The headlines are a ablaze with negativity, the fear, the gloom, the uncertainty and all the world is filled with fear on one level or another. Some justified, some foolish and others somewhere in between. We have the anniversary of 9/11, nailbiting sporting events and various political love childs making all sorts of  questionable predictions.

Where do we stand, where do we fall and what needs to change in order for us to bend but not break. I’m a massive Rocky fan and this just rings so true with my life:

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” 

To me so much of success and failure depends on the quality of leadership. Being lead, Leading others and leading yourself are key concepts that we need to at least aspire to and at most master. So much of those headlines from above result from varying degrees of leadership. In an atmosphere of solid visionary leadership fear is replaced with excitement and uncertainty with expectancy. Without solid leadership I beleive we end up with the headlines that currently adorn so many of our newspapers.

Currently we seem to have fallen witness to a rise in youth inspired and driven acts of complete selfishness. They seem to have acted out of a self professed sense of enitlement and wisdom. From Englands latest riots to our own youth’s acts of thoughtlessness. The odd thing is that I truly believe neither group beleives they are in the wrong. I also find it rather intersesting that on neither of those two fronts were any fathers seen. Perhaps it is an indication that their input is not wanted, not forthcoming or probably too late.

I don’t profess to be an oracle on all things political, but this I do know. In a country such as South Africa, where we were able to navigate many potential valleys with relative calm, due mostly to the favour of God, many many deliberate prayer warriors and some selfless political decsions, we seem to be seeing that there may be  a generation rising up who don’t profess to subscribe to the same values as their predesesors. Entitlement, hatred, slander, self gain, minority oppression and tunnel vision are being sown.

I think some of this may be as a result of inadequate discipling, mentoring and fathering of those who would come after. Lets be real, there is no success without a successor, and if that successor does not continue to build on what those who have come before have built, it requires us to evaluate if what was done before was actually as beneficial as we once thought.

I look through Proverbs and see the promises and curses that are laid before children depending on how they treat their parents. I wander if these curses will still apply to children of parents who haven’t raised them as they should? Can you hold a son responsible for disrepecting his father if that father was absent, indifferent or never showed any interest? Can  a daughter be looked down on because of the company she keeps, if she has never had her value clearly explained to her in word and deed?

I don’t condone what I see and hear from some of the youth in our beautiful country, but I do ask myself, Had we put more emphasis on raising those who will lead tomorrow, would there be so much rebellion and disregard, would they need to look outside their family for mentorship and guidance if what they had inside was purposeful, intentional and freely available?

So back to Rocky, our values, our dreams our bedrock are being hit by the very people that were supposed to be groomed to ensure those things were protected, are we going to keep moving forward are we going to win? I think this will require that fathers ask forgiveness from the Father for not raising their children as they possibly should have done, and I think there needs to be a change of intention and heart in how we groom the leaders of tomorrow, and it all comes down to leadership.

Malachi 4:6: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.