99. Малое деревцо

We see that the small tree bends comfortably to any side: wherever it bends, it grows. So is a young and small boy: what he learns, he gets used to, and what he gets used to, he will create at other times. If he learns goodness in his youth, he will be good all his life. If he learns evil, he will be evil throughout his life. And from the little youth there may be an Angel, and there may also be a devil. Whatever upbringing and instruction he has, so it will be. The rest of one’s life depends on upbringing, like a fruit on a seed. Therefore, God’s word exhorts parents: “But bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). And in the parables of Solomon it is written: “Whoever spares his rod hates his son; and whoever loves, he... punishes him diligently" (Prov. 13:25). Many teach their children secular etiquette; others teach foreign languages, French, German, Italian, and allocate considerable sums for this; others try to teach merchants and other arts. Hardly anyone teaches children to live in a Christian way. And without this, all science is nothing and all wisdom is nothing. riot. What is the use for a Christian to speak Italian, French, or German, but live godlessly? What is the use of being skilled in merchants and arts, but not having the fear of God? Such artists and sages are worse than unskilled simpletons. A young heart, as prone to evil, strives for any evil if it does not refrain from the fear of God and the bridle of punishment. And even more so those who sharpen their minds with sciences and arts, but do not correct their will, are skilled at everything bad, and they themselves show examples of this. Therefore, Christian, let your first effort be to teach your children to live like a Christian. All your teaching and instruction are nothing without it. God will not demand from you whether you taught your children secular etiquette and foreign languages, but He will demand whether you taught them to live in a Christian way, whether you instructed them in piety. Woe to young children who have evil fathers! What can they learn from them other than evil? For how can an evil person teach good? Although it happens that an evil father punishes his children for self-will, he teaches him with his temptations. Young people learn more from actions than from words and punishment. Hence it happens that if fathers are bad, children are worse, and grandchildren are even worse. And so a poor man, having learned and become accustomed to evil, is filled with wickedness as with bread, and from evil to evil and from lawlessness to lawlessness, and strives for destruction, like a stone thrown down from the top of a mountain. And although it happens that some of these recognize their misfortune and death, and shudder, and are horrified, and begin to repent, they are drawn by habit, like a rope, to wickedness. This evil comes from evil upbringing. Woe to the young children. But the worst woe is for fathers, who not only do not teach their children good, but with their temptations give rise to all kinds of evil! Such fathers kill not the bodies, but the souls of Christians for whom Christ died, and deprive them not of temporary, but of eternal life. They will recognize this terrible misfortune of theirs where everything will be revealed, and his deeds will appear before everyone’s eyes. Therefore, fathers, in whom there is a spark of piety, should try in every possible way to teach their children to live like Christians, and pour the milk of piety into their young hearts, “so that from it you may grow to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). It is useful to teach the sciences and arts, but it is necessary to teach how to live as a Christian, since all science and art without Christian life are nothing. Pay attention to this, parents, so that the children you have given birth to in the world will not be murderers. The true father is not the one who gave birth, but the one who raised and taught well. He who gave birth gave only to live, but he who raised and taught him well gave him to live well. There are also pagans living in the world, living in darkness and idolatry, worse than the animals themselves. But only Christians live well. Therefore, we are in debt to the fathers who gave birth to us. But the fathers who raised us well and taught us to piety owe an even greater debt, for the fathers who gave birth to us gave birth to temporary life, and the fathers who raised us well and taught us to piety give birth to eternal life. Blessed is he who does good and teaches good (See Matthew 5:19). Blessed is the parent who has regenerated his children both to temporary life and to eternal life. A damned parent is one who gave birth to children for temporary life, but closed the door to eternal life for them - either through neglect of good upbringing or through his own temptations. It is better for a person not to be born than to be born and end up in eternal destruction. A small tree, when it is uprooted from the ground, is conveniently uprooted. Likewise, any evil passion, while it has not yet taken root in the heart and has not become old, is easily removed from a person. The great tree is pulled out of the ground inconveniently and with great difficulty, since it has strengthened its roots deep in the ground. So an old passion, deeply rooted in the human heart, is expelled with great inconvenience and difficulty. A lot of work and heroism is required for those who are accustomed to drunkenness in order to free themselves from drunkenness; accustomed to fornication, in order to be freed from fornication; accustomed to the love of money, in order to free themselves from the love of money; accustomed to theft and embezzlement in order to free themselves from theft; accustomed to slander, condemnation and slander, in order to keep their tongues from this; accustomed to swearing, so as not to swear; accustomed to lies, so as not to lie; accustomed to the pomp, pride and vanity of this world, in order to free themselves from this, and so on. Many try to free themselves from the passion in which they are, and repent and cry when they see their misfortune, and over time they lag behind it, but then they turn again. Passion, like a magnet, attracts them to itself. Therefore, Christian, take up arms against your flesh first, while you are still young; Arm yourself against the flesh, which with passions and lusts fights with your soul and wants to kill it. Pluck out passions and lusts from your heart while they are still young and have not grown, so that they do not kill your soul as they grow. These are your first enemies and family, and are always with you, no matter where you are, since they are inside you. They surround your soul, and constantly oppress it, and take away its nobility, and deprive it of sweet freedom. They turn away from God and His holy love. They do not allow His will to be done, to serve and please Him, to create pure and God-pleasing prayer, to meditate on heavenly things, to hear the word of God and bear its fruit, to be nourished and comforted by heavenly, holy and good thoughts, to strive and flow towards eternal and blessed life, as real enemies forbid it. The soul is surrounded by these enemies, and in this darkness, as in a prison, it is imprisoned, and is deprived of its sweet freedom and nobility. “Bring my soul out of prison to confess to Your name. The righteous are waiting for me; until then reward me” (Ps. 142:8). “Remember, O Lord, what happened to us: look and see our reproach” (Prom. 5:1). Put to death these hostile and lawless infants whom your passionate flesh gives birth to. Kill your enemies while they are small, so that they will not kill you when they grow up and become strong. Let them die - may your soul live. Be a fighter and a kicker, not a couch potato. Be a brave warrior against these enemies, and not their subject; their master, not their listener; master, not their slave. Stand against them, and do not give in to them - so that they do not overcome you and take you captive, and do not possess you as a captive. Woe to the soul that these adversaries possess! Obey the Lord, and not them, so that you will be the servant of the Lord, and not theirs. It is impossible to work both for God and passions, and to please God and the passionate flesh; to do both the will of God and the will of one’s flesh according to its lusts, since one is contrary to the other. What God wants, the passionate flesh does not want; and what God does not want, the passionate flesh wants. Renounce your passionate flesh, “and crucify it with its passions and lusts, so that you may be a servant of God and a man of God. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts" (Gal. 5:24). “My soul will live and praise Thee, and Thy destinies will help me. I have gone astray, like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments” (Ps. 119:175–176). “God, come to my help, Lord, strive for my help. Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and put to shame!” ( Ps. 69:2-3 ). You might be interested in: