My daughter doesn't believe in God. “What if I don’t believe in God?” or what children ask OPK teachers

Hello! My son, Alyoshenka, is 17 years old. Since childhood, we raised him in the Orthodox faith, took him to Church, he even sometimes went to confession, received communion, and attended morning and church service on Sundays. evening service, studied at Sunday School.
But a week ago, I found him on e-book folder “Atheism”, opened it and was horrified by the names alone “God as an illusion”, “Why I’m not a Christian” and the most painful thing for me, as a believer, “Funny Bible”.
I talked to him seriously, but it did not give any results, he directly told me that he is an atheist and has been such since he was 15 years old, and attended Church and Sunday School only so that my husband and I, as he put it, “wouldn’t pester.” My husband too Orthodox Christian Having learned about this, he went to the hospital. However, Alyosha does not admit his guilt in this and says that “everyone should have their own opinion.”
What can be done in this situation?
May the Lord bless you!

Nothing bad happened. Everyone has the right to choose their own path in life.

Leave your son alone, you have no right to impose your opinion on him, it will only get worse, and you will ruin the relationship completely. And you will lose your son for your family.

If faith is so important to you, keep faith for yourself.

He made his choice. And it doesn’t matter whether a person is a believer or not, he can simply be good person. This is the main thing.

You are a mother. So pray to the Lord for your son, so that he will guide your son on the true path and not let him become lost. God teaches humility, but you don’t see it yet. Treat your son as property. What is his fault? Is he a drug addict? Murderer? No. He just wants to live his life. And in your eyes it looks like a crime. Faith is your and your husband's choice, but not your son's. Your task is to pray for your child, but not to force him or impose your point of view on him. And thank God for the child given to you, smart and independent.

You imposed your opinion on him until he got tired of it, the child’s opinion is also an opinion and must be respected, don’t pester him now with such questions, until he begins to hate everything around him, with age he will have other priorities, for now, calm down and wait, there is nothing more left.

The younger generation looks at this world with different eyes, the 21st century. . next century there may be a gap in understanding of religion in general. technology will do its job and human brains will evolve.

Perhaps, with the help of your son, a lesson has been sent to you in order to take you from the level of a simple follower to real expert thinkers. The point is that in modern world Christianity has encountered many other faiths and worldviews, which are often not based on the Bible, and being just a theologian-reader of the Bible is not enough.
In their books, atheists present conclusions based on different sources- science, history, scriptures, observations. To play on equal terms, you should carefully study their reasoning. IN ancient india There were many schools and directions, and they did not hesitate to send spies to each other under the guise of students in order to find out new arguments and find counterarguments in advance and not disgrace themselves in public debates.
So, before you talk to him, you must carefully study the arguments of atheists, otherwise the child will put you in a puddle and strengthen himself even more in the power of atheism.
You need to start with “The God Delusion”, breaking down its arguments and then easily opening the “Funny Bible” and the rest.

Well, that’s the age, don’t misunderstand it. There is a reassessment of values, it may take time, be patient. I think the efforts you made while raising your child in Orthodox faith, will not be in vain. It’s just that now he needs to rethink everything with his adult ideas about everything. Having walked this path on his own, there is a very high probability that he will return to what was originally put into his soul by you. I wish you love, patience and understanding in your communication with your son! Don't worry!

Don't meddle with the child. He has the right to choose to believe him or not. That’s why we didn’t baptize the children; if they need it, they will go to church themselves. That's why I don't like it Orthodox Church, everything is imposed. Here, Baptists do not baptize until a person HIMSELF comes to faith. Over time, your son may decide that he was wrong. And now he is a teenager and has maximalism. If you impose it, atheism will be stable. By the way, since you are a believer, read the book “The Charm of Femininity.” There is a story very similar to yours, only it is not a son, but a husband. And as a result, the husband went to church when his wife stopped forcing faith on him.

And what's wrong with that? The main thing is that there is no one in the sect, and I believe that parents should not interfere on such issues in the life of a child who is already an adult and can easily make his own choice. When he was little, you could go to church with him to pray, etc. . BUT the guy is 17 years old and forcing him to BELIEVE IN GOD is absurd..

Hello, Svetlana!

Your son is naturally gifted with the ability to think with his own brain and not follow the herd. Atheism is like self-belief, God is like an illusion. That's right. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster protect you.

What's all the noise and there's no fight?

In my opinion, you are fanatics and not just Orthodox, since your husband reacts this way and you started demagoguery out of the blue.

Get off the guy, it's his choice.
Moreover, you seem to be violating his personal space by rummaging through his email.
And in general, it seems in the Russian Federation there is even an article about advertising one’s religious views, V in this case their absence.

Give him to a monastery, by force!))) You probably want this.
“Alyosha does not admit his guilt.”...WHAT IS HIS GUILTY? The fact that he has his own opinion? Stop making him feel guilty, it's disgusting.

Leave the guy alone and accept the fact that he has grown up and can choose what to believe in and what not.

The husband ended up in the hospital... and the son... that he killed someone or did something dangerous? The son just has a lack of faith. And that's okay.
This is why I am against the baptism of children in infancy. A person himself must come to God, or be an atheist. This is not the worst thing in life.

Christ is risen!
Here's what I can say about your anxiety:
Youth is the most dangerous (in spiritually) is the time of life, filled with various acute impressions and passions. Therefore, in their youth, many people move away from God - this is probably natural. There's hardly anything you can do about this. Only a few holy saints of God escaped or withstood the temptations of this time of life.

But since you raised your son with God's help(and lead Orthodox image life, I hope), then there is no need to doubt that one day Alyosha will return to the Church. It’s right that you tried to convince him of the fallacy of his current beliefs, of course... This conversation will not pass without a trace for him; one can hope that someday it will emerge in your son’s memory and give its results. However, the time for this has not yet come, it seems. Trust in God, pray for your son, do not insist that he continue to go to church (after all, this on his part in the current situation will only be hypocrisy, and “hypocrisy is worse than unbelief,” as St. Reverend Ambrose Optinsky).
Pray that the Lord will enlighten your son - and everything will work out, with God’s help. By the way, I myself am in a similar situation (someone close to me also “left the Church”) - and I try not to lose heart.
Give my regards to your husband. May he recover quickly and return to church to pray with you for his son! Trials should only strengthen us - remind your husband of this, please. All the best to you!!!

Faith is not in going to church, but in the soul of a person! What difference does it make between an atheist and not an atheist? The main thing is that the person is a good one. After all, there are thousands of examples of believers who are criminals and respectable atheists and vice versa. Don't make sure he goes to church, but make sure he grows up to be a normal person.

Z Hello, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”!

TO Unfortunately, we can witness how our child/teenager loses faith... Hence the question: how should we behave in order to help our child?

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov gives necessary advice, and also helps to understand related issues:

If a child/teenager who was not a church member in childhood wears a cross and prays from time to time as best he can, but does not confess or receive communion, should he be encouraged to do so now?

Do adult children living in sins need to be persuaded to go to church and confess, although they have no such desire?

Perhaps they will feel the grace there and will go to services themselves?

And when an adult child, either because of his own sinfulness or the sinfulness of his parents, who joined the Church late and did not bring him into the Church as a child, remains in various kinds of temptations for many years and, despite the fact that the mother and father now tirelessly pray, there is no visible result , there is no shift in his soul, is it possible to change something in this case?

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov answers:

"H does that mean “loses faith”? The collisions that Dostoevsky describes in “The Teenager” or partly in “The Brothers Karamazov” are rarely experienced by people with such a degree of severity; this is not an everyday reality.

As a rule, we're talking about about the age-related cooling of faith that awaits a teenager during the period of adolescence, often accompanied by the hobbies of the spirit of this age in its various manifestations - from dirty music to dirty literature, and the equally widespread nowadays, mostly cultivated and therefore partly psychologically justified, repulsion from parents authority, which, of course, is in principle determined by the very spirit of modern secular society.

A wise, believing parent will approach this time in the life of his own child with understanding and will not defend his authority by force, but will try to appear higher, as if unaffected by declared nonsense, shocking phrases, that storm in a teacup that teenagers usually produce.

The biggest mistake a parent can make is getting extremely worked up about their son or daughter losing faith, with the implication being: what did we do wrong? With your hands and feet, grab hold of your matured child in order to defend him in your faith.

No, take it more calmly: remember that our Lord and Savior loves your child more than you do, and wants his salvation more than you can wish for, and cares about him in a way that you, with all your efforts, cannot even come close to . Stay close to him as calm and confident Christians, trying in a purely human way during this period not to worsen your relationship with him. And if one day you suddenly hear for the first time: “I won’t go to the liturgy, today is Sunday, I’d better get some sleep,” then not the demand to get up and go to the service with you will be the correct form of reaction, but a sad smile of regret : “Well, freedom goes to the free, heaven goes to the saved, sleep if you want,” and quietly closed door will resonate much more vividly in the heart than something else.

- If your adult child, who was not churched in childhood due to your own lack of churching at that time, wears a cross and from time to time, prays as best he can, but does not confess and does not receive communion, is it necessary to push him to this now?

- T Oh, the fact that he wears a cross is already good; this means, at least, that he does not realize that he is completely alien to the Church. Of course, for every person who is at least a little alien to the Church, we should desire a greater measure of churching. This is a self-evident axiom.

Anyone who goes to Church on Christmas and Easter should wish that he starts going at least on the twelve holidays. To the one who goes to the twelve, so that he, you see, and to Sunday services acquired the skill. For those who fast only during Great Lent, so that they reach the point where other fasts, including Wednesday and Friday, have not been canceled either, even at the beginning of the 21st century.

So there is a large space for our growth from measure to measure, and everyone must go their own way. It certainly is. But there are also some thresholds. In fact, a person who has not yet consciously approached the Sacraments is only near the church fence, even if he was baptized in childhood and wears a cross. Therefore, this is probably the greatest thing that one can wish for him and what one can direct him towards.

However, our task here is not to pronounce the answers, but to pose questions that would not push questions of faith, in other words, the eternity of Heaven, out of sight of our own child.

You cannot dictate to him: “you must do this, you must do that,” but through the nature of our communication with him and not only with him, but also with other family members, with relatives who are already in the Church, through our very behavior, this image of eternity , as well as the relevance and importance of church life for us, must be clearly read.

And this will be something that will not allow our child to brush aside these kinds of questions as unimportant. Therefore, ask questions, but do not dictate the answers - this is, perhaps, how we can help our children who were not churched at an early age.

— Do adult children living in sins need to be persuaded to go to church and confess, although they have no such desire? But maybe they will feel grace there and will go to services themselves?

Let’s assume that under the pressure of tears and his mother’s persuasion, he came there with her, and even approached the cross and the Gospel, feeling her gaze behind his back. He did what was asked of him. But at the same time, he had no desire of his own to repent. He formally listed the most common sins, despite the fact that what lies on the heart remains unspoken.

Such a confession will not bring determination to give up those sins in which he has become stuck. This is a real profanation of the sacrament. And it is much wiser for a Christian mother to pray with faith that the Lord hears her prayers and that they never remain unfulfilled.

Another thing is that these prayers are not fulfilled as quickly as we wish, and not in the same ways as we want: tomorrow the son woke up a different person and entered the church fence already completely pious and churchgoer.

Perhaps his path to the Church will be connected with some life sorrows and trials. And here it is very important that the mother sets an example of kindness for her son. Christian life. If he hears not reproaches and irritation, but sees with what eyes she came from church, or how she really wants to pray at home, or what joy arises in her from abstinence during Lent, then, at some point, he himself will want join this.

- And when an adult child, either because of his own sinfulness or the sinfulness of his parents, who joined the Church late and did not bring him into the Church as a child, remains in various kinds of temptations for many years and, despite the fact that the mother and father now tirelessly pray, there is no visible There is no result, no shift in his soul, is it possible to change something in this case?

— D and, in this case, a clear result may not be visible, but a believer should always know that not only the visible and present result is the fruit of prayer.

The most important thing here is not to dictate to God what it is best for Him to do with our child. And pray: “Lord, give him repentance, when he sins, bring him into the enclosure of Your holy Church, in what ways You know. I don’t know them, if I knew them, I would have done it long ago, but you bring them yourself. Reason - at any cost. And I don’t ask for his well-being, or even health, but I ask only for repentance and for him to become Orthodox person… Which does not mean professionally arranged, happily married, and so on, but simply repentant and believing.”

And the Lord will definitely hear such a courageous prayer to the end, although it will be fulfilled, perhaps, in twenty years, in thirty years, maybe even at the end life path. But we are doing this prayer for eternity. Therefore, the main thing is to understand and accept that if prayer is performed, then—the Gospel does not lie to us—what we ask God for in faith, He gives.”

Hello, Irina!
It is very difficult when a person does not realize, does not understand why the disease was given to us. And illnesses are given for sins, so that through them a person can come to God, which is why the saints spoke about such a serious and painful disease as cancer, that it brings a person to God. But not only cancer and other serious illnesses can lead a person to the Kingdom of Heaven. But they can only if a person treats illnesses correctly: with humility, with patience, and most of all, with gratitude. No one knows God’s providence in relation to your son, and no one knows where he is now. Maybe he had a grudge, he showed it this way, not being a church member. You definitely need to repent that you didn’t initially instill in him the Christian spirit. And now we must pray for him, and be sure to give alms for his soul, so that the Lord will grant him the Kingdom of Heaven.
With God!

Answer

– It seems that today there are all opportunities for religious education children: abundance of literature, Sunday schools and circles in parishes. No one looks askance at believers anymore and considers them “black sheep.” Why then do non-believing teenagers grow up in religious families?

Priest Peter Kolomeytsev

– Firstly, there is spontaneous teenage atheism, when a child’s ideas about God change. the idea is no longer relevant, and adult ideas have not yet been formed. Teenage atheism fits well into the systemic restructuring of all views and attitudes that are observed in adolescence. There's nothing special about it.

There is no need to insist that the teenager retain his previous forms of religiosity, and there is also no need to force him to communicate with peers of his parents. A teenager is interested in the youth environment, so it is ideal if it is formed at a church.

Due to the changes occurring at this age, he strives for independence. He needs a society of people like him in order to actualize his idea of ​​faith in this environment. If parents try to keep a teenager, they seem to be dragging him back into childhood. He is interested in high technology, and his parents give him a tumbler and a stuffed bunny, saying, “Let’s play with you.”

A teenager is interested in the problems of youth culture, he needs to connect it with his faith, so it’s not possible to talk about religion with his parents at all.

Secondly, often mothers and fathers actively oppose the youth environment that surrounds the teenager. It seems to them obviously incompatible with faith. Parents tell the child: you go to church, but under no circumstances pierce your nostril, like Petya.

A teenager who wants to “hang out” in a youth environment faces a rather tough choice: either your environment and surroundings, or your faith. At the same time, parents, with their authority, force them to reject youth culture.

And here there can be two options for the development of events.

The teenager will choose faith, and will happily remain in the “retirement circle”, or will remain with his peers, but in this case he will be shown the door. This means that the parents themselves push the teenager out of the Church.

Because a teenager, as a rule, chooses “get out of here” and is forced to leave the Church. And at the same time he still thinks, poor thing: since I give myself a mohawk and decorate myself with piercings, that means I can no longer confess...

– There are also parishes where people with mohawks and piercings will be accepted. The problem is that a child who has a conflict with his parents resolves it through renunciation of God. Or is that not true?

– The fact of the matter is that it is natural for a child to distance himself from his parents. It is provided for by nature itself, because God says: "Man leave his father". That attachment of a child to his parents, when he shouts “mom” for every reason, is, of course, not eternal. It must end at some point. A natural break occurs.

But parents often try to present this precisely as a break with the Church, and not with them. They force a child to believe that if he behaves “wrongly” while growing up, he automatically becomes an atheist.

We should not forget about the emerging sexuality of a teenager. She moves him, pushes him to more active and dense communication with the opposite sex. And they tell him: since you have This, it means you stopped believing in God. How wild it is!

One lady came to me and asked: “What should I do? I have a daughter." I ask: “Doesn’t go to church, doesn’t take communion?” To this the mother says: “No, on the contrary, I want my daughter not to go to church! But not only does she walk, she also takes communion.” “Why don’t you want her to confess and participate in the sacraments?” – I’m interested.

“And because,” the stern mother tells me, “she has a boyfriend. They spend time together. Besides, she has such-and-such a hairstyle, such-and-such clothes, she wears such-and-such makeup... And I believe that until she has suffered from all this, she should not even come close to the church. And she, imagine, says that she also confesses. I don’t know how to do this, but I want to categorically forbid her from going to church! Because she must live or church life, or non-church. Dot".

I tried to explain to this woman that the Church exists so that a person can improve his life: and not at all so that he gives up everything, goes to a monastery, lives like a hermit monk. The apostle says: “In whatever condition you are called, serve in that.”

The main thing is to bring God into this life of ours, with all its problems, falls, troubles. To figure out what is good and bad in this life with God’s help, how to ask for God’s help, how to find the right guidelines?

And this mother demanded that I forbid her daughter to take communion and go to church. This is a maximalist position: let the daughter swallow the dirt to the fullest. And then, when she gets tired of everything, when she realizes that this has not led to anything good, when she has had a couple of abortions, then let her (so be it!) come and repent.

It turns out that the mother is pushing the child out of the Church with her own hands.

But I know a worse story. Two teenagers - a brother and sister who literally grew up under candlesticks, two favorites of the temple - found themselves in a difficult situation. A mother who was dominant and totalitarian in her judgments and actions played a fatal role in their lives. As a result, the boy developed deviant homosexual behavior, and the girl became addicted to drugs.

It would seem that where God and the Church could help cope with problems during the transitional period for teenagers, while these problems were still in their infancy, the opposite happened. Mom inspired them that for everything This they are deprived of the Church and its help. It turns out that the Church helps those who are doing exceptionally well. And if everything is bad, get out of here.

When there is no love, but only talk

– The power of a parent over a child is close to limitless. A teenager is a dependent creature. On quite legally the parent dictates to him what to do, when to go to church and when not to. The parent has the right to say: I won’t let you in!

- Exactly. It turns out that parents themselves contribute to the child’s leaving the church when they form an attitude towards the Church as a reward. If you behave well, we’ll go to the park to ride the carousel. you will good child- I’ll take you to church to receive communion. If you don’t obey, I’ll punish you, and you won’t see any temple. This position is absolutely wrong.

After all, the main thing in our religious education is to be able to convey to the child the understanding that the Church is his resource. God is his Helper and Patron. And in the Church a person receives help.

But many parents instill in their children one of two opposite attitudes, both equally incorrect. The first is that the Church is a reward for good behavior, prayers read and fasting. The second, opposite, attitude: if you behave badly, I will drag you to church for confession. To the priest, as if for reprisal, so that he would hit you hard.

In one family I observed funny situation. Little boy, apparently, having listened to enough adult conversations, came to an interesting conclusion. He somehow took offense at everyone and exclaimed: “But when I grow up, when I become a priest, I will confess you all!” Do you understand? He was going to take it out on everyone. That is, it is already clear to him from the context that exists in the family that they are calling the priest for execution, sending him to death. Both positions are absolutely wrong.

It seems to me that a teenager leaves the Church, declares himself an unbeliever precisely because he needs help like no one else. And if he was told that the Church is not a helper, on the contrary, he must help the Church accept him, then the logical chain ends with a simple conclusion: I am superfluous here.

– Let’s imagine that everything is relatively safe in the family. Is it possible to predict that problems will arise sooner or later? Are there any other circumstances under the influence of which a teenager will not want to go to church and will declare himself an unbeliever? When does this conflict arise?

– Firstly, there is a phenomenon that all ages are obedient to. This is when words differ from deeds. When a child begins to feel that behind the facade of parental religiosity there are completely non-religious behavior and actions. When they teach one thing, but live differently. When a teenager begins to feel pharisaism and hypocrisy. When he realizes that all talk about love is just talk about love. All this is definitely destroying the world.

Secondly, the situation really changes at the moment when the child has a circle of people that is significant to him, some authorities, reference groups. When a friend appears whose opinion he values, or a whole group of people. Then the teenager faces a painful choice: who to be with? Really with parents who cannot oppose anything to this new influence?

It is important here that parents are able to form in their teenager the right attitude towards changes in his life. They instilled the idea that in any group you can be together and not dissolve, be different. We found arguments and explained that people are strong with their individuality. A teenager must remember: not to dissolve, to have your own view of things - this is valuable, and it is appreciated!

But “otherness,” the preservation of one’s particularity, has a price when a person does not oppose himself to others and does not behave hostilely towards them. This is a serious piece of work - to teach a child not to oppose himself to others and at the same time not to be a conformist.

– Most of the upbringing is done by mothers, who often attach excessive importance to the ritual side of faith. And they don’t have philosophical conversations, including about preserving one’s self, with children. And then they complain that the children have stopped praying...

- Of course, this is a problem, who would argue. But if we want children to understand and spiritual growth, we ourselves must grow above ourselves. And what’s good is that mothers usually don’t care what kind of children they have. It's good that they're even thinking about it. This means that they may be working on themselves.

It is very important to understand and articulate for yourself the purpose of religious education. If you want a teenager to be a Christian, then you don’t have to force him to fast and pray like a monk. It is more important to cultivate certain moral qualities in him. If you don’t want your child to become a Pharisee, then don’t be one yourself.

Why is spiritual sterility dangerous?

– You said that spontaneous atheism is a natural process. Then why do parents panic when a teenager leaves the Church?

“It’s clear why, because he’s a child.” Parent for small child fully and completely responsible. The awareness of their responsibility weighs down many parents in such a way that they cannot free themselves from it all their lives and continue to treat their adult children as subordinates. Not many people understand that from the first day of life a child must be treated as an independent person. And that little by little, with each new day, he needs to be given more and more autonomy.

There is a saying: “a slave is not a pilgrim.” That is, it is absolutely impossible to force someone to pray and go to church. “You can go to church with us, we allow you,” this is what you need to tell your child. The verb “can” itself expands the child’s capabilities, while “must” limits it.

In general, these are common systemic errors in education. You can’t force someone to do their homework, they can’t force them to work, because otherwise you will form the attitude that any work is a punishment, and idleness is a reward. These systemic errors are automatically transferred from general education to religious education.

“But when a child declares himself an unbeliever, he, first of all, has renounced what is dear and valuable to his parents.

– Understand that ideals cannot be imposed. You can only broadcast your ideals and values. I know that in many families where this process occurs without imposition, without total control and complete submission, children often perceive not only the ideals themselves, but also the tastes of their parents, and are even quite proud of it. The system error is also in the form of broadcasting. The child is pushed away from his parents, and not at all from their ideals. But it turns out that pushing away from his parents, from their dictates, he pushes away from everything connected with them.

I know one girl who hated the temple, was ready to spit out Communion and perceived the church as a vile old lady's club. She was forced to rewrite akathists and prayer books that were not published at that time. It was as if she worked as a copyist in a samizdat printing house. And all this was hateful and disgusting for her. Therefore, she decided to spend her youth according to completely different rules. Contrary to that. But then this girl became one of the outstanding Christian poets, a famous art critic, a specialist in iconography and hagiography, a teacher at the seminary, a person who completely consciously accepted God. It happened as soon as whatever she was pushing away passed. And even in such a monstrous form, she managed to educate herself, straighten herself, and overcome.

Attempts to raise a spiritually sterile person are doomed to failure. As such, both atheism and materialism are a kind of religion. Not just a scientific worldview, but a kind of ideology. A child who does not accept an atheistic worldview seeks spirituality. And he can find anything.

If you come across an interesting Hare Krishna on the way, he will become a Hare Krishna. In our time there were Hare Krishnas, later the Moonies and other totalitarian sects appeared. When he got there, the teenager left everything in them: his apartment, his property, and his soul. And if you come across an interesting Wahhabi, then after some time you may see your child among the martyrs.

You understand that the concept of “believer” can be interpreted as broadly as possible? That’s why we tell parents that their child needs to be raised in the Orthodox faith, if only so that he does not become a sectarian. The spiritual nature of man does not tolerate emptiness. The soul must be busy with something.

28.09.2018

My child believes in God...

Father, baptize me... In our village, children run to the Temple on their own, there are those who have not yet been baptized because their parents are against it. Someone’s child has been baptized, but mothers are in every possible way afraid of the development of piety in their children, but then these same parents come to the priest asking why my son smokes or why my daughter has taken the wrong path... Surprisingly, you yourself interfered with the child and interrupted the path to God, that's why he chose a different path.

Is it good or bad that a child is a believer? Basics Orthodox doctrine together with Divine grace they give a person a lot. Are laid in the child best qualities, and the Lord carries this little man in his arms... Until he jumps off, if he jumps off, he leads him by the hand, if he runs away, he holds him when he stumbles, if he falls, he helps him get up, but if the man continues to kick, the Lord lets him go zone of visibility for an independent life, nevertheless protecting him from major disasters, to which he strives in every possible way. This way the movement can continue in one direction or another in an arithmetic progression.

Under normal conditions of raising a Christian, by the age of 20, a boy or girl grows up completely ready for independent life. They are formed as individuals in all respects, these are people who know themselves well, who know how to distinguish good from evil, who know how to forgive, love, who know how to respect, who see the situation clearly and soberly, who do not associate the characteristics of other people with specific person, do not get angry with him, these people know how to live in an evil world, where there is deception, and not only do they not take part in the deception, they clearly see this deception. These are ideal leaders, performers, husbands, wives, because they contain what was laid down by the Creator himself, the higher mind, the loving Father!

What do we have in real life? We grow up completely unprepared to start a family. We don't know ourselves. We don't know how to love and forgive. As a result, in the same 20 years, over the next 10-15 years we study ourselves (up to 30-35 years), the next ten years we learn to forgive and love... (up to 40-45 years). It turns out that only by the age of 45 do we already know everything, but we can still do everything.

So why do universities often admit people up to 35 years of age? But because when you are young, everything is given differently...

Here we go different people at the age of 45 they can be individuals of completely different levels, it’s one thing if a person has been taught the correct and deep things since childhood, and it’s completely different if you learned everything and got into trouble yourself...

Draw your own conclusions: is it bad when a child believes in God or not?

In my opinion, the answer is obvious!

With love and deep respect for you, Priest Nikolai Osipov G.O. Samara