Family Life and Societal Development

My dear Parishioners,

There is a great challenge before us as a people and a nation. It has to do with our values as far as family life is concerned, or maybe lack thereof.

The family is the basic building block of any nation. Indeed as goes the family, for the most part goes the nation. Thus weak families will lead to a weak nation. I speak not of economics or military might, but about the moral fabric and fibre of societal development.

We have around us a number of broken homes. Many of these are single-parent with matrifocality being the major experience. What this says is that a number of our women are left to manage and “head-up” many households in our nation. Many fathers are absent and a lot of times, it is without leave!

I am of the view that stemming this challenging tide must begin with teaching family and other such values to our children. Our girls must be made to understand that waiting will more often than not, lead to making a more responsible connect with personal development and parenthood. The absence of a boyfriend will not cause a young lady to be less of a female neither will having one cause her to be more of a female.

Our boys need to be taught to respect themselves, to respect others and members of the opposite sex. The willingness to be sexually active at an early does not make any of our boys more of a male; and neither does waiting until marriage makes him less of a male.

From my vantage point, I see so many of our young ladies who gravitate towards the life of early and I do mean very early sexual activity. The end result is quite a high number of teenage pregnancy, abortions and personal dejection and loss of self worth! The flip side of the coin says that many of our young men are ever ardent and willing to ensure that they inscribe their names on the hearts of several young women. The block culture of boasting, bragging and story sharing beckons many of the young men. As some are wont to highlight, “they do not want to be on any mule boat.”

Our culture is indeed filled with stories and pictures of sex. It appears to be one of the driving components of our society. We see it on the television, the videos, in advertisements and so many other outlets. It is indeed alarming! With all of this before our children, coupled with the challenge of raging hormones, and very specially so in the teen years, the temptations and distractions are more luring!

It therefore becomes so important that we address the issues of the lack of moral guidance and inculcation of good family values. The adults of our congregation and by extension our nation, are called to ensure that our children are nurtured in the principles and faith of the Church. We as adults must lead wholesome lives so that the example which the youth garner from us can lead to growth and development.

I am challenging each and every adult of our Parish family; every parent - mother and father, to please make every effort to stem the tide. Even though you do not have a child, speak to one who comes you way. Show an interest in him/her! Give guidance! Give support! Provide good Christian witness! Pass a value - a nugget of worth, so that the youth may grow up with responsibility to themselves, to God and to His Church.

With every blessing,

Fr. Reid