Youth need Godly examples

Youth presented with Godly examples, will usually follow the examples witnessed.

Media Services Assistant Overseer, Roger Holford acknowledged the above, as he spoke with The Barbados Advocate recently, as thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses attended their annual convention at the Gymnasium over the weekend.

The three-day convention got underway on Friday and ran until Sunday at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium, under the theme “Be Courageous”. Speaking on the sidelines, Holford acknowledged that a number of the key messages presented throughout the Convention were targeted at children and youth, and not just the adults in attendance. The aim was to equip them as well with the tools needed to live Godly lives and to face a number of challenges that will likely surface, in their journey towards young adulthood.

“One of the focuses of all families within the Jehovah’s Witness organisation, is to focus on not just the parents themselves, but to pass on that love of God to children and the key thing is really setting examples. The objective is to let them see in you, in terms of the decisions that you make, the choices that you make as you live your life from day to day, that there is a certain reliance on your creator,” Holford commented.

“Children are impressionable and once the children can see that in their parents who they look to, who they look up to, they tend to follow,” he acknowledged.

Holford further noted that the Convention had select topics designed to reach youth, one of which was the issue of “bullying”, that would also present useful information to go along with the Godly examples being seen.

“All of us would have had to deal with it in some form or fashion, but it is only in recent times that it has become a focus societally, but to deal with bullying courageously, is something that is more geared towards the youth and you will find that throughout the programme, there will be different aspects that will focus specifically on the youth,” Holford stated.

“They have the general need for encouragement that everybody else has, but since they are young, because they are going through the changes that will lead them into adulthood and we all know how difficult that is, you have to focus on them. So we have found over the years that because we do take time to address the needs of the young ones… we find that the young ones tend to come and take in the information and allow themselves to benefit from it,” Holford indicated. (RSM)