Raising Children

Ὥσπερ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας σωθήσεται ἡ τῶν γονέων ξυνωρὶς, εἰ τῆς τῶν τέκνων ἐπιμελοῖτο ζωῆς· οὕτω καὶ ἐνατίων πειραθήσεται, εἰ ἀμελοίη τῆς ἐκεῖνων φυλακῆς. Γελοῖον γὰρ ἂν εἴη τοὺς μὲν πώλους εὐθὺς ἐκ νεότητος πολλῆς ἀξιοῦσθαι φροντίδπς, καὶ βαδίσματος ἕνεκα καὶ βρώσεως καὶ πόσεως καὶ πάσης εὐθύτητος· ὦν καὶ ἡ τιμὴ εὔωνος, καὶ ἡ χρῆσις σύμμετρος, καὶ ἡ φθορὰ σύντομος· ἀνθρώπους δὲ, οὔς ὁ Θεὸς διέπλασε, καὶ εἰκόνι οἰκείᾳ ἐτίμησε, καὶ πάλιν ἰν' ἑαυτῷ ἀνεπλάσατο καταλιμπάνειν ἀγερώχους, καὶ ὡς ἂν τύχῃ φέρεσθαι πρὸςἂ βούλονται, καὶ ἡ εὐόλισθος νεότης οὐ νοεῖ. Εἰ ταῦτα σοι φαίνεται χρήσιμα, πάσῃ φυλακῇ σεμνότητος ἀσφαλίζου τὰ τέκνα σου. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΤΙϚ Καλλιμακῳ Κομητι Source: Migne PG 78.365b

As by the procreation of children salvation follows for the parents, if they have care for the life of their children, in the same manner the opposite befalls if they neglect such care and guarding. It would be ridiculous that one should hold to every correctness with young horses, in their walking, and then with their food and water, expending great care and anxiety from their first age, for which, however, there is but trivial reward, and common use, and swiftly it perishes, but then one should neglect men to wildness and shamelessness, men whom God shapes and adorns with his own image, and again which He in Himself renews and restores, so that they blindly go to whatever they wish, with no undertsanding of the errors of youth. If these things seem profitable to you, firmly adorn your children with every guard. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 316, To Count Callimachos