Today, it is common to hear statements such as: this generation is wasted. Society has lost it. The youth are copying a Western lifestyle and abandoning African traditions. From among the many ways and approaches to rescue our society from moral decay, especially among the young people, I want to zero in on the Christian approach about the role of the Church, family and specifically parents and godparents. From the Anglican Church, whose norms and traditions I understand fairly well, baptism is one of the sacraments.
One cannot be recognized as an Anglican if they are not baptized. The Anglican Church baptises children from seven days old and adults as a way of introducing them to their Christian faith.
During the baptism of children, the norm is to have three godparents who stand and commit to support the children and raise them as Christians until such a time when those children are of age, and they are brought to church to confess their faith while getting confirmed as an affirmation of their commitment to Christianity.
Many of us Christians have gotten the honour to be godparents to someone or some people at baptism. But have we taken on our role as required or it only stops on the day of baptism? Have we followed up these children and dared to guide them into the right way of life, disciple and discipline them when they get off track?
It is clear that godparents take a commitment at baptism to spiritually guide the little children they present for baptism to ensure they follow the ordinances of the Christian faith until maturity.
I wonder how many godparents have really fully taken on their roles as they promise to do, God being their helper!!
Against the above backdrop, I wish to submit that before we blame the influence of the Western culture and social media on the behaviour of children and the youths, we need to search ourselves and find out if we have done what was expected of us in the lives of those we are spiritually responsible for.
I personally believe if all godparents do as they commit to do on the day they stand in church to present little children for baptism, in addition to the efforts of the parent, this would have gone a long way in proper upbringing of children and ensuring moral uprightness of society.
It may sound unrealistic but yet correct to note that many children have no idea who their godparents at baptism were, even those from staunch Christian families. I randomly asked five born-again parents who their three godparents were and only one could name the three but could not remember if they had ever had a one-on-one conversation about faith while she was growing up.
I took a similar turn and talked to five youths who were active in my church. They could hardly name their three godparents. This is unfortunate because godparents have not taken time to be present in the lives of the children they stand for at baptism. I wish to call upon the church leadership to think about developing measures to ensure the role of godparents is visible in the church.
It does not and should not end at baptism. I also call upon parents to select people of integrity to be godparents to their children. Finally, I call upon those who accept to be godparents to always guide the child in the way of Christ. It is important to take those words of commitment you speak before God and the congregation at baptism seriously.
Many people do not even remember how many children they have been godparents to. Realistically, why would you get someone who is not responsible for his own life, children and family to be a godparent to your child? What value does it add to the infant you are presenting before God through baptism? Why should this continue to be done as a norm and tradition with no significant and meaningful follow-up?
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