Lord, Did You Say What You Have Joined….

Dear Father,

We need you in our village very quickly. For what, my son? Father, it is because of some of your commandments ah. The thing that is happening in this village is not easy. People are killing each other over your commandments, while others have turned your commandments outside down and inside out to suit themselves and it has started causing some serious problems already.

Which one of the commandments are you talking about, son? Father, I am talking about the one that has to do with this marriage business here. Didn’t you say, what God has joined together let no man set asunder, (that means set apart)?

Yes, my son, so what are the people saying in your village? Father, the people say it doesn’t matter, when a man and a woman are joined together. They say that the mean time sef they suppose to eat so and eat so-meaning they have the license to eat anywhere knowing well there is only one person recognized by law to bear the responsibility of the consequences to be caused by their eating anywhere.

Father, one other woman told me the other day that if you are married and eating outside it doesn’t mean the other person is setting you and your partner asunder. She said it just means that the other person is only helping your partner.

She said setting asunder as you warned means, coming in the home to break it, but once you are just eating something and not breaking apart, it is not setting asunder. Is that what your friend really said my son? Yes, Father. In this village everybody is eating somebody.

Tell me something my son, what is bringing about all these things in your village? Huh, Father, I don’t know oo. But the thing na get so rampant, it is all over the place. It is very easy nowadays in our village to see a married person loving to another married person. Homes are breaking by the day and the biggest discussion among our young ladies nowadays is how the husband has found a new girlfriend that has taken all his time.

Father, when it comes to girlfriend and boyfriend business in this village it na fund. The other day one man caught his wife with another man, Father, the man didn’t waste no time he went and butchered his wife and nearly killed the boy friend.

Umm, I know the place that other guy is when he move from there he will never follow anybody woman again. Common girl friend sef belonging to another person, he will run. Yes, oh, Father because the thing that missed him, he must really pray hard oh.

But tell me something Father, why do people cheat? My son, it is because of greed and lack of satisfaction. Okay, let look at young people like you. You young, you have not experience anything about life yet to the fullest, then you see one young girl inexperienced like you, both of you go and get marry. Few months later you see something you really like and think she is the right and that what you have is not. So what do you do, you start cheating and sleeping out. The same with the young girls, they too soon realized that the one they are coming across is much better than what they have so they have to cut their own corners.

Father, I agreed for the young ones, but what about the older people in their late 50(s) and 60(s) you see the ring on their fingers but yet they are sleeping with each other? It is greed, and lost, my son. Men are difficult to be satisfied.

Father, I remembered one pastor told me the other day that there is a promiscuous spirit in our village that no matter how decent you are once you come into this village you must join the eating so, eating so thing. Is that true?

No, my son, it is the high degree of poverty in this village that is causing all of this. The level of poverty in your village is too high. So, the few who get take advantage of the majority who don’t have. Look in most homes today it is the little girls who are running the homes. Parents are not working that is if they are alive. They have to take care of their little brothers and sisters. And if they have a boyfriend of their age group who is not working there must be one or two sugar daddies to bring in money for family supports.

My son, it is not that they like to do it, but it is the responsibility they now shoulder. And one boyfriend cannot bear that responsibility.

So, you mean society is also responsible for the level of promiscuity in our village? To some extent, yes, my son.  But like I said the desire to have more is also part of the problem-young girls wanting to get things quick is also another problem. Maybe the boyfriend they so love cannot provide their needs, so they have to tip-toes on him to get another person who has more to chip in. And when this happened, they are no different from the girls who walk on the streets at night as commercial sex workers because they are also trading for money.

So it is with marry people, some of the women hustle to add up the home keep money, especially those of them that are not working.