Save The Boys
It is the 21st century, and boys are only a bunch of jean trousers, nice sneakers, a few bucks in the pocket, and an uncontrollable passion to conquer the world.
Not that they desire to make it a better place. But to leave their marks on every female counterpart money or swag can afford, and earn a bragging right amongst their peers seems to be the deepest motivation.
It is the 21st century, and boys compete for chairs at the table of drunkenness. Conversations are centered on who’s got more threshold for substance abuse. The more you can contain, the cooler you are.
It is the 21st century, and boys have acquired for themselves role models alien to God’s provision for parental leadership in the home. Boys are everything else but what they see in their fathers. Or in some cases, an upgrade in the wrong direction.
The Jay-Zs, the Kanyes, the Olamides, the Naira Marleys, and the Wizkids are top on the list of our boys’ mentorship roster. To attain that level of life for them is the mark of their higher calling.
It is the 21st century, and our boys need saving more than ever before.
We seem to have it backward in our society today. In that, the stronger the energy a young man asserts in his pursuit for vainglory, by all means necessary, the more likely he is to succeed. Or so it seems.
So, we celebrate folly in place of discipline. We celebrate mindless hustle in place of honorable hard work. We celebrate unguided zeal in place of contentment. We condone unruliness but despise godliness.
It is the 21st century and men have long left the place of their watch as leaders. Fathers have let down their guards and mothers have turned a blind eye. It is no longer “train up a child in the way he should go”, but “put up with a child till he decides where he goes.”
But ‘train up’ and ‘put up with’ aren’t the same. You may want to ask Eli how it went down for him with Hophni and Phinehas when he resorted to putting up with, rather than training them up. God charged Eli with the sin of giving more honor to his children than to God himself, thereby condoning every act of impudence the duo perpetrated. (See 1 Samuel 2:29)
Eli did not save his boys, so he was not spared. Although as a priest of God over the people of Israel, his eyes became dim, and every nonchalance could pass.
It is the 21st century and we must take a cue from Elkanah and Hannah his wife. In recognizing that Samuel was a gift from God, they committed to saving the boy from childhood by dedicating him to the service of God’s house. And by so doing, provided a judge for the house of Israel.
The call to save our boys is a call to save a generation. For in the seed of our boys lie the harvest of the men of tomorrow. Whether dysfunctional or upright, the work we do here determines a great deal of how they turn out.
We cannot cry RAPE if we never considered to SAVE. Save the boys from the corruption and decadence of immorality that crept in while men slept.
We cannot cry CORRUPT if we never considered to ADOBT. Adopt scriptural principles in instilling and insisting on a life of godly contentment as against the get rich or die trying ideology.
It is the 21st century, and the compromises of yesterday have become the standards of today. And the standards of today are soon becoming the disasters of tomorrow if we don’t rise to save our boys.
It is the 21st century, and save our boys we must. For when we save our boys, we save our men. And when our men are saved, families are saved. The society is saved, and a safe space is guaranteed for a healthy multiplication.
It is the 21st century, and our girls need attention too. But we’ll see about that in the sequel.
Shalom!
Biyama Joseph
#TheInfluencer
