Looking at the way our society is built, I see that most times the father is always absent. It is okay for a father to hustle leaving his family behind. It is okay for the mother to be at home and the husband can come late at night. My point is that father absentism in the home is not questioned as much as a mothers absentism is questioned.
I once heard that if God wants to do anything in the society, He starts with the family unit. What makes up the family unit? What is define as a family? As I learnt in social study, it is define as a group that is made up of the father, the mother and their children. So, for a family to work, it requires the father, the mother and the children to work, hand in hand. In the times we are in we have more single mum more than ever in history, divorce rate is on the rise, families that ought to be together are more aparts than before. This bring the question of what the roles of the father is in a home. Is a woman suppose to bear the burden of traning the children alone? Or is child trainin the role one patner can fulfil?
I know for sure that the role of a father to both gender might be different. For the male children, he needs someone to look up to and for support, for the female counter part, it is more of protection and also support. Research as shown that the fathers absent in homes can impact negatively on the childs over all wellbeing. In the U.S., it is shown that more than 1in 4, live without a father in the home.
When there is no male figure to look up to in the home, the children will seek supports else where. The female will look for male figures or lovers outside the home, it may result in heartaches and teenage pregnancy, abuse and neglect, higher chances of dropping out of school, insecurity etc.
For the male child when there is no role model to look up to from their father, they are exposed to societal ills, violent behaviour, risk of moving with bad company, and abuse. This could be a circle leading to more absent fathers, more social ills, and the circle will keep going on and on. God made men to be the head of the home for a reason, yes a woman is to be home makers, make the home heavenly and most times all the role of training up a child is left to the woman. Men are to be confident, committed, counsel, and communicators. That is while the bible says specifically fathers train up your children in the way they should go, the bible also admonish the fathers to teach these commands to your children. The role of fathers in the home is to train up the child, show unconditional love, be present to show them the right ways.
So, how do will raise the right breed of men? Until next time when we will further further discuss the importance of fatherhood.
Hope Hope energies human life and serves as the essential fuel that empowers human kind’s intellectual and spiritual endeavours. Hope may be said to be the source of civic conscience and behavior because it makes the future of our society or country inviting. Hope touches patience and creates that temperament that enables us to listen and speak to those with whom we disagree. In hope we know that in the end everything will work out and we need not fear taking our time.
Problems The season of change brought about by modernity, the new challenges that present themselves in the changing geo-political situation and long standing issues and problems that flood the collective psyche of those in the region give shape to new fears as well as well as new hopes. Terrorism and Peace: terror is not new and its seed can be traced to the origin of myths of most cultures and religion. History is full of tyrants and conquerors and the terror they initiated In light of today, everyone is threatened and no one is safe. There is no personal life any longer without danger.
Social challenges Globalization has exacerbated the inequalities and accentuated the extremes of wealth and poverty between and within nations. Globalization has brought instant prosperity to a few but it has also marginalized and excluded many. Globalization has brought tremendous dislocation in the lives of the poor and of indigenous communities. It has made the sufferings and misfortunes of its victims appear as if they were part of the natural order of things. Not every programme that aims to bring nations to affluence has succeed in eradicating poverty. Religion and secular hope Most religions develop the idea of hope in the light of their conception of human suffering and evil.
The fabric of hope Hope is by no means the exclusive preserve of religious people or the Christian community, but a universal phenomenon. As a reaction to the challenges and difficulties of life, hope exists at a pre- reflective level of human awareness and activity. As an outlook and attitude that influences and shapes and colours all human experiences and activities, hope is essential for human flourishing.
Hope and optimism Optimism is the naïve and blind acquiescence to the principle of human progress that ignores the ambiguity of our world and the ubiquity of peer, suffering and evil optimism refuses to acknowledge the vulnerability of the enterprise, preferring to embrace a triumphalism that has lost touch with reality. Hope in contrast, confronts the world as it is it embraces a stark realism, struggles with the ambiguity of life and responds to it as taking up a particular posture of imaging new possibilities and other alternatives, inspired by the rules of human experience.
The confusion of hope with optimism has resulted in optimism being defined in terms of progress since the enlightenment. Progress is therefore defined as the upward movement of human civilization to its imminent state of perfection. This modern idea of hope is shaped by the exponential advances in science and technology witnessed from the last decades of the eighteenth century.
Hope in the progress is evidently short lived with its rapid decline in the 20th century, from its rapid rise in the 19th century. The triumphalist creed of progress began to collapse from the first decade of the 20th century, being replaced by pessimism and anxiety. Much of the optimism is not shared by the majority who witness the creed of progress being contradicted again and again by atrocities and tragedies that scar the history of the new century. The hope defined by the secular myth of progress has been and is being dashed by disappointments. Tinder described it this way: “When the twentieth century began, we were unprepared for the misfortune and crimes of our ages and our disillusionment was more profound than it might otherwise have been. The hope we inherited was laid waste by trench warfare by totalitarianism in major civilized nations and by death camps”
Christian hope For the Christians, God is not just the object of hope but is its basics: we not only hope for God but is in God. Christian hope is different from unbridled optimism of secular hope because it is founded upon and shaped by the preaching and praxis of Jesus Christ. Christian hope does not ignore the reality of pain and suffering, but confronts them in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christian hope embraces not only the future but also the present not only other worldly realities but this worldly ones.
Our concept of Hope embraces not only the future but also the present: not only the other worldly realities. We seek to offer hope that confronts the world as is it, struggles with the ambiguity of life and responds to it by taking up a particular posture of imaging new possibilities and other alternatives, inspired by the rules of human experience.
Our focus is on the Youth and the family.
VISION Youths and families developing their potentials, responding and overcoming challenges of life and creating new possibilities by which they contribute to the society.
MISSION STATEMENT Enhancing and building the capacity of youths to deal with challenges of life To equip, nurture and mentor youths to develop their potentials and create new possibilities hereby contributing to make the society better To strengthen the family system and build the capacity of the family to fulfill their roles and contribute to the progress of the society.
OBJECTIVES:
Youths 1. To encourage the youth to identify the various levels of challenges limiting their output, reducing their productivity and out rightly blocking their progress in life
2. To equip, motivate and encourage the youth to identify and explore their potentials.
3. To motivate and empower youths to harness and utilize their prospects and opportunities 4.To empower youths to make giant strides in prosperity, leadership, making wealth and positive living. 4.To encourage and motivate youths to contribute to society and God’s kingdom 5. To encourage families’ churches, organizations to recognize the potentials in youths and involve them in hope of positive impact and usefulness and fruitfulness.
Families
1.To draw attention to the challenges facing families.
2. To draw attention, develop and equip on the strategies of the family to overcome the challenges facing the families today.
3. To establish the integrity of the family system as foundation and bedrock of the society.
4. To establish the genuineness of the family system as God’s mandate for ;;;;; and progress of mankind and growth of society.
5. To highlight the potentials within the family unit.
6. To equip the family with stack to develop each of the elements of the family unit for synergy to perform their roles.
7.To encourage each family unit to be exemplary and impact society.
Hope Glow Initiative 