How can parents cultivate a relationship between God and their children? Fr. Timothy Pavlatos, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a nationally certified counselor, speaks with Emmy Louvaris in the podcast to tell us how. They discuss how modeling forgiveness, trust, repentance, and love makes all the difference. Here is a brief excerpt from this interview:

“The important thing is that we really need to teach our children from a very early age how to be dependent on God – how to seek God’s help. I find that really comes by example – the example that my wife and I set. When we dialogue with our children if there is something they are struggling with in life – maybe with one of their siblings or something at school or some friends in the neighborhood or whatever it might be – it really is an opportunity to teach them to seek God’s help primarily through prayer and talking about that with them. And so from a very early age, we teach them to turn to God, in times of need or in times of trouble or whatever the case may be.

We are starting to cultivate in them this idea and this reality that they can always turn to God in prayer to seek His help… We know that we are relational beings like the Trinity. We are created in their image and so we are created to relate not only to our Father in heaven but also to each other. This is all a part of teaching our children how to relate to others. It’s an opportunity to relate to God, to their siblings, to people around them through prayer and dialogue. This is just a natural part of life. Children are going to be relating to others all the time and we want to help them realize this is something they can do with God.”

Orthodox Family & Faith is a collaboration between the Archdiocese Center for Family Care and the Orthodox Christian Network and can be accessed at www.myocn.net.