His message was from one young person to another and was the main item on the programme of the Child Care Board’s National Children’s Service held earlier this month at the Mile-and-a-Quarter Seventh-Day Adventist Church, St Peter.
Attired in his Deighton Griffith Secondary School uniform, Javani Alleyne told his predominantly young listeners they were all flowers in God’s kingdom, as his message – All God’s Children, Flowers In God’s Garden – noted.
“Boys and girls, young people and older adults . . . God has [made] every one of us different and special. Furthermore, we are also created for a purpose. We are truly the flowers of God’s garden. Like the flowers in God’s creation, we each have a scent.
“You see, most flowers give off a sweet scent. This scent can be compared to our actions, our choices and decisions, and the manner in which we conduct ourselves. Yes, this scent can be compared to our attitudes and behaviours,” he preached.
The young lad added that flowers also produced nectar and the nectar “can be compared to the skills, talents and natural abilities God has given us.”
He added that as delicate and beautiful flowers in God’s garden, children must be given every opportunity to use their abilities so their lives become responsible and useful.
“I want to boldly state that there too many children who are growing up in environments that are like dry, rocky malnourished soil. The influences that impact on them are mostly negative and destructive,” he said.
Alleyne asked his listeners to consider the lily, which grows perfect “out of a pond of dirty, filthy water”.
“Boys and girls,” he said, “the point is, you do not have to be a victim of your circumstances. Right now you may be [experiencing] or have experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, feelings of hopelessness and discouragement, but you do not have to be a victim.
“Your trials can become your triumph. Your tests can become your testimony. Your struggles can become your stepping stone. Instead of being a victim, you can be victorious.”
He said, “God did not create young girls to be deflowered, left to experience shame, guilt, depression, sexually transmitted diseases, or unwanted pregnancies. He did not create young men to smoke weed and become unwanted weeds in a beautiful garden.”
Alleyne said each child “has a purpose” and “children are happier, more stable and secure when allowed to grow and flourish in a family with supportive parents”.
He noted, however, “even when God’s original plans become messed up through some of the bad choices, mistakes and circumstances [of adults], God can work with Plan B.
“Single parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, other family members and guardians are also mandated by God to provide the best soil or environment in which to raise us children,” he said.
Alleyne pointed out that “a flower can never realize its true beauty and potential without the help of soil, sun and rain”.
“Similarly, we as children can never become all that God has created us to be without planting ourselves in the soil of the Word of God, being watered by the sweet influence of the Holy Spirit and turning our hearts to Jesus Christ, the Son of Man,” he said.
Alleyne also urged parents to give their children back to the Lord.
“Today I declare that parents have an awesome God-given responsibility to raise us, the children, in the kind of environment that is nourished with good examples, stable and secure homes and unconditional love, so that like a flower, we can give off a sweet scent when we conduct ourselves in positive ways,” he told the gathering.
