Pastor Ndidi Osakwe, Wife of the Senior Pastor of the Summit Bible Church, Abuja, has advised parents to give quality time in nurturing their teenagers.
She gave the advice on Saturday at the end of the 2022 Summit Summer Teens Camp organised by the Teens’ Wing of the Church.
She said that parenthood was a God-given gift, as such parents must not neglect that role and responsibility of nurturing children especially the teenagers.
“Children are gifts from God. And as the Bible says in Proverbs Chapter 22 verse six, we must ‘Train up a child in the way he should go.’
”By teaching him to seek God’s wisdom, will for his abilities and talents, even when he is old he will not depart from it.
“As parents, it is one thing to say you are a parent and its another thing to fulfill the role and responsibility bestowed on us.
“We can buy them things but we need to spend that quality time with them,” the cleric added.
She described the teenage level as a very sensitive and crucial period in the lives of the youths, adding ”everything happens at that teenage level for future development and leadership.
“They are a special group of God’s children, because they are very delicate. As teenagers, they go through different stages and emotions as they develop.
“There is so much bombardment and peer pressure that they have to deal with and sometimes they are not able to speak up.”
Osakwe further urged parents to give them the teens ”listening ears.
“We have to make out time for these children. It is very important, because if you don’t, there is no vacuum.
”There is an enemy there that is ready to take up the 24 hours,” she cautioned.
Earlier, the Teens’ Pastor, Kingsley Bangwell said that the camp was borne out of the desire of the church to see a better generation.
“The senior pastor is passionate about seeing ‘the next generation’ get engaged in political activities.
“The camp was aimed at transmitting leadership skills and helping the children discover themselves so that they can reach their fullest potential.
”They can grow up with the right character, attitude and excel in their academics and begin to see themselves as people who can contribute to nation building.
“As part of the activities during the event, we had leadership, communication and skills building sessions and sports.”
He said that as the 2023 General Elections are approaching, the participants were trained on what politics entails.
“This is election year. Let our children understand what is politics.
”Let them begin to understand that political parties are vehicles through which people can get political power through which they can promote social good,”he said.
Also, one of the instructors, Pastor Irene Bangwell urged parents to encourage their children to build their self confidence.
“Parents should be able to explain to children what the difference between self confidence and disrespect is so that we can have a better society,” she added.
She equally called on parents to make out time with their children and/wards to guard against peer pressure.
“These are times when parents need to make some adjustments in their schedules in order to always be around for their children,” the Pastor, urged.
One of the participants Amarachi Osondu, who appreciated the church for organising the camp said, ” it was very impactful.”
Recalls that the six-day camp had 130 teens as participants.(NAN)