I don’t know if anyone can tell us all parents how to raise kids easily. I mean, is there any easy way to raise a child? No! There is none! Parenting is a tough job!

To this already tough job, when we add other variables such as, parents being diaspora, trying to raise their children in a foreign country where almost everything including language, culture and tradition and all are totally foreign to them, parenting becomes very, very challenging. It is easy for a diaspora parent to throw in the towel and check out themselves from the game of “parenting.” Who would blame them? Not me, because I still remember catching myself many times in the middle of parenting my beautiful children entertaining the idea of disqualifying myself from parenting. I mean, parenting is very hard for diaspora parents in many ways.

However, what is hard in parenting is when a totally confused parent in this life is trying to raise their kids to be well-behaved, well-mannered and straight A+ students. Of course we all parents desire that for our children and there is nothing wrong with that desire. But if we have no clue what our children basically need in this life, we do more damage to them than good.

The Bible says,

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 NIV

Who?

Everyone, including us and our children!

Why have we fallen short of the glory of God?

Because of sin! When Adam sinned against God, we all, human race, sinned against God through Adam as the Bible says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man[Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” Romans 5:12 ESV

So, we all are born into this world in sin, sinners at birth, including our children.

David writes:

“Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5 NIV

Wow! Did you see that?

That means we can answer G. K. Chesterton’s brilliant question: “What’s wrong with this world?”

The problem with this world is us, me, my children, you and everybody!

The problem of this world is us, sinners at birth, being dead for righteousness. Our children are also “the wrongs” with this world.

The Creator of this Universe, God, brought remedy to our “sickness,” to our “deadness to righteousness” as Isaiah, the Prophet of God who lived 700 years before Christ, wrote:

“He[God] saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.” Isaiah 59:16-17 NIV

There wasn’t any hope for this world until God decided to intervene. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for the sins of the human race. It was God’s will to kill His Son, on the cross as Isaiah said,

“it was the Lord’s will to crush him[His Son, Jesus on the cross] and cause him to suffer” Isaiah 53:10 NIV

“he[the Son of God]was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”

Praise God!

Our sickness, our deadness to righteousness, is caused by sin, the original sin, Adam’s sin. And Jesus took our “wounds” – our sickness – and He “healed” us.

As diaspora parents or parents of any country, we Christian parents, our number one desire for our children should be for them to know this Healer, the only Healer of sin.

Generally speaking diaspora parents, especially we Ethiopian diaspora parents, focus on our children’s academic success and achievements. To make that a reality, we do everything from working three jobs to anything so we can afford to send our children to good “Christian Schools” and even colleges so our children will be successful.

I mean, who among parents won’t desire for their children? No one!

But are sport and academic achievements what our children basically lack? What if our children, all of them or one of them, are not created for school? What if they are created for something else? We force school down their throat so they go to school and succeed. But when all our efforts fail, we feel defeated in the field of parenting.

This is what I am trying to say: Whether we are diaspora or non-diaspora parents, our call as parents is mainly to help our kids to come to know the only God-given Remedy/Cure for sin, Jesus Christ. Sending our children to Christian schools won’t make them Christians or God fearing kids; taking or dropping off our children at a church where they can join the best children’s ministry is not going to do anything with our children and doing so is not our call. Our call first and foremost is for us to come to the One who can save us from our sin, “our sickness,” our brokenness. Then, once we come to our Healer, we strive to role model what life with Jesus Christ looks like before our children, turning our home into a church where God is worshipped, lifted up, honored and feared.

Then helping our kids to be successful in the career of their choice and in their life in general will come second. Switching the order of these two may make our lives and the lives of our children totally miserable. ///