It is the sacred responsibility of parents to teach their children to pray. Prayer is the basis of communion with God and the root of all virtues. It is an inexhaustible source of vitality, inner strength and spiritual stability. In prayer, God is known as Love. A child who has become accustomed to prayer survives the difficulties of adolescence much more easily, for he has a solid foundation in his soul, which “is Christ.”
It’s wonderful when a baby watches his parents praying from the cradle. A little later, when he gains consciousness, let his mother teach him to make the sign of the cross with his fingers. It is very useful to read two or three prayers over the baby’s crib every morning and evening, making the sign of the cross (“Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice…”, “Angel of Christ”…). As soon as the child begins to master speech, you need to learn the simplest prayers with him, for example: “Lord, have mercy” and “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” When he gets older and is able to stand still for at least a few minutes, you can accustom him to regular prayer in the morning and evening. Until the child learns to read, parents read prayers to him. No matter how busy we are, in the morning we definitely need to find at least 2-3 minutes so that before sending our child to kindergarten or school, stand reverently in front of the icons and slowly read the morning prayer rule that is feasible for him.
Appeal to parents!
Dear parents! Do it slowly, cross yourself reverently. Remember: you are an example for your child. For negligence in God’s work, you will have to pay very seriously later. By the way, given that in almost all modern families the morning is spent in bustle and rush, you can move the daily prayerful commemoration of the living and the dead from morning prayers to evening prayers.
It is very good if the whole family gathers for children’s evening prayer (this can happen if all members are believers, which, alas, is rare in our time). In this case, let all family members read the prayer rule one by one, starting with the eldest. Initially, the meaning of even the simplest prayers may not be entirely clear to the child, but prayers addressed to God with the request: “Lord, help dad”, “Lord, help mom and grandmother” will be quite understandable and close to him. It is very useful to ask for mutual forgiveness at the end of prayers; if there are several children, let them ask each other for forgiveness before going to bed, then the parents, and then the parents from the children (which is very useful for maintaining general peace in the family). It is especially recommended to pray in the evening in the dark with a lit lamp in front of the icon. Its colored light brings calm and peace to a child’s soul. Unfortunately, the modern “television” generation of children is stuffed with impressions of cartoons of dubious content, horror films with murder scenes and outrageous monsters. This cannot but affect concentration in prayer. Therefore, in those families where it is not possible to completely abandon TV, in order for the child’s feelings to come into proper silence and calm, at least an hour must pass between the last viewing of TV and evening prayer.
It is difficult to talk about the duration of the prayer rule for a child. It depends greatly on his age and his prayerful temperament. Dear parents, do not be upset if your children are not able to withstand long (more than 3 minutes) prayers. In prayer, it is not volume that is important, but sincerity and regularity. The purpose of daily prayers is to develop in the child the need to talk with God. Having become accustomed to prayer, the child himself will continue it in kindergarten, on the street, in his crib, and in all necessary cases he will find simple children’s words with which he will turn to the Lord God.
The life of an Orthodox family should be permeated with prayer. Let prayer be performed before and after meals, before all serious events in the life of the family, such as: departures of the entire family or individual members, the first departure of the child to kindergarten or school, exams, moving from apartment to apartment, before going to the hospital, etc.
The harmonious religious education of a child is formed not only on the basis of prayer, but also by daily contact with the Word God’s. From an early age, it is necessary to acquaint children with the main events of the Sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, and later with the texts of the Holy Scriptures. Parents! Remember: children raised in the Orthodox spirit are the best prayer books for you both during your earthly life and after death.
Priest Nikita Zabolotnov: Start praying with your child. Let this be a family affair, where everyone – both big and small – gathers together before God. If the family lives with the grandmother, you can stand together with the grandmother and pray. This should not be a long prayer rule — reading canons, akathists, morning and evening rules. This should be a special small family prayer, with a special rule, depending on the age of the children.
It is very important to explain the meaning of the main prayers, that is, what we are praying for. Here problems and difficulties may arise for the parents themselves, because sometimes you ask: what is in this prayer, what are we praying for? And it turns out that a person does not understand, for example, some sin that he repents of every day during the evening rule: “money-raising” or something else. Well, you’re supposed to read, so I read. And who will figure it out, who will recognize and understand what it is? And so we need to first figure it out ourselves, and then tell our children about it. If it’s difficult, you can look at the Russian translation of the prayers — there are quite a lot of them, or go up to the priest at the parish and ask him to tell him: “Father, what is this prayer talking about, and what is the main thing here, and what does this mean?” The priest will tell you, and you will share your experience with your child.
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