Habits: Dishonesty - It all starts small
Everything starts small. One step after the other, starting with Light, God created everything on planet earth and in six days too! Giants are not born giants. No. They started as babies and grew to become giants. Great men don't start great, they grow to become great! Even Kings and Queens start first as Princes and Princesses!
So it is with our habits. It all starts small. When children are born, they are born empty. Gradually, starting with their parents they begin to imbibe some habits - good or bad. As they grow in their neighbourhood, they pick up more from their larger families. As they venture outside their homes, they pick up further habits from the society: e.g. their friends, and such other organised bodies as worship centres.
And there are only two habits they can pick up - Good or bad habits! An armed robber, a rapist, or any criminal for that matter started his or her criminality small. For instance an armed robber would start with stealing petty things as little cash from their parents, meat in the soup, sweet on the counter, etc. Gradually, they become experts and they graduate to pocket-picking and other forms of pilfering and the wider their geographical horizon the more opportunities they have to perpetrate their nefarious acts. A rapist did not just start when he is an adult. He started when he was playing in the sands with his age mates - at a very tender age. And his lustful eyes continue to see his victims here and there. When he grows up, he becomes bolder and sometimes has to induce himself to be so he could accomplish his goals.
That is why the roles of parents in quickly exposing and correcting all bad traits discovered in their children are very crucial in parenting. When your child is given a gift and he or she does not let you know, he is on the path to dishonesty and may end up an armed robber, a fraudstar or name it. When your child hides his or her results from you he has started his acts of dishonesty. When your boy-children begin to run after girls at their tender ages, then you may be breeding future rapists. When your girl-children begin so early in life to ask you for indecent dresses or forms the habits shamelessly being half-naked or worse still understands all forms of lips painting, tattoos, so early in life, you may be breeding future prostitutes. Children, male or female who prefer to read or watch romantic books/films are heading towards stupidity, prostitution, child abusing and eventual failure in life. When your child leaves home for school and never gets there but gets back home at the right time he ought to after school, you may be breeding future cultists. The list is unending.
What then do we do? The best thing to do to discourage any bad habit is to nip it in the bud right from the very day it is noticed and pursue it until its traces can no longer be noticed. Secondly, the very opposite of the bad habit should become a training topic for whoever is affected. The victim should be taken through on all the trainings, counselling, praying, rebuking, etc necessary to free him from the bad habit.
Unless we want to lie, all of us have picked up one bad habit or the other at one point in our lives. But they were promptly corrected before we went too far. Therefore correct your children when they have not gone too far. Good morning.
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