Teach Our Children Well: Lessons From Ina

Boker Tov:
I was looking over some old pictures this morning, pictures that need to go into an ablum. Old friends, many who have gone to be with The Holy One, blessed be He.
One is my friend Ina Omakwu.
Sadly, Mark never got to meet Ina.
I can still see his smile, hear his laugh.

His wife, Sarah was his queen. Their daughters Blessing and Favor his jewels.
Later, they would adopt son, Worthy.I never heard a joke at the expenese of his wife, children, family, friends, even in-laws.

I remember one day someone asked Ina how many kids he had.
Ina answered: "I have no kids. Kids are the offespring of goats. Sarah and I have two children, not goats."
An overreaction?
No. For Ina showed his children the same respect his father showed him as a child.
In a world where children are concerned a bother, a pain, trouble, when raising children is compared to "herding cats" or "being pecked to death by a duck," it was nice to know a father who, while keeping his humour in the raising of his daughters, he also viewed them, not with the eyes of the world, but from Torah.
And when as parents raise our children with the same view, as imperfect as we are, we can indeed, when we release them into the world, we will truly release blessings. For our children will bless the world with the G-d, Torah and goodness we instilled in them.