Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 

Colossians 3:20-21

Recurrent Thought

Continued obedience by Children to Parents and superior leadership, without any irritation, by Parents to Children creates an atmosphere where the Favor of Goodness (wellness) and long life is guaranteed (Eph. 6:1-3)

God loves humanity so much that He wants His influence, wisdom and vision to remain permanently in the earth. He does this by Generational Transfers through Children. He is a God of Generations: “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He sustains His covenant even to a thousand generations (Deut. 7:9).  Children (Sons & Daughters is the defining and significant platform for Generational Transfer. Parenting the next generation is one of the greatest kingdom services parents perform. Remember Children are a gift from the Lord. Parents have a privilege of custodianship. This is a responsibility one has to carry out with all seriousness.

Studies show that parents exercise the greatest influence in the way they educate and bring up their children. Additionally, parenting is the greatest and the most difficult leadership challenge in the world because it deals with preparing our children for life and impressing on them the values that they need to grow up

As stated earlier Parenting continuous to shift in both structure and content. Just as the African traditional parenting, the Judeo-Christian parenting system we see in the biblical text has gone through great changes. The greatest challenge to parenting is the newer underpinning philosophies that create practices never known or experienced before. The practices even create moral dilemmas for present day families.  

Ten Challenges in Parenting

1. The Challenge of busy lifestyles. Balancing Career and parenting is a difficult reality. Most families lack the time to socialize, to talk, to pray and to bond. Creating a Family atmosphere is a nightmare for parents.
2. The Challenge of remaining sober in the face of Stress. There are a thousand details one goes through daily as they parent. Parenting below 12 Year olds is a nightmarish.
3. The Challenge of changing of Roles of fathers and mothers. What the two are expected to be and to in the parenting journey are at times obliterated by culture.
4. The Challenge of changing Family structures and values of parenting. Biblical Values of Parenting are despised as obsolete. Being a disciplinarian is frowned against. Parents who enforce rules are looked upon as being harsh, abusive and outdated.
5. The Challenge of how to influence Your children. Not knowing how to mentor, coach and parent our child in a modern society. The millennials are raised in a different philosophical Worldviews. Their parents must study the cultural revolutions for them to parent well.
6. The Challenge of not knowing how your children evolve. Children are impacted by culture differently. Millennials have different needs compared to previous generations. For example, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that millennials have higher rates of depression in comparison to any other generations. Additional studies show that major depression is among the top 10 health conditions affecting millennials. 
7. The Challenge of difficulties created by different forms of Parenting. The tradition two-tier format of Father and Mother is different from others such as Single Parent who are expected to provide, care, and at the same time mentor, and coach the children (alone). They are challenged in how to lead children that have different sexes from them. How does a mother mentor a son where there is no father? How does a father coach a daughter where there is no mother in the home?
8. The Challenge of Parenting in the Information Age. There is information overload and both children and parents are overwhelmed with it, especially in the area of parenting and how to respond to it. Children have information on how they feel parents should lead.
9. The Challenge created by Child-centered Rights. As good as an emphasis of Child rights is good, an extreme emphasis creates dangerous culture where Children do not care of Parental oversight. Some Children resist being reprimanded by parents and cite child rights. In the North Hemisphere you are bound to lose your child to the State and be branded unfit Parent.
10. The Challenge of Parenting in cultures with openness to easy sexual intimacy. Children have information and sexual experiences they have no right to get. Parent do you know the level of pornographic content your child devours every day? Children are introduced to homosexual lifestyles and transgenderism at an early stage.

Remember that the essence of this text is to show how the Christ-devoted follower manifests in the family, which is the basic building block of any larger society. In this text we find three basic relationships in the family that are also the building fabrics of societies: Wives and Husbands; Fathers (parents) and Children and Masters and Bondservants

In this message we deal with the second relationship of Parents and Children which can be cast into various societal platforms such as. 1. Spiritual Leaders and how they relate to spiritual Sons and Daughters. 2. National leaders and how they relate to the national citizenry.

In today’s message, the two texts we handle are about an abbreviated form of Parenting and how to respond to it as Children of the household. Essentially, parenting is a process of raising another and leading them to a place of self-discovery with knowledge and wisdom adequate enough for them to start their own journey of pursuing destiny. Parenting is about you growing as your Children grows; it is a journey of loving, crying, teaching, caring, and making memories of joy, and hopefully of faith, and trust. We must note that the text about Children refers to underaged children and not one who is supposed to be out of your house living on their own.

Just as in the relationship between wives and husbands, by inspiration of the Spirit, Paul identifies only one distinct service (duties) Parents deliver to Children and vice vesa. These services (duties) are not the summery of all expected services, but the first and foremost services each set performs for the other.

Command # 3

The Service (Duties) Children have towards Parents is Obedience in Everything

1. The duty of a child to the parent is to demonstrate Honor and Obedience
   • The reality is that Culture has shifted. A lot of things now fight for the soul of Children.
   • Some ill-intentioned desire for total independence by children tend to create rebellious spirits.
   • Children are to demonstrate universal obedience to parents: “Children, obey your parents in all things” (Col. 3:20).
   • Remember the Law of God demands that Children should “Honour thy father and thy mother” and the easiest way to show honor is through obedience
   • In Col. 3:20. It states that “For this is well-pleasing.” While in —Eph. 6:1 its says  “This is right.” To honor and obey Parents is the right thing!
   • This is likened to Luke 2:51-52 where the child Jesus was subject to his parents and increased in favour with God.
   • Children position themselves to access extraordinary Favor when they honor their parents
   • One who gives reverence to their parents receives heavens blessings.
   • Obedience of Children to parents is well pleasing to the Lord
   • God always judges a reckless disobedience of parental authority.

Command # 4

1. The duty (or Service) of the Father (Parent) to the child is to Lead them
   • Parents must demonstrate leadership in the lives of their children
   • As the Parents lead children, they should not provoke them to anger, “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger” (Col. 3:21).
   • The Word used as to Provoke is to irritate, to frustrate and be a pain unnecessarily. This command is similar to the one in Eph. 6:4 yet they are different. In Eph 6:4 the word is translated “do not exasperate.”  While in Colossians 3: 21 the word here is “do not irritate.”
   • “Irritation and provoking in a wrong way produces discouraged children, ones who are broken-spirited.
   • An irritant parent produces Children with broken spirits. Nothing more dejects the heart of a child than unnecessary frustration from a Parent.
   • Children are influenced by the character of parental leadership. If it is a useless one, they develop with bad character.
   • Differentiate firm Counsel and discipline from cruelty against Children
   • Parents are to lead Children to greatness and not to discouragement
   • Cruel parents raise broken and disheartened Children. “Lest they be discouraged” (Col. 3:21).
   • It is essential to have effective leadership that balances between justice and mercy

Conclusion

• A Family’s strength is in the active delivery of responsible services by Children and Parents
• A Local Assembly’s strength is in the active delivery of responsible services by Spiritual leaders and Spiritual Children of that congregation
• A Nation’s strength is in the active delivery of responsible services by its Leaders and Citizens of that nation