Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” “But why should we let him treat our sister like a prostitute?” they retorted angrily. (Gen 34:30-31 NLT)
The most painful things in life are:
- Being a parent and,
- Being in Love.
These two are the biggest pain in the world. For now, I would like to share with you the pain of being a parent. The verses that we are looking at are from a passage that narrates how the sons of Jacob caused him trouble in the country he lived in.
They avenged their sister being raped and killed an entire city. In Canaan, Jacob was almost a foreigner and he had no constitutional right whatsoever. His sons, not putting that in perspective, went ahead and massacred the citizens and owners of the country. Jacob had no option but to run and become a fugitive with his family and they ended up in Bethel (Genesis 35:1).
As a pastor, I have talked to many teenagers and I have seen the lives of some begin and end. The biggest problem of children (from adolescence to the age of 24) is that they think that they know. They always take matters into their own hands. Dina, the daughter of Jacob WENT OUT visiting by herself (Genesis 34). And when she got there, she was raped.
The problem with the Dinas (girls) is they think they are in control. Modern girls think they can visit their girlfriends and the brothers of those girlfriends won’t bother them in the presence of their sisters. Girls think they can enter the rooms of boys and leave untouched.
Dina was like a modern girl who goes to a bar, takes alcohol and all sorts of drugs, and expects to go out of that bar as she entered.
When a single mother is fighting the choices of her girl-child, the daughter forgets that this woman is furious with her because she is doing the same thing her mother did at the same age and ended up a single mother.
The brothers of Dina, in solving the problem of their raped sister, created a bigger problem instead. They killed the entire city and all the princes of the country and Jacob had no option but to shift and look for somewhere else to stay.
Children are a pain. Parents spend sleepless nights struggling to fix the mess of their children. Other parents spend millions, risk relationships and reputations to ensure that they save their children from the mess they are into. Parents are treating victims assaulted by their children, others are paying what these indolent children damaged. Some have grandchildren from their high-school boys.
I cannot narrate everything that children take us through as parents. When it is holiday time, you find them scattered all over town and in each and every place (cheap and costly). Girls who are afraid of their own fathers are found sleeping with men older than their fathers.
Others are at the University but part-time prostitutes. Both boys and girls offer sexual services to the market. Some have never stepped into any class and they still invite their parents to attend graduation ceremonies. Others are destroying the businesses of their parents, other children are literally breaking down the marriage of their parents. Others are following politicians and end up in prison. I just cannot exhaust the pain that children take us (parents) through.
Dear Children, as a pastor and someone who has ever been at your age (10-24), am kindly asking you to remember this. The only reason as to why life is exciting to you, it is because you don’t know. We are not as excited as you are, because we know what you don’t know.
We (parents) were fools to learn by our own experience and that is why we are asking you to be smarter and learn from our experience and not your own.
God bless you and: THINK about what I am saying. The LORD will help you UNDERSTAND all these things. (2Tim 2:7 NLT)
Pr ITM WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 