, a few Cs, Ps and Fs! We were quite disappointed but I told my mother that we should thank God for those 2As and praise the kid for even attaining that.
2- To however prevent him for becoming lazy and comfortable! I kept on congratulating him on the 2As but I always said “I am so happy and proud that you got these 2As but I’m shocked you didn’t get all As because you are so smart and you are the smartest boy in your class. I’m sure you will get all As next time”. I always reaffirmed the fact that he was the best, the smartest and the head and then I would say, don’t you know and he would say “yes I know i am”
Proverbs 23:7- For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he
By getting him to repeat and believe this, he is in turn becoming that smart person. By saying those positive words constantly, we are transforming his mind and speaking prophetically. Amen.
3- I noticed that he had received a Blackberry phone as his 12th birthday present and so I asked how many contacts he had and he showed me and to my amazement, there were about 70 of them. I had to go through them to ensure they were friends, only to discover he had added a series of people he didn’t know from broadcasts. At this time, the Cynthia Osokogu murder story was everywhere and I actually spoke to him about it and educated him about the dangers of social networks, blackberry messenger and interacting with strangers. He then understood what I meant and on his own, he deleted every single person he didn’t know.
4- I knew I had to speak to him about sex because if you don’t speak to them about it, believe me the TV will teach them! Think about when you were twelve and all that you knew! I asked him what he knew and he pretty much knew everything. I explained to him that as he gets older, there may be pressure to get into relationships and have sex but he is a child of the most High God and we should not conform to the standards of the world but he should rather save himself for marriage! We spoke about the sanctity of marriage and he even had the understanding that he wanted a Christian wife with high morals and standards and so I said if he expected that from his wife, he should do the same! I explained that sometimes he may feel a certain way to which he responded “Yes from my hormones”. I told him it was normal and came with puberty but he needed to ask the Holy Spirit to come and take control. Amen.
5- I had to speak to him about the value of women and how to treat them! I explained that when he was old enough to enter into a relationship, he had to pray to God about it first and go ahead only after confirmation from God! As a child, he has witnessed his own mother and several aunties being subjected to so much pain from bad relationships and he did agree that he would never want to put any woman through such pain. I explained that under no circumstance should he put hands on a woman or verbally insult her, neither should he attempt any sexual relations until they were married! I explained the value of women and their role as help meets.
6- I asked him about his strengths ad weaknesses and advised him on how to deal with the so-called weaknesses! I explained that he could be great at every and anything! Regarding his strengths, I banked on them and continually encouraged him! He’s good at maths, he said he would like to become an investment banker! I told him he would be one! He’s quite a tall lad standing at about 5″10 at only 12 years old and so he took an interest in basketball and so we decided that it was imperative for him to spend time playing basketball and so my sister’s fiancé, took him to a basketball court to train and we’re told he was really good. We’ve decided that he will spend his summers at basketball training from now; as long as that is still his passion. His talent and drive needs to be nurtured and harnessed!
7- In the past, he’s had several behavioural issues and used to be really “bad” in school but we tried never to focus on that. Even when he did misbehave, we never called him names! Instead when he was naughty, we would say “But you are such a good, mature child of God, why would you act like that?”. We focused on positively encouraging him and never using bad words on him; because children will remember the words and start to act accordingly.
8- Lastly, I spoke to him about the importance of a relationship with Christ and constant prayer! I encouraged him to indulge in morning devotionals daily, read his Bible, praise and worship and to always seek God! During the time we were together, we prayed together. I encouraged him to pray and I also prayed for him and prophesied greatness into his life! Even after returning to England, I called him on the phone, always praying for him and declaring he was a child of God who would serve God all his life, I declared he would be a well known NBA Player and investment banker! I never once insulted him even in his “naughty” moments but always sowed prayers into his life.
God answered
To the glory of God, mother called me last week to inform me that our darling smart boy had achieved SEVEN distinctions in his results, seven credits, one pass and no fails! Wow! This was a vast improvement; even the teachers were shocked! It was all to the glory of God and guess what? Poor nephew was stricken with chicken pox and was admitted into hospital and missed many days of school and continuous assessments. Supposing he hadn’t missed these, what would he have scored then? For many years, nephew got low grades, last in class and then became an average student, we tried every approach but couldn’t get him to improve! We bribed him with phones, laptops but no change but to the glory of God, after using Biblical principles and the advice by Rev Funke Adejumo, he is now an outstanding student and I know I will be back to testify about his next set of results because the good work that God has started in Him, He will surely see through to its completion in Jesus’ Name! Amen!
Testimony
I would like to share the testimony of my first cousin! My cousin had her first child twenty years ago; it was a lovely beautiful girl but a second child was not forth coming at all! It just didn’t happen and we all got used to her being the only child and assumed she couldn’t have another! Well, God is an awesome God because after ten years my cousin found out she was pregnant and she had a beautiful baby boy who is nine years old today but the Lord didn’t stop there, two and a half years later, she had another boy who is 6 today! The two boys are extremely cute together and are the best of friends! But you know God is so marvellous, she had another baby in 2009; a cute princess who is 3years old and in August this year, she was blessed with another Princess! Now, my cousin and her husband are the proud parents of FIVE healthy, amazing and beautiful children (20, 9, 6, 3, 2months old)! Their first daughter is currently at Uni studying Computer Science while their four other kids are really giving them an event filled life! I am so happy for them and grateful to God for His mercies! Only God can open a door others think is closed; He is the one who opens a womb others have deemed shut!
May the Lord open every closed door in your life today and may He spring forth into action in every area of your life that has been deemed a failure! It is well with you and all that concerns you in Jesus’ Name! Amen! To watch the sermon by Rev Funke Adejumo (Excelling as a mother, April 22 2012)- www.lifestream.tv/daystar
Every parent should watch it, every aunty, uncle, cousin, teacher, youth worker! In fact I believe every single person should watch it because we shall all be parents one day and we need to start practising these principles on our nephews, nieces, neighbours and so on.
You can read the summary I wrote here- www.princessofzion.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/excelling-as-a-parent
God bless you all
princessofzion 