By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Sept. 22, GNA – Professor Yayra Bonney, a Counsellor, has urged parents to devote quality time to their children and provide intentional guidance to help them grow into responsible and godly adults.
She said children often understood love through the time parents spent with them rather than material provisions such as clothing, shoes, school items, and other gifts.
Prof. Bonney, speaking on the topic: “Godly parenting as a wife and single mother” said providing children’s material needs alone did not constitute effective parenting.
Prof Bonney was speaking at the Global Evangelical Church, Accra Presbytery Women’s Ministry Rally 2026.
The Rally was on the theme: “Christian Women Empowered to Witness and Live Christ in Every Sphere of Life.”
She said parents needed to spend time with their children, understand their needs, and guide them towards making responsible choices.
Prof. Bonney stressed the importance of discipline in child upbringing, saying parents should not leave children without direction while they concentrated on making money and meeting their material needs.
She said increasing social and economic pressures had contributed to situations where some parents had limited time for their children, making it necessary for them to become more intentional about parenting.
The Counsellor urged parents to teach their children Christian values from an early age and guide them to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
She encouraged parents to teach children modesty in their dressing, use of money, and acquisition of material possessions.
Prof. Bonney said children should understand that there were appropriate stages in life for acquiring certain possessions and should be taught to live within their means.
She questioned the practice of providing children with expensive items beyond their needs, saying such practices could make it difficult for them to appreciate modesty and responsible financial habits.
She urged parents to pray for their children, pray with them, and teach them how to develop their own prayer lives as part of their spiritual upbringing.
Prof. Bonney also called for collective responsibility in raising children, saying parents and the wider community needed to work together and remain attentive to children’s needs.
She said godly parenting required parents to be intentional rather than assuming that providing food, education and material needs was sufficient for proper upbringing.
The Counsellor urged mothers to recognise the importance of their role in shaping the character, values, and spiritual lives of their children.
She said parents should combine love, discipline, prayer, guidance, and personal involvement to help children develop into responsible individuals who could contribute positively to society.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei