2023-08-27_1st Service_Parenting. - The 4 Ps of parenting and the 5th P With Sir. Mbindiyo John Kimeu.

The four P's of parenting and the fifth P.

Sam Bindiyo has been married for 29 years and, together with his lovely wife, they have been blessed with four children and a daughter-in-law Congregation.

Let us welcome Sam Bindiyo, john Kimmel.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Let's appreciate our speaker as he come up here.

We thank God for him.

He is also another and the books.

One of the books is about parenting and it be available after the service at the table there, so you are welcome to buy.

Let's pray.

Almighty God, we want to come before you this morning.

We want to thank you for this opportunity that you're giving us to hear about your word.

Lord.

I commend the speaker before you.

I commend the congregation.

Lord, help our ears to listen and even to understand.

Holy Spirit, come and minister, come and take charge, as your speaker is sharing, so that you can all be able to understand, and even impactful.

Dear God, we thank you, lord, and we bless you.

In Jesus' name.

We pray and believe.

Amen amen, amen, amen.

Please help me appreciate Pastor Sue.

So she has done quite a lot of work.

We were sharing earlier and just being Pastor for 29 years and Pastoring children, and then they bring their children.

Wow, that's Pastoring generations, isn't it?

Yeah, let's go ahead and appreciate her.

Praise God, paki, you know it's amazing to be up here because I watch this on TV.

I'm on YouTube most Sundays.

Pastor Simon, I have a liking for the church.

Part of my family comes here.

I like your prison worship team Band.

I appreciate we can appreciate the band.

Your band is just.

Your band is on Sunday after Sunday.

Yeah, I appreciate you guys and just to say what an honor it is to be here, it's quite an honor.

Your senior pastor happens to be a friend and neighbor with a village meet.

His house looks down upon my house and I guess a lot of prayers are exchanged back and forth.

Pastor Simon, god bless, we honor you.

I've been following Paki from Ojijo road days until here.

You put up such a lovely sanctuary.

It's a blessing to be here.

Great singing from the children Wasn't that nice?

Out of pure hearts, the poems they shared, the testimonies they shared.

You know, I think I need the child who said he was delivered from exam disease to come to some of our children, because during exams people are just sick.

I think he needs to be the one laying hands on others today when they pray for their candidates, isn't it?

I want to appreciate your moderator faith.

I know she's not here today she mentioned she's visiting another church but she was able to hook me up with your senior pastor and we started conversations where parenting is concerned and this led to this, and also my brother AK.

I appreciate your hookups and connections.

I'm going to be speaking about the call of parenting and before some of you walk out you know you could be seated, but you walked out Let me just say the principles are the same for mentoring, they are the same for relationships, and so please hang around and stay with me.

But more than that, we are told that it takes a village to raise up a child, and I can tell you our village today is not what it used to be.

Unfortunately, it's not what it used to be.

We have parents that are juggling too many balls, including our neighbors, including our villagemates, and some balls may fall, but something else that's going to help us a lot is going to be knowledge.

Everybody say knowledge.

It helps to just have knowledge.

Hosea 4.6 tells us that my people perish because of lack of knowledge.

It's interesting how, before you get married, there is premarital classes, but no one has pre-children classes.

Hello, neither do your children.

Come with trailers.

Ok, you know the way you can watch a trailer for a movie and you can tell this child is an action child.

Let's get ready.

Oh, this one is quiet.

You don't have that.

So it does help for us to sit under teaching and sit under those who've gone before us, to be able to just lean on what they are sharing with us Now, in the words of Les Sober.

Les Sober, a lawyer and was former president George Bush advisor.

Listen to what he said.

He said parenting is the most demanding job on the planet and that's why we need one another.

Parenting is the most demanding job on the planet and we need one another to be able to just go through this and help each other.

And so I'll be speaking about the four piece of parenting and the fifth piece, trying to get my advance on OK, ok Technology.

It one day even failed on Bill Gates.

So who am I?

Let me introduce you to my family because somebody, john Maxwell, said that if a man has no followers, he's just taking a walk.

I'm not just taking a walk.

That's my family right there my wife of 29 years, myself, our son David.

David's a mechanical engineer in Germany.

That's his wife, michelle.

Michelle is from India and my brother we could be relatives, who knows?

And I thank God for that.

And we grew up in Ghana with Indians as our neighbors, and I probably could have married an Indian, but I don't think that was time yet.

But David, low and behold, brought us an Indian girl.

They are Christians with the parents and we thank God for them.

They live in Germany and work in Germany.

Now our other daughter on the right is it right or left of David just finished law school University of Nairobi and is already engaging with a senior law firm, and we thank God for that open door.

The other one is in Form 4 this year, the one with a lot of hair.

She's called Nehma.

So there's David Amanda Nehma.

We had two children.

We thought, fine, thank God, that's enough.

And then Nehma just showed up and I comforted my wife and I said listen, we are married.

So she came up and we didn't know what to call her.

We called her Nehma, the grace of God.

Now, after another time, another one shows up and now she's totally confused.

On top of it, our society today does not help you.

They were asking her again and it's like if you don't have anything else to do, it's just bearing children.

I think she hate this pregnancy.

I can say all this because I know she's not here.

She's coming for the second service.

You have to be smarter.

So when this other one showed up, we didn't even know what to call her.

But the day she was being born there was a lot of joy.

I see my sister in the congregation, agnes.

Agnes knows what happened that day.

There was a lot of joy in the room and we said let's call her Joy.

Anthony had gone to the Mara even when we needed him later on to pray for another day.

So that's my family and I thank God for them.

They validate me a lot.

They validate me a lot.

I will have to use my PowerPoint here because it looks like what I'm using is not working, but let's appreciate the media team also on that end.

I really thank God for your guys.

So I'll be speaking on the four Ps of parenting, on the fifth P, and I will start by saying this Parenting is preparing your children to leave home.

I'll repeat that Parenting is preparing your children to leave home.

That was said by Dr James Dobson, president and founder of Focus on Family.

If you're a parent, look for materials from him.

They will help you.

And please notice the word leave L-E-A-V-E Is not L-I-V-E.

Are we together?

The word leave is not L-I-V-E, though they sound the same.

So parenting is preparing your children to L-E-A-V-E home.

They must left the group To Koppomoja.

This is the only left thing.

You don't have to feel bad.

You should be prepared for it.

So when you see left the group, you should be OK.

You know, when our son left the group, we were used to still communicating before he got married.

When he got married he told us you guys are forgetting.

I am no longer your nuclear family.

We said OK, ok, he's left the group.

We have to understand that, sadly, most parents, instead of preparing their children for the world, they are preparing the world for the children.

We work so hard and prepare the world for the children and guess what happens?

By the moment they get into the world, that world has changed and they cannot handle it.

Some of us won't feed them.

We have bought them things.

We've bought them to the point that even when they leave their homes and go and get married, when things get bad, what happens, kikiwumana?

They go back home, they come back and live in the servants' quarter.

They drive your Mercedes, your Range Rover, and they never worked hard for it.

And you know what happens when you die.

They don't even know how to take care of what you worked so hard to build.

They destroy it within a very short time and there is no legacy left.

It is a sad story and for some of them, even they even cannot wait for you to die.

Hello, you've heard the stories of some place here.

I won't mention the place.

I'm hearing that the mamas are putting steel wool in chakula so that they can kill them, say pole, pole, and then they and the children can go ahead and squander the wealth that he so worked hard for.

So do not prepare the world for the children.

Prepare them instead for the world.

Let them earn their own wealth.

Proverbs 22 and 6 says this train up a child in the way he should go.

When he is old, he will not depart from it.

Interesting Pastor Su and the team have spent a whole week training up these children, but are you doing the same at home?

Yet home is the environment that we really need to train them up in the way that they should go.

You know why?

Because the things that they can learn at home, in an atmosphere of love, the world will teach them harshly if they don't learn it at home.

You know the Swahili saying I see a founswana mamai, a founswana ulimuengu, and I'm telling you, ulimuengu is not good, the teaching of the world is not good.

It's better that we teach them and train them at home.

Now, training is not fun.

It's not fun both to the trainer and the trainee.

It takes work, it is hard work.

Is there anyone here who enjoys training?

Let me show you hands that.

It's in the morning.

It's time to go and train, it's time to go and jog, and you're like, wow, yeah, it's even raining, nice day.

I'm going for training, or we're going for training in Naivasha.

I hated those trainings, by the way, because they took a lot of time.

They took my time, they took my selling time.

I was in a selling career and there were targets, and if you didn't meet the targets, people didn't care whether you were in training or not, but what does training do for us?

It makes us better, isn't it?

We sharpen our tools and we can be able to use them much better.

The four P's of parenting and the fifth P.

The first one is presence.

Everybody say presence.

Can I hear you out loud?

I'm about to ask, like that girl who was up here, you didn't drink your tea Presents.

I'll be talking about divine presence firstly, and I'll say this Matthew 18, 20 says this when two or three are gathered and this was the Lord Jesus I am present in their midst.

We need God's presence to be able to parent well.

We need God's presence in our relationship, we need God's presence even in our arc.

And these principles are sharing.

Suddenly, I say that people in the world or other religions do it better.

I've been to our relatives' shops and let me tell you most of our Indian shops.

They don't even begin work without lighting up candles to their gods and inviting the presence of their gods.

They don't begin business without a prayer.

How about us?

Do we invite God's presence in our lives, in our homes, in what we do?

Matthew 16, 11 says this that, lord, you will show me the parts of life, for in your presence.

There is fullness of joy when we have God's presence.

He even directs us into what we should do, what we should not do Exodus 33, 14, and 15.

Moses even said this Lord, we want to embark on this journey that you're leading us into, but, god accept, your presence goes with us.

We will not go, we are not boarding.

Can you be able to say that, lord, unless your presence goes within me, I am not boarding.

So presence is very critical in our parenting journey, inviting God's presence.

Now, the other presence I will speak about is the daily physical presence and parents.

I'm just moving quickly because this that I'm sharing I've been sharing for the last 12 years, speaking, parenting talks, and there's so much that can be shared Daily physical presence, and I will first of all quote from Steve Covey, the man who wrote the book seven habits of highly effective people, feign, and this is what he said the key is not to prioritize your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Parents, let me ask you, what are your priorities?

Is your priority to please your employer?

And I'll tell you something when you're done with your job?

In fact, if you are to die today, you think they will not carry on.

Hello, in fact, there's a guy who applied for a job because he saw in the newspapers somebody's obituary and he wrote to the company and said please don't tell me there's no vacancy.

I saw in your newspapers.

The guy is gone.

Two stories I used to work at one of the motor companies as a salesman and one of our top guys died.

He was a Muslim.

The next day when they were barring him, one of my colleagues was securing his important client.

Life moves on.

Life moves on.

Do you think your colleagues will miss you?

Let me ask you guys, how long does it take for life to move on?

Two weeks, two months, three months?

Nowadays it's even a week.

You're gone today, burial next week, and the guys have moved on.

They've replaced you.

So what are your priorities to your family?

Is your family a priority?

And there's nothing wrong with taking your job seriously, taking your business seriously.

But I think let's put our priorities right.

For some mamas, your chama seems to be a priority.

Now you even have a dress code.

It's going to be denim on black, because you're going for chama and you're away for a whole Saturday or a whole weekend and you're not with your children or coffee dates with your ladies.

Whereas I'm not downplaying the social aspect of life, let us have our priorities right.

Even to your employer, let them know my family is a priority.

I am going to give you what you deserve eight to five, but please, after five, I need to go and be with my family.

I used to pick and drop the children and till today, we pick and drop our children, and any place that I would have an opportunity for a new job, I told them.

I pick and drop my children.

Hello, do you think you can make such bold decisions and tell people these are my priorities and it's important for us to do that?

So remember, the key is not to prioritize your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Life is simple.

Just know what are my priorities God first, my family, business, others, simple, hello.

Deuteronomy, chapter six, verses four to seven, and I like this scripture.

This was Moses saying, and listen to what Moses was saying.

Here, israel, in other words, in today's world, he would be saying listen up, guys, listen up.

The Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

It's like let's set all this.

God is one.

Love the Lord, your God, with all your.

Hello, speak to me, church.

Love the Lord, your God, with all your, with all your and with all your, and then listen to this that Moses told them, and it's easy to memorize, because it's Deuteronomy 6, verse six these commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts, in other words, memorize them.

Pastor Simon, you remember the days of scripture memory and I like what I'm seeing in church and the children, but are we doing this in our homes?

We used to have even those scripture cards from scripture union and would memorize one every day.

Why?

So that these commandments can be in our hearts.

Verses seven Moses was saying impress upon them on your children.

Impress upon them where?

On your children.

And you talk about them?

When you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.

Is that what we're doing, church?

I doubt it, because when we sit at home, what are we doing?

Netflix, you know, we have too many screens now.

What happens on our roads?

When we're driving some parents?

In the morning, you're listening to Mualimu and King Angi, and what's the other guy's name?

Ma'ina Kageni.

I'll tell you something they're paid to talk trash.

Hello, true story.

My brother introduced me to one of those media personalities.

At the time she was earning, I think, 500,000 a month Long time.

And you know what she told us?

I wouldn't mention the name.

I am paid to talk trash, and that's what, thank you, thank you so much.

And that's what our media does, because trash is what sells, nonsense is what sells, but not high principles.

But instead Moses is telling us in Deuteronomy may you be able to impress these things to your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up, in other words, all the time.

The children might not enjoy it, they might not like it, but when they leave home they will appreciate you for it.

We used to have this sign, pastor Simon.

You remember?

Christ is the head of this home, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation.

Do you guys remember those?

And when you walked into those homes, you almost had a reverence for Christ in those homes.

Not anymore.

Now let me tell you what Moses shared here is the principle that makes people successful in life.

It's not even about the education you give them.

Hello, because you can give them education and they end up being top of their career.

But if they don't have character to keep them up there.

What happens?

They will fall down, but when they are grounded, they have character.

These principles, interestingly, are even applied to by people that are not Christians.

And you know what God is faithful?

First to the Jew, then the Gentile.

They are also blessed.

My Indian in laws are always speaking to their children business principles and all that.

The Jews do this powerfully well, and no wonder.

The Jews are small population, a small nation, like in the US I think they're 4 percent of the nation but they're the most powerful In the Forbes list.

They are very wealthy.

I'll just read to you some of the powerful Jews that we have in America.

Does anyone know the label?

Estelle Ordee, ralph Lauren?

You know those?

Let me just read you a few more that are there.

Google, the co-founder is Jew, larry Page.

Facebook, mark Zuckerberg Jew.

Why have they become so powerful and wealthy?

It's because of the principles of talking along the way, impressing them upon your people.

If you can find this book called the Jewish Phenomenon by Stephen Silbiger, it tells you about the principles of how the Jews prosper.

But let's move on to the second P.

The second P is provision.

The second P is what was the first one.

Wow, paki, you don't disappoint.

The first one presents the second provision, provision of spiritual bread and physical bread.

I'll speak about those two.

Now there needs to be understanding that we are a triune being.

We are a three-part being.

We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a.

When you die, that body is what will be buried.

Now you have a soul.

Your soul is your mind and your will and your emotions.

Your soul, your spirit man, is what, when you die, checks out and your body remains lifeless.

Why am I saying all this?

I'm saying all this so that we can understand that we just don't have to concentrate on one part of us.

Now my wife did an exercise one time when we were having a parenting seminar and told parents take out a piece of paper and just write there your spirit, write your soul and your body, and then write your resources of time and do an account.

What do you spend on your spirit person?

What do you spend on your soul, which is education, part of our soul?

How we also spend on our soul is entertainment, movies, going out for parties.

What do you spend on your body?

You will find that on your body you're spending so much You're eating.

You're buying good clothes, isn't it?

You're going for a haircut or a hair salon.

I have four girls in the house, three daughters and one wife, and I can tell you the budget for salon.

My goodness, I think I prefer boys.

You know, boys are cheaper.

It's just haircut, kinozi, and we're good to go.

Hello.

But the spirit person how much do we spend in times of our time and other resources?

We find that we're not spending much, even when our children are concerned.

To the parents who brought your kids for the DVBS God bless you.

Yeah, god bless you, really.

Applause.

That was such an investment.

First, the Salonians 523 says this that's why it's important to God that may God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

If you're from central Kenya, it is Darari.

Hello, I think I like Darari better.

We had a guy in our church who used to say Darari, I'm Darari saved and I like the way he used to say it.

So may God sanctify you, darari.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's important to God that our free part being is whole, and some of us don't have that.

When you're wondering, I have a good job, I have money, I'm eating well, but you're just feeling sick because part of your spirit is not there.

You're actually living dead sometimes when you're walking.

Hello, the third P, important one protection.

Everybody say protection.

The first one was the second.

The third one Eh, pastor, you're a congregation by protection.

I'll talk about deliverance from evil Now.

Proverbs, chapter 2, verses 10 to 22.

Proverbs 2:10–22

And please read that when you do have time.

Quite an important Proverbs.

I'll just begin the start.

And you know my Bible has the top of it.

The title says wisdom for the upright.

And this is how it begins and says my son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, indeed, you will call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding.

And if you look for it, as for silver, and search for it, as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

It goes on and on and I'll look at the end.

Towards the end, it says thus you will walk verses 20, in the ways of the Lord and the ways of good and keep to the parts of righteous, for the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

That chapter speaks about various things we can do for our children to protect them from evil, to be able to understand good company.

Hello, 1 Corinthians 1533 says this that bad company corrupts good morals.

I remember growing up my father warned me of some company I was keeping and my dad told me I don't like that guy, avoid that company.

Today, that guy, the last time I checked, which was about perhaps 8, 8, 10 years ago, was in Isili pushing.

I'm Coco, tanya, push, cut high on drugs.

I'm very glad that my dad cut off that relationship.

You might be here saying that you know your children's friends.

Do you really know your children's company, do you?

The children are keeping company on our gadgets.

Some of them are even communicating with people in Australia or America.

When you think your children are asleep, they're online.

Hello, teachers have told us in schools that they're teaching in class and children are falling asleep.

And you're wondering.

You said goodnight at nine o'clock and woke up the child at five.

Why are they sleeping in class?

They're keeping evil company.

Hello, we must be serious about protecting our children.

John, chapter 10, verses 10,.

John 10:10

Jesus was saying this that the thief comes to steal, to kill.

That is the devil's agenda.

Or do you think that the devil looks at your child and thinks, oh, they are so cute, forget it.

You're the only one who thinks that way, and maybe your friends and neighbors.

The devil just sees that child as a target.

The agendas are real.

The LGBTQIA and I'm hearing there's no plus People are even becoming bold.

They are saying don't call me, she called me a them.

Hello, church Paki, I'm talking about Kenya.

I'm talking about Kenya.

Are we going to stand up and protect our children from such, or will we just watch?

Will we just watch?

We were speaking earlier with Pastor Sue and you know I'm surprised to hear this that their past, their families, that are.

Somebody divorced his wife, then went and remarried another family and still has the audacity because of this arrangement of custody.

You pick one child this week, then the next child the next week and then the same school Parents, even if you get to a place where you're disagreeing with each other, please protect the children from your own domains.

Let's protect them.

They are innocent.

Hello, you know, in our divorce care programs we hear children who are blaming themselves for the parents divorce, only for them later on to realize they had nothing to do with it.

Then they get angry with the parents.

So let's protect our children, let's protect them from bad company.

The third area of protection is protect their dreams and goals.

But I say, fast and foremost, we need to know what the gifts and callings are.

You cannot know what God has called your parents, your children to, until you're spending time with them.

And one other way is to pray for them.

And this is what you need to pray for them that the eyes of the understanding may be enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of God's calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to his mighty power.

Pray that eyes be open.

May your eyes as a parent also be open.

But you need to be present.

You will not figure out your child's gifts and callings if you're not watching.

I'll move on to the fourth P for the sake of time.

The fourth one is praise.

Everybody say praise.

The first one was second.

Third one.

The fourth one we need to praise the children.

You know early on pastors who say they've worked so hard to build a foundation and when the kids come home, you need to affirm them and praise them.

Now, the dictionary definition of praise is this To express warm approval or admiration.

Number two express one's respect and gratitude towards a deity or a person.

It's simple.

Let's express warm approval to our kids when they come in.

Admire them.

You look good, you know you're beautiful.

I actually call my daughters beautiful girl.

You know, before some funny man out there calls them beautiful.

I've called them beautiful so many times.

So that is settled.

They will not be confused by some funny, strange words.

I admire them when they dress up nice.

I admire them, I express approval when they do good things.

I make noise about it.

The fanire 317 says this that the Lord, our God, rejoices over us with singing.

Isn't that amazing that God is there in heaven singing, rejoicing over what you're doing?

How much more us, as parents, rejoicing over our children?

Please rejoice over them with singing.

Finally, praise God.

You know why.

Praise God.

You're a parent, praise God for the position you are in.

Some people have tried and tried and they don't get children.

Hello, for some of us we had to reach.

When we reached number four, my wife said now we need to put a governor, we need to control this, because where it's going I don't think we'll manage.

So praise God for the children.

Sometimes, when I drive them to school and I'm dropping them and I sit in the car while they are going, I watch them and I think, god, I'm so blessed they could have been another man's children.

I just thank God for them.

But praise God more, because fast Corinthians 510 says this and Paul was saying but by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored abundantly, more than all.

Paul didn't take it for granted what he was, but worked hard at it and really worked hard at it.

The fifth P is Papa's.

The fifth P is the first.

One was the second one, the third one, the fourth and the fifth.

Now let me tell you this is the most important and that's why in my book I said I called it the fifth P.

In fact somebody asked me a question why didn't you just call your book the five P's of parenting?

But now you'll see why it's important Our Papa's here or not, and some of us honestly don't even know what our Papa's is, especially for the season we are in.

In growing up, I want to be a pilot, I want to be a doctor.

Then you reach there and you're confused.

Rick Warren, in his book Papa's Driven Life, asks a very fundamental question.

This is what he asked what on earth am I here for?

And many times we need to ask ourselves why am I here?

Hello, what on earth am I here for?

What am I sitting in Parchee for?

Why am I attending this function?

I'm going for.

Romans 11 29 says this that our gifts and our callings are without repentance.

We will make an account for our gifts and calling, so we will make an account for our children.

We will make an account for our friendships and relationships.

Ephesians 1, 18 and 19 use that to pray and say God opened my eyes that I may be able to know what I'm supposed to do.

The other thing we need to know is our purpose of parenting.

Our purpose of parenting, and I'll tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, that window is closing, and it closings in proportion to time, and let's seize that purpose with importance.

Now listen to this modified version of Dr James Dobson quote the hard earlier Parenting is preparing your children to leave home and for eternity.

Let's say it together Parenting is preparing your children to leave home and for eternity.

Now, this was said by my wife.

She modified that quote because we need not only to prepare our children to left the group, but we need to prepare them for eternity.

Eternity is real, guys.

It is real and it's lengthy.

Our time here is very short and it's always good to begin with the end in mind.

Thumbs 90-12 says this Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Today there are even clocks that you can put or watch and set account down timer.

You can say to yourself I want to die at the age of you know like I asked God a certain age and I remember sharing with my brother and my brother is humorous and this is what he said.

But, john, you're going to be a bother if you stay that long.

You know being pushed being.

And I said no, no, no, no, you don't understand.

I'm asking God for long life and healthy life, so I can put a down, a countdown.

And you know what's strange, as you look at it, the clock keeps ticking and it's very, very scary.

I'm telling you, you live with so banness.

If you knew today was your last day on earth, what would you do?

I'm sure you'd be friendly to be everybody.

You'd greet the watchmen.

They'll even be surprised for some of you because you walk with so much entitlement like you live with the things here.

Anyway, god help us.

So the next slide just shows a poster of my book, the cover.

The book was an.

All that and more is contained in the book.

Pastor Ambrose forwarded the book and Anzaya Katsa that has written the parenting manual, the shape of the book that's a family man, wife and a child down in blue, and then a single parent raising up the children.

We do recognize that parenting is a role for each parent and single parents are doing also a great job.

And then the sunset.

They are just telling us time is not on our side.

I'm going to finish with a poem, is that okay?

Do we have time, pastor Su?

One, two minutes.

Pastor Simon, I'm going to finish with a poem, or is it a poem, depending on whether you went to a group of schools or you went to school in a group, and that school, I was told is a polling station.

Some of us went to those polling stations, but anyway, it's a poem, and this poem is called the Dash, and this is what it says.

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years, for that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on Earth.

And now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth, for it matters not how much we own the cars, the house, the cash.

What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.

Are there things that you would like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that can be rearranged If we could slow down enough to consider what's true and real and always try to understand the way other people feel and be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we've never loved before, if we treat each other with respect and, more often, wear a smile, remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read, with your life's actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spend your dash?

Let's pray.

Dear God, I just want to thank you for this family of Paaki.

I want to thank you for those that are here and those that are watching online, those that will be watching maybe another day, another time.

I do ask that, lord, may you help us to refocus our life.

May you help us to understand our calling to be there for each other, but most even for the parents that they will, especially those that need to rearrange their priorities.

I pray for such wisdom and boldness to do so, and God, I just thank you that out of this, greatness shall come forth.

In Jesus' name, I pray, amen and amen, thank you.