It has always been my belief that we, the elderly people, should not lose sleep, for there is much hope for the young generation. This is justified from time to time. Last year, I commented on how Adeniyi, a taxi driver, returned to Dele, the $2,400 he forgot in his taxi after dropping him. On September 4, 2019, the Daily Trust published, how an ABU student, Ismail Salisu Rogo, saw a phone of N120,000 and he returned it to the owner. Let me say it again, that we still much have much hope for our youths. 

Some of his friends, as would be expected, abused him for acting ‘foolishly’. These are the people, who will not return such things but may even break into homes to steal people’s property. Some people might have concluded that he returned the phone because he did not know the market value. I may not know it, but not a student in the university. Returning such things or not, has nothing to do with the value. He returned it to the owner because it was not his.

His conduct poses a great challenge to those of us, who are parents. At a quiet moment, we should ask ourselves, as we name our children, one after the other, whether any of them would have returned the phone to the owner. Not too long ago, I challenged some youths with some ugly issues happening in their family. One of them was frank enough to confess that they were not raised up to the standard of my expectation. He realized that the missing gap in their lives was caused by their parents. Sometimes, some parents leave the substance to pursue the shadow. What is the use, if a man has a child, who earned four PhDs, but he is a thief?

Parents must be very careful in raising their children. They should guide them to form good habits, since habits are at first like cobwebs, but later, they become cables. Well, the problem is that lawyers have insisted and correctly too, that we cannot give what we do not have. It is only a good and disciplined parent that can bequeath such to his children. If a child knows Jesus, it may not matter, if the parent is evil, since things will turn good around him, the moment he surrenders his life to Him. He becomes a new creature, a brand new person. The old things in his life will pass away and all things will become new. His own children will then benefit from his new lifestyle. Returning the phone, no matter its worth or returning money he picked, no matter the amount, will not be a problem to any of his children. It will not even require prayers to do so. It becomes the normal lifestyle of the child. A dad, who was born-again, was told by his daughter that she was a virgin. “What else,” without any excitement, he asked her, “would you have been?” Glory!

May we not think that it is easy for a youth to return to the owner the phone he has picked on the road. Not returning it has nothing to do with one’s financial predicament, which some people may use in their defence for selling it. The fact that a person has no phone and therefore needs to use the one he has picked is also not a tenable argument. Nobody can use what is not his to argument his ugly situation. Another argument that does not lift the veil is that the person disposed the phone because it is what other people would do normally. Nobody is others and others cannot be you. You are unique, very special to God and also to your family.

I have never heard of any armed robber, who became one from birth. It has always been a gradual process. The person starts at home from pilfering and when he has graduated in it, the habit is extended to the school and from there to the high ways. It is the same thing with prostitution. It starts from the home, to school and to the hotel. In all these, the coach is usually from outside. This is why parental guidance is needed by the youths in choosing their friends. A child raised in a Christian home, where morning and evening devotions take place, is well-equipped not to associate with children of questionable character. It is possible, however, for a child to be brought up properly, and he still identifies with evil. This is why parents spend quality time praying for their children.

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I must congratulate this student from ABU, for returning the phone to the owner. By doing that, he has shut down the voice of the devil. Trust the devil, true to his name, d/evil – devises of evil – he would have made evil proposals to him, on what to do with the phone. We thank God that the youth refused to listen to him. May I also celebrate other youths like him, who have refused to benefit in any way from things like that, which they had come across in their lives. There are thousands of university students, graduates and youths in businesses, who have done what this youth did, without any publication. We have therefore, much hope for the future.

Samuel, in the Bible, had the advantage of being raised by Hannah, his mother, a woman that feared God. She kept her promise to God of returning him to God, if He answered her prayer by giving her a son.  God answered her. In the house of Eli, the Priest, Samuel distinguished himself from the wild lifestyle of Eli’s children. It was a great surprise that Eli’s children were living in sin under the nose of their father. Their chosen lifestyle was a disgrace to their dad, who was God’s minister. Nothing was heard about their mum.

The reference above justifies my position that children should not engage in the blame game. What is important is for them to recognize the lapses in their parents’ lives and then seek for the solution, rather than blaming their parents or uncles, who raised them up. At the ages of 13 and 14, I lived with an extremely kind man but who was involved copiously in sexual immorality. When I grew up, I imitated him in the area of his kindness, throwing the door of my house open to every Tom, Dick and Harry, as he did. I was careful not to imitate his abnormal sex life before I heard the Gospel message and surrendered my life to Jesus. It did not mean that I did not commit sexual immorality before my salvation. I did, but it was nothing to be compared with what I saw him doing brazenly. He would send his wife home on flimsy excuses for his lady friends to come to defy with him, their marital bed!

There is nothing that is ever too late to be amended. May I stress once again that there is no acceptable excuse before God for committing any sin. People that were not brought up properly can meet God’s people for help. There are also lots of great books available for them to read. To Ismail, the ABU undergraduate, I appreciate you and I say, Well done!

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]