What Do Spouses Need to Do to Have Good and Healthy Children?
Children need to be taught both by their parents and spiritual parents about the fear of God, faith, mercy, humbleness and obedience to the Holy Scripture. They need to be taught from a young age about fasting, prayer, confession and piety towards the poor and respect for all people.
Parents who want good, wise and healthy children, need to offer them an example of kindness, faith, obedience to the Church and God. Because children are actually “copies” of their parents. They act as they see and hear their parents act.
Children education starts from the moment when their parents get married, meaning from the moment of conception. In order to have wise and faithful children, parents need to pray, to go to church, to respect fasting days and confess their sins, to respect the red letter days, to be merciful and kind, humble and filled with divine love. Spouses need to refrain and respect fasting and holidays and not to use devilish methods in order to avoid having babies.
The greatest sin of spouses is abortion, or infanticide. Children conceived in holidays, days of fasting, after an abortion or children conceived under the influence of alcoholic drinks are usually disabled. Parents who use contraceptive methods are not allowed to partake for two years with the Holy Mysteries and sometimes God punishes them through mental illnesses.
After the birth of their child, parents need to take care, more than anything of their children education. First of all, they should find good Christian godfathers for their children. Then, they need to bring them to church, to partake them with the Holy Mysteries, to teach them prayers and kind things, and avoid deceiving them through their acts, because this is a great sin that may have terrible consequences in the life of children. Most of them develop a bad character because of the sins they have learned from their parents since childhood. Also, children need to be taught both by their parents and spiritual parents about the fear of God, faith, mercy, humbleness and obedience to the Holy Scripture. They need to be taught from a young age about fasting, prayer, confession and piety towards the poor and respect for all people. Prayer, good books, respect to their parents, the fear of God and the personal example offered by parents is the most successful method of children education.
(Translation from: Părintele Ilie Cleopa, Lumina şi faptele credinţei, Editura Doxologia, pp. 138-139)
