Thread by @GbengaWemimo

He saw his mother struggle for many years as a believer
She was fed fat with all sorts of junks many peddle as the gospel
Sometimes she would come home with special soap and instructions for her children
Sometimes she would come hope with oju-olongbo (Cat's eyeballs) for them to

swallow in the middle of the night
Sometimes she would take a blade and a substance and put incisions on their bodies
There was a time he suddenly had severe neck pain that lasted for many days
His mother ran to a man who strangled a chicken and cooked it for him to eat for his

recovery
Yet his mother would claim to be a staunch Christian
She would make them commit Scriptures to memory and insist they have to be in church on Sunday
He also watched as his mother's sphere of influence grew steadily through the years
Many of the other women in the church

facing challenges of any kind would come to his mother and his mother would stylishly introduce them to her alternative (Don't tell anybody)
Many people in their church knew what his mother was doing to augment her Christian walk within the church but they all turned a blind eye

It was called applying wisdom
The enemy does not rest, the Bible says he was always roaming about and roaring like a lion seeking whom to devour
Wisdom dictates that one fortify himself or herself against the wiles of the evil one
His mother especially have a saying, "Atakoro wo

inu ado, ko'le mu omo re wo (The one who can escape into a gourd cannot do the same for his or her children)
In essence, she has been fortified and the race was for her to fortify her children against the evil of this world
As a young man, he started dabbling into charms as a

teenager
His father employed a local security man who had a lot of "charms"
There was a girl in his class then that he was infatuated with
He didn't know how to befriend her
He told the security man
The man gave him an object to swallow
The man said it was "Ikiya" (Confidence)

The day after he swallowed the object, he approached the girl and they became friends
It was so easy
He saw the efficacy of the charms and decided that was the way to go
Why struggle through life when that alternative was there for the taking?
He was given something to swallow

when he wanted to start having sex like the other cool guys in their area
The thing makes it easy for girls to say yes to him
He was given something to ward off evil spirits, especially from ladies who steal one's aura through sex
He was given something for his memory, to help

him academically
By the time he graduated from secondary school, he was no longer going to church and he found himself keeping the company of certain types of people whose language and realities match his
His friends had changed, the company he kept had also changed
he met a lady

She was a witch
The herbalist he consults for charms and other spiritual work introduced her to him
The herbalist told him she would be his spirit guide into success because she belonged to the initiates
The herbalist made it known to him that the lady had chosen him and he

shouldn't say no for his own good
The lady was twenty-two years old
He was twenty-five
He took the lady home to his parents
His mother went off on her own consultations and came back saying NO
His mother said she was told the lady was a witch and her son can never marry a witch

in her lifetime
He tried to explain the situation to his mother but his mother wouldn't listen
It became a big issue
One morning, while they were still dragging the issue
He woke up one morning to discover he had gone blind
His mother said it was the lady
The lady said it was his

mother
They started carrying him everywhere
Nothing worked
The lady left him
His mother became weary
He cried himself to sleep every night
He was not given the chance to live the life he had tried as much as possible to prepare himself for
All the spiritualists they consulted

came up with nada
Eventually, he was carried to a grove
The groove was his parent's last resort
He stayed at the grove for six months until he lied to his mother during her visit that they were planning to use him for ritual
He felt they had deliberately abandoned him there
His

mother took him back home
One Sunday evening, at about 5pm, a preacher came to their house
He was a brother in Christ who came to his mother's church to minister
One of the youths told him the family was facing many troubles and brought him over
He was in the room when he heard

the brother's voice
He didn't know the person was a pastor
He only heard the voice and was curious to see the stranger who came into their house
He called aloud to his siblings to come & guide him to the sitting room
When the young pastor saw him, he began to pray in tongues
Just

like that
They had not even been introduced yet
he heard his mother screaming somewhere in the room
He couldn't tell exactly what was going on
He felt two hands on his eyes
He heard the words "Set him free in Jesus name"
Something welled up inside his tummy
It was as hot as fire

He screamed and fainted
A few minutes later, he opened his eyes
He could see as clear as day
His mother was on her knees weeping as if she had been whipped and confessing her sins
The youth that came with the brother was lying prostrate, slain by the spirit
His younger sister was

praying in a strange language and moving about with her eyes closed
It was the last thing he imagined he would see when he regained his sight
He dragged himself to his knees and started to cry
He seriously felt a warmth and power beyond his ability to comprehend
It was as if he

was being cuddled by fire
He told the brother he wanted to give his life to Jesus
The brother led him to Christ
His father also said he wanted to give his life to Christ
The brother led his entire family in a prayer of repentance and restoration
Ironically, he was the same age

with the brother
As they chatted as celebrated the miracles of healing and restoration afterwards, the brother told him a bit of his life story
He realised that at about the same age he started consorting with demons, the brother started received the gift of the Holy Spirit and

started taking his walk with God seriously
While he progressed in works and ways of darkness
The brother progressed in walking in the light
One key factor was the brother's mother
Just as his own mother was influential and used her influence to do "good" by helping church members

who were in distress to apply wisdom
The brother's mother was instrumental in his walk with the Holy Spirit through her own walk with the Holy Spirit
They became close friends
The brother was one of his sponsors when he decided to go to a bible college
The more he got to know

the brother, the more he realized the power of parental influence over a child.

PS: What are your children seeing in you, which path will they tow as they grow? Who are you emulating?
Jesus is the model of eternal life
In HIM is the father's expectations fulfilled for your life