How do you value them?

We were brought up in a culture where we felt valued based on school performance.  To make it worse the 8-4-4 system does not help much.  It was about what number you were at the end of the term that determined how holidays were going to be for you. Worse still, this brought with it rivalry among brothers and sisters’ because those who performed better walked around the house feeling a little proud than the others, and what were the others left to feel?

Did the society help? NO! They would always ask, what number were you? Actually the entire village decides if you were to amount to anything or not depending on your school performance. Oh and need I say, they would take this further to decide if you picked up your mothers genes or your fathers. Depending on who was sharp and who was foolish.

Well, I have a different thinking. I believe that God created each one of us for a purpose. Well, you don’t get to hear that much and the school systems sometimes do not help us. I am not sure that God created any one of us to be a liability – we are all special to Him with a clear and specific mandate.

When I was in high school, (boarding) there were a few times that I did not make it to go for mid-term because those who did not perform well in school, were denied the chance to be with their families! – How bad could that get? Oh and the excuse was that we needed to stay on school and read.

Okay- so literally a bunch of fools were left in school to help themselves. I can assure you, we did nothing close to that. We rebelled- we enjoyed life, we slept for long hours, we ate the good food because the kitchen was cooking for a few fools and therefore the food tasted better and we loved it.

But I remember once of those times, one teacher during a Christina Union meeting (yes we prayed) told us, God can turn what people call failure into something. She was Mrs Mwangi- never to forget, because her words literally lifted me up from some pit of despair, and for once, I knew my life would count.

Well, today I am Gender and Human rights advisor employed by the UN and working for the government. Not that it is the epitome of greatness and I am not saying that to brag, but I needed to let us know that we all can be something at the end of the day. And that something should be defined by God.  I love my job, I like to assist women, men, boys and girls. I am amazed at how my brain has opened up to gender and human rights issues, I wish that was taught in school , maybe I would have performed better and not gone through he agony of being separated from my family.

So parents- lets be careful of how we value of our children. The society and school system do not help, let’s not make it worse. And if you read this blog, kindly never ask any of my children what number they were in school, please do not measure them on school performance. Because they are more than that, they have awesome unique qualities and character that is destined to  change this world, God will help them discover them and we are trying as much as we can to partner with God in that. We are also hoping that we can get into a system that will nature their gifts rather than kill them.