August 2006
Models and Examples for Our Children

I would like to follow up with a message to all our faithful adult members as parents and grandparents, which goes along with the message given to our youth in this same monthly publication.

As parents and adult observers of the youth of today we have at one time or another said “What is wrong with these kids today?”

Every generation worries about the generation that comes after them, but today’s young adults and children are facing a world where they are having to make some very tough choices earlier in life than we did when we were their age.  Our responsibility and job is to equip them with the tried and tested tools to help them navigate this world of infinite choices.

Statistics are both encouraging and discouraging.  Teen pregnancy rates are dropping and so is the number of abortions.  Drug use has changed but not dropped.  Unfortunately, our children are being exposed to harmful drugs at an earlier age.  And every Christian parent struggles when a teenager just doesn’t want to come to Church anymore.  However, studies suggest that the most strong, lifelong faith commitments happen before the age of 18.

As I mentioned in the message for our youth, this generation of young people is experiencing wealth and mobility like no other generation before them, and our ability to enforce behavior "because I said so" is rapidly dwindling.  They reject what they hear unless they can see the truth lived out by us as the adults they live with.

We as Orthodox Christians must be willing to do the hard work of embracing our faith as more than simple, exterior, cultural decoration.  Our young people see right through this window-dressing and simply believe that we don’t really believe what we say we believe, unless they see it lived out in our own life.

We must study our faith well enough to have the serious answers to their serious questions.  We must tell our children that God is good and He loves mankind, so that God does not become a detached force, but the positive view of Him as the Holy Trinity.  We must exhibit this same love in the way we lead our life with our children, and all around us, with the love and unity as shown to us in the Holy Trinity.

We must show our love and communion with our Lord so that our children do not see or sense distance or hostility toward God.  We must show that through God we can destroy the obstacles of sin that keep us from a healthy relationship with Him. 

Our faith has so much to offer our children.  Orthodoxy is the fullness of the Christian faith.  Our children today are looking for an authentic faith.  It will not do to tell them “Do as I say, not as I do.”  They are waiting to see if we really believe the things we say and do in Church.  Do we?  Let us be the example and models they need to help them become the creation they were intended to be – the image of God.