Parents’ duty is to do their best in order to develop in their children the taste of a perfect joy, so it doesn’t fade away with the poison of unclean worldly pleasures. These two types of joy are opposed to one another because, as God said “no man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). May that the serene and pure joy of a happy infancy be with our children, even from their cradle. May that love incessantly comfort and tenderness warm their hearts. May that peace and harmony between parents reign in the family as well, so that their serene childhood will not be clouded. When the child will grow up, it is only the memory of his happy childhood, full of love and spiritual joy that will be the pledge of a further bond with God and of the dismissal of all temptations the child will encounter in his life.

(Translated from Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov, Cum să ne creștem copiii: calea spre desăvârșita bucurie, traducere din limba rusă de Lucia Ciornea, Editura Sophia, București, 2005, p. 126)