Sharpen parenting skills: Methodist Church
Reverend Regunamada says parents should bring themselves to learn about their children’s world.
The Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma has called on parents to better understand the behaviour of their children. The church’s Communications Secretary, Reverend Wilfred Regunamada, said the younger generation was the “greatest concern’’ facing the faith.
Speaking yesterday when Christians the world over celebrated Palm Sunday, Reverend Regunamada said the Methodist Church this year adopted the theme ‘‘Evangelising our Children’’.
Rev Regunamada said Palm Sunday is an annual event that Christians celebrated, the last Sunday of Lent and the triumph victory of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. He said Jesus rode a donkey into the city of Jerusalem and children and adults lavishly celebrated his entry waving palm branches in the air and laid some on the road signifying their respect and welcome for the King of Kings and children cried ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, Save us God”.
Reverend Regunamada said: “We continue to ask the church, parents and the government what was being done about the young children, where do they fit into the process of nation building, evangelism in the church and parenting and family.” Reverend Regunamada said this was important because parents were “being ignorant of understanding their children, their world and their environment’’.
“We always want them to have our way of thinking, the way we were brought up and this common word that we always say “‘oh! In our days’’.
“No, it’s not our days, in fact it’s their time, their era, that technology, the digital era,” Revered Regunamada said.
He said children were now exposed to a lot of things that the older generation were not exposed to. “I think the parents should bring themselves and learn about their children’s world, I think it is important to understand them and this way we can come up with a lot of solutions to tackle the issues our children are facing.” Reverend Regunamada said the church theme for Palm Sunday meant teaching children, training them and preparing them for the world they were confronting.
He said this was part of the faith’s training this week and in all the Methodist Church circuits in Fiji, children and the young youths were given the opportunity to use the platform and lead their worship and prayer service on Palm Sunday. He said they were given the chance to address issues and speak on parenting and social issues. Reverend Regunamada urged parents to relook at their responsibilities and sharpen their skills to teach and nurture the young generation to face the reality of the world and fight the issues.
“We addressed teenage pregnancy, street children, drugs, child abuse, and issues of addiction to social media,’’ Reverend Regunamada said.
“The blooming of entertainment business in the internet industry is because of these children who are drawn in, our young generation.
“This is a call for all of Fiji, maybe for us adults while we are in a time of trying to build a nation, while we are in a time of looking forward to the general election … let’s take some time to pause and listen to the young generation.”
He said maybe the issues were a cry and a way of expressing the younger generation’s deep desire to be understood, to be accepted, to be included in processes such as decision making.