Children Learn the Love of God From Their Parents

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

CHILDREN LEARN THE LOVE OF GOD FROM THEIR PARENTS
by Abbot Tryphon

Most Orthodox parents want their children to grow up attending Sunday liturgies and staying active in the life of the Church throughout their lives. Yet few parents demonstrate the importance of having a relationship with God in front of their children. If you do not make God important, neither will your child. Children can see hypocrisy; they know when you are not following through with the teachings of the Church during the week. They hear when you take the Lord's name in vain. They observe when you don't make prayer central to your day. They notice if you only speak of God on Sunday morning.

Making the sign of the cross, lighting candles, and burning incense only on Sunday teaches your children to compartmentalize their faith, thus leaving them defenseless in a world filled with temptations and distractions that lead them away from things of a spiritual nature. If you do not demonstrate the importance of prayer before your children, you will leave them defenseless in a world that hates Christ. Your children need to pray with you, read the Scripture with you, be taught the Faith by you.

If you do not make your home a domestic church, your children will be lost to Christ, and Orthodoxy will not be lived out beyond your own grave in the lives of future members of your family.

[Source: The Morning Offering. Thoughts for Orthodox Christians]

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,

The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George