Pursue new knowledge in 2016

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WELL I think it is still appropriate for me to welcome you all to the New Year. I am not sure what your plans are as individuals, couples or families, but I am certain in my heart that you have some plans in place.

WELL I think it is still appropriate for me to welcome you all to the New Year. I am not sure what your plans are as individuals, couples or families, but I am certain in my heart that you have some plans in place. You cannot afford the luxury of facing each day of the year without a plan but still expect a harvest of good. This will be a serious lack of wisdom. Anywhere, with or without a plan, I want to help you with one or two ideas today.

KILTON MOYO

As a couple or family, where do you want to be by December 2016? This is in terms of your relationships, finances, self-development etc. What are your plans of getting there and achieving what you want? Remember this has nothing to do with the situation around you. It has everything to do with your faith, discipline and commitment to improving yourselves. I have said it in the past that the biggest challenge in the family in Africa is lack of purposeful planning. Many of us do not come together to plan and encourage teamwork in the family. I must remind you that family is the best place for people development and attainment of dreams. Families that sit together and plan and encourage each other will always succeed. Family is the best place for exercising godly leadership. Life begins in the family. Success is learnt in the family and so is failure. The failures you see all over our nations were produced in their families and so are those succeeding. The preoccupation of family is grooming and coaching for good success and godliness and once the family goes to sleep on this, then communities have a crisis. In the midst of this crisis, then, I want to urge you to stand and fight for your family. You can lose anything but your family.

I have heard many people in business, politics, sport, arts, church etc. praised and described as successful, while on the family front they are divorcing and abusing their families. To me success starts at home. How are you treating your family? You can be a guru in business and everyone salutes you but you are beating or abusing your spouse. That is failure. May we measure your success by how you manage the biggest institution God has given you, your family. Do not be fooled, there is no organisation, business or thing greater and bigger than your family. Succeed, therefore, first at home and launch from there to conquer the world.

For this year my biggest challenge to you is to pursue new knowledge. New knowledge on family leadership and motivation. New knowledge of doing marriage godly and making it work. New knowledge on making yourself the best father, mother, husband, wife or child. Go out and read. Go out and invest. Attend seminars to learn. Seek counselling deliberately. Counselling is not for those in trouble only, but it’s also good for those who think they are doing well. You cannot expect new things still using outdated tactics. Get new ideas. We read so much on our careers and other things but very little on marriage and family. We read very little on fatherhood and motherhood and yet these are the foundations of all we do. In 2016, budget time to read on these. Challenge yourself to learn about these. I want to believe, we will see you this year so we can sharpen each other. Around you there are many well-meaning people talking about these issues. Listen to them.

My prayer is that, the people in the church will want to do things from a biblical point of view. I want to see elderly men and women spend time teaching the young. Do you know that many of our elders in the church are inactive? They have nothing to do apart from gossiping about the young people. Why not arise and do what the Bible says? Titus 2:2-5: “that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” So get new knowledge and learn so the word of God cannot be blasphemed through your marriage, family or through your behavior.

Make this year count. Set yourself the goal to learn. At Fruitful Marriage we want to assist you learn and overcome. We offer online counselling, face to face talk with individual couples or groups of couples. We do seminars and many more just to help you. You also can invite us to your places, church, organisation or clubs. Get wisdom, understanding and knowledge on things that matter the most. Fight for your family.

Kilton Moyo is creator of Fruitful Marriages, a renewal and enrichment programme, and is pastor, counsellor and author of The Sex Trap. Call or WhatsApp on +263 775 337 207, +263 772 610 103 or +263 712 384 841. [email protected]