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Inevitably, these stories involve grandparents, moments of virtue, of relatives, humor, tales of Church events. It tells of heritage, of lineage, of roots. As I get older I am beginning to appreciate this form of story more. I have overheard her telling these stories to her little friends as they played in her room. Rather than forego a story, Beth will beg for a re-run of some oft-told story. It takes the form of “Daddy (or Mommy), tell me a story about when you were a little boy.” This has been going on so long that I am running dry of stories, or so it seems. In our family there is one type of story which is the regular, nightly request. But, we can also do it with stories.Ĭhildren love stories, stories, stories. We do it with a tender kiss and an “I love you” as we leave the room. We do this by mustering patience as our own busy day comes to an end. As was said, we do this primarily by the way we put them to bed. There are many ways to talk to children about God at bedtime.
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It’s a time to be close to each other and to God. This usually includes taking a bath, putting on pajamas, brushing their teeth, kissing everyone in the household goodnight, hearing a story, saying prayers, getting tucked in, and for little ones, a Linus blanket and Teddy for special security. In a similar way, children go to sleep after intricate ceremony. Father Alexander Schmemann spoke of the Eucharist beginning with the long ritual of getting dressed for Church and continuing through the trip to Church and all the beautiful liturgy preceding Communion. This is the liturgy of going to sleep and is not totally unlike other liturgies. Going to sleep for children happens gracefully only within an elaborate ritual. But, hopefully, most nights are more peaceful. It also goes without saying that some nights seem more like thinly veiled chaos. Children are usually tired and sometimes less frenetic. When everything is right, bedtime can be a time when the unconditional love of parent for child is almost tangible. Often stories and prayers at bedtime can be relaxed, non-competitive time with children. One of the more regular times of “Letting the children come” to God is bedtime. Reprinted with permission (entire article can be found here: ) Published originally in Orthodox Family Life, Vol 2 Iss 3, “The Liturgy of Bedtime,” an excerpt from “Talking to Children About God” And may He have mercy on us all and save us. May He grant peace to your children and great joy to you in the process. May He bless you as you then create and carry out that bedtime routine. May God grant you wisdom to know exactly what your children need at bedtime to help them relax and rest in the safety of God’s protection and the Theotokos’ watchful prayers. Speaking to our children about God and leading them to Him on their way to bed during the “bedtime liturgy” is the best way to begin to address nighttime fears. Thus, we will also offer links to ideas of ways to help children face their nighttime fears. We also know from experience that nighttime can be a fearful time for children, so occasionally “the liturgy of bedtime” is still followed by children feeling afraid. To conclude our series, we will begin by offering the following meditation called “the Liturgy of Bedtime.” It reaffirms some of the things that we have discussed in prior posts. Thank you for taking the time to share them! We are sure that your responses have been helpful to the rest of the community as well. We have come to the end of the series, but before we conclude, we wish to once more thank those of you who participated in our survey over the summer! Your myriad of ideas and suggestions were indispensable to us in this project. If you have missed any in the series, you can find it in its entirety on our blog at. We discussed winding down together reasons to read books (as well as suggestions of what books to read) scriptures to share together learning about the saints together singing together and praying together before bed. We have examined so many different aspects of an Orthodox Christian family’s bedtime routine.