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Orthodox Christian Parenting, hosted by Faithtree Resources Executive Director (and mom of four!) Michelle Moujaes, is a weekly podcast for parents and grandparents navigating the holy struggle of raising kids in the Orthodox Faith. Each episode offers honesty, encouragement, and practical wisdom from the Church—creating space to exhale, freedom from the pressure to be perfect, and openness to grow as you raise children who are deepening their knowledge and love of Christ.
My daughter tells me straight up that Bible reading is boring. I don't wanna force it and make her resent it more, but I also don't wanna give up.
Tripp Prince:I think there is great wisdom as a parent in letting our children know the things they're saying have actually been heard. I've had a 10 year old daughter in recent years, and I could see a temptation if she said to me, bible reading is boring. The first thing I might wanna do is convince her of all the reasons it's not boring. But what she's saying may actually be true and maybe needs a bit of validation from me to say, yeah. It can be boring.
Tripp Prince:Let's talk about that.
Michelle Moujaes:Welcome to Orthodox Christian Parenting, where we bring the church's timeless wisdom into the everyday chaos of raising kids. I'm Michelle Moujaes, and here's a confession before we get started. I have more than once felt really guilty that that old adage is true. You know, the one that says, we Orthodox Christians love our bible. We just don't read it that often.
Michelle Moujaes:Well, if you can relate, I promise you're not alone. Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that deeply engaging with holy scripture feels suspiciously like homework. It's like a verse to memorize or a worksheet to finish, a box to check off with my kids in our morning routine before we move on with the day. And if I'm honest, most of the time when I approach it this way, it backfires. My kids never came away loving scripture more.
Michelle Moujaes:More often than that, they came away feeling sort of relieved that it was over. If that sounds familiar to you, then today's episode is for you because we're talking about how to help our children genuinely fall in love with holy scripture and to realize its place in our lives, not as an endgame, but as a means to know and love and become more like Jesus Christ. Not something to manage or something to master or check it off, but to love it and to recognize it in the liturgical life of the church. And we are doing that with a guest who thinks about this for his very living in a very particular way, through listening. So today we're talking about, yes, repetition instead of quizzes and story instead of information, but we're really talking about rhythm instead of curriculum.
Michelle Moujaes:We're talking about what our kids are actually hungry for when it comes to Scripture and the word of God and Christ himself and how we as parents might just be getting in our own way. Be sure to download the free digital discussion guide linked in the show notes so that you can take this conversation home to your own family. My guest today is my friend Tripp Prince, who has spent his career trying to help people encounter scripture as something alive rather than something to get through. He spent over a decade in parish ministry before becoming head of content at Dwell, the app that has helped hundreds of thousands of listeners build a daily habit of hearing God's word rather than simply reading it. He holds degrees from Regent College and the Antiochian House of Studies and a doctorate from Natchito House Theological Seminary.
Michelle Moujaes:And now he's continuing his theological studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He and his wife, Rachel, are raising three kids of their own in the North Georgia countryside. So today's conversation isn't just theoretical for Tripp. It's dinner table tested. Tripp, welcome to the podcast.
Tripp Prince:Michelle, it's so good to be with you. Good morning.
Michelle Moujaes:Good morning. Okay. So before we really jump into this beautiful topic that I'm so excited to talk with you about, can you just tell us a little bit about you, your background?
Tripp Prince:I'd be happy to. Yeah. So, my wife, Rachel, and I, we're raising three kids in the church, and so we're invested in today's topic to say the least. It's close to our heart and mind every single day. Like many, I imagine, listening to this or watching this, we are converts to the church.
Tripp Prince:And so this is, sort of a new journey for us, somewhat new. For about ten years, I was an Anglican priest, and so our background's in the English church, English tradition. I currently work for a bible publishing company that creates an app called the Dwell Bible app where we encourage people to listen to Scripture. And it's, I'd say broadly ecumenical in the sense if anyone comes from a tradition where the bible is a part of that tradition, there's a home on dwell for them. And, I've been doing that for about six or seven years now, and, it's a joy to be here.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it. Well, thank you. And, it's an honor to have you here. I know the way that I met you and have grown in relationship with you is through the Dwell app. That's right.
Michelle Moujaes:It is such a beautiful offering. And for someone like me who loves to learn auditorily so I love to read, but I also really love to learn auditorily. I know that Dwell is a place that makes that so easy and somewhat personalized. I listen with the voice of David who's like an older English gentleman, so it makes bible reading come to life for me. But tell us a little bit about the, concept, if you will, about why dwell?
Michelle Moujaes:Like, why did dwell even come into existence that we would be able to hear the bible and listen to the bible? Can you speak to that?
Tripp Prince:It's It's a great question. And we may get into some of this, but it's an interesting concept because as we all know, our phones can be a source of such distraction, such inattentiveness, or we're attentive to all the wrong things. And so phones can be a real challenge in our spiritual lives, our daily lives. And yet the idea of dwell was, could it also be a tool that could have potentially a redemptive purpose even in some small way? And the thing we were drawn to with audio is you can use your phone to access this, and then you can turn your screen off and listen while you're doing other things.
Tripp Prince:And so it kinda gets your eyes off the screen up into the world. And in some ways, it's redeeming a lost practice, a very ancient Christian practice, which is, we kind of take it for granted that we have shelves full of bibles. You know, most of us maybe have a dozen or more. Who knows? And yet for most of Christian history, you would have never owned personally a bible.
Tripp Prince:That's a it's an incredible thought. And so you would have heard it read. You would have heard it read in small, settings. You would have heard it read in the community of the faithful, and that's how Christians received and passed on the tradition of of listening to scripture. And so we thought perhaps in some small way, an app on our phones could help us revive that skill, use a muscle that maybe is dormant a lot of the time for many of us.
Tripp Prince:And so that started in 2017. That was the idea, and it's it's grown really, in exciting ways, and it's been an honor.
Michelle Moujaes:Beautifully. Yes. Yes. And watching all the good work you all are doing is inspiring to organizations like Faith Tree. We love learning and watching all the good work you do.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. So then let me just jump in and ask you. And and maybe this is a bit of a selfish topic for us to talk about, But, actually, I would say no. We did a survey in the last season of this podcast, and parents told us in really resounding numbers, in unison, they wanted to know more about how to help their children engage more deeply in a love for Scripture, not just reading it or making it homework y, and or an item to check off the list, but how can we start to cultivate a love of engaging with Scripture, with our children? And and I know one of the things I've always said is that, I love the Bible.
Michelle Moujaes:Just not that good at reading it all the time. And I think for a lot of us, we kind of fall prey to that where maybe we take it for granted. And so I would just invite you to speak into, like, set our mind straight, which is how should we be thinking about scripture as it plays out in our in our home lives daily?
Tripp Prince:Yeah. Oh, it's such a good question. It's a big question. And so
Michelle Moujaes:I know. Sorry. No pressure.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. Take it take it
Michelle Moujaes:as you will.
Tripp Prince:I love that that we're tackling it and stumbling our way forward, as they say. That's right. As I was thinking about it, I actually grabbed on my shelf over here. I brought some show and tell. I was gonna show you this.
Tripp Prince:I I found the first bible I was ever given. My father gave me this this Bible when I was seven years old. And as a seven year old, without a doubt, this was instantly the nicest thing I owned. It was the fanciest thing I'd ever been given. It had my name etched in the front.
Tripp Prince:You know how they used to do that? I don't recall that before.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tripp Prince:Sure. But, you know, the store would put it in, and and I was just captivated by it. I I remember it's a red letter bible, and I remember the realization that the red letters were the words that Jesus spoke or, you know, that translators believe to be the words of Christ. And I remember reading them aloud and thinking, I'm saying what Jesus said.
Michelle Moujaes:Right.
Tripp Prince:You know, like a seven year old would, you know, assuming he spoke English.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:But, so from a very early age, as an evangelical child, the scriptures were prized in our home and in my heart. And the gift of the evangelical tradition that I came from was a love for the scriptures.
Michelle Moujaes:That's
Tripp Prince:right. And there was an expectation that you you studied them, and you were dutiful in that that calling, and that was really the primary way you encountered God. The idea of a of a quiet time, it was kind of that that's the the bread and butter heart of what you do as a follower of Christ. I think over time, as I grew older, as I lived out my faith, the temptation that I found and many others have found is the Bible can become an end in and of itself. That's right.
Tripp Prince:So so the this book becomes a destination, and my goal is to know more of the bible. This is the word of God. I'm sure you've heard this many many Orthodox people speak about the difference when we say the word of God. What do we mean? And that was an early learning for us coming into the church that my whole life, if someone said, what's the word of God?
Tripp Prince:I would have pointed to this book and said, this is the word of God. Scripture. Scripture. And yet as an Orthodox Christian, we say, well, John's gospel tells us in the beginning was the word, and that the word is the incarnate word, first and foremost. And so the word of God is Christ, and the scriptures then exist to point us to Christ.
Tripp Prince:And so Christ is the end. Christ is the aim. I haven't looked at the front page of this truly in years, but I grabbed it this morning before we talked. And my father wrote a note to seven year old me, and it says, I pray that your love for this book will lead you into a deeper love for Jesus, which is a simple sentiment on the one hand, but it struck me as really profound to what we're talking about. Yes.
Tripp Prince:Our love for scripture leads us it leads us deeper into an encounter of Christ. And so just at a top top level, I would say that's that's the aim for us as parents is how do we help our children encounter our lord Jesus Christ and to see the scriptures as a gift the church has given us, a gift from the community of faithful throughout the years to say, this is a reliable and trustworthy account of our Lord's ministry on earth and of the early days of the church, and it invites us into the great story of salvation. And so that that's kind of opening comments, first things that come to mind.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it. I love it so much, and I can already tell you I love your dad. The heart that he would want to bring and give to his son, seven year old son, this introduction to what is so powerful. So follow that thread with me then, Tripp. We were to want to help cultivate like your dad did kind of this importance with the endgame of knowing Christ and becoming more like him, what would that look like in a home?
Michelle Moujaes:Because one of the questions we got asked a lot and that I I would love the answer to is, what does that look like to make that into something that is living and active and real and not a chore? Because I think that's something a lot of people struggle with is that it's it's as if reading it is not really the focus is not on relationship, but it's on information consumption, if you will. So information versus formation. How how can we make that shift with our children? Do you have thoughts on that?
Tripp Prince:The first thing I would say as a parent is we're invited to help our children embrace the fullness of the faith we've been given. As Orthodox Christians, we need to read the Bible, as members of the church and to help our kids see that the Bible isn't abstracted from the church. Hearing the the scriptures woven into the divine liturgy week in and week out, that's not a separate practice from reading the bible in your home. They're actually very closely related. Their early fathers speak a speak a great length about, the home being a micro ecclesia, you know, the a domestic church.
Tripp Prince:And Saint John Chrysostom said the father is the bishop of the home and kinda really leaned into this idea that what happens in the home is meant to be shaped and informed by the life of the community and vice versa. If you're wondering, how do I do this at home? You can say, well, how do we do it at church? And and so for me, that's a starting point, especially trying to gain the mind of the church as a convert coming into the church to say, I've read the Bible my whole life one way. I've I've thought the Bible is a certain thing, a certain encounter that maybe maybe I've been misguided on, or maybe it's not the full picture, not the whole story.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah.
Tripp Prince:I'll tell you a story. One of the things that's been so helpful to me is to realize Orthodox Christians love the Bible. I know that sounds silly, but as a convert, I kind of had this idea, evangelicals know the Bible really well. And If you grew up as a Baptist, it's like the that the Bible is your thing. And if you came to Orthodoxy, it's because, well, maybe you were missing, the reverence or the beauty or the the communion across centuries, what you know, whatever it may be.
Tripp Prince:I had a a a moment of reconversion to our faith reading the bible as an Orthodox Christian and real I know that sounds novel, but reading these books I'd read my whole life and realizing I don't think I understood what these were. I don't think I knew really how to read the Bible until I was reading it fully in the life of the church. And, I'll I'll give you a silly example. Yes.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes.
Tripp Prince:Years ago, after my grandfather had passed away, my grandmother found a box of love letters he'd written her. And one Thanksgiving, we were gathered as a family and sitting at her table, and she pulled them out, and she started reading them to the grandchildren. It was a very beautiful, very tender moment. And yet about every thirty, sixty seconds, she'd stop reading, and then she would give commentary. She would say, here's why he said that.
Tripp Prince:Here's, what that line means. Here's what we were doing when he said that, and so that's why we went over here in a way that if I was in a secondhand store and found those box of letters randomly, they would have been interesting. They would have been beautiful. I could study them my whole life. I could internalize them, memorize chop them up, give them reference systems.
Tripp Prince:You you you see where I'm going. The whole
Michelle Moujaes:thing. Yes. Yes. Such a good example.
Tripp Prince:But without the family connection, the living life of the family, I only would have understood a part of that. And, again, it's not an invaluable part. It's knowledge of scripture is is to be celebrated, full stop. But the gift within the life of the church is to say we we have that family context. And so if we're reading the Bible at home, if we read the daily readings assigned to the faithful, then we we can read those with the family story a part of it and to kind of see the living organic connection between the two.
Tripp Prince:And so, again, that's that's still maybe a little more abstract. We'll get we'll get, you know, more into the weeds on the ground, but that's been something that's that's been really helpful to to kind of tie the big family story into our family story at home.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that so much. I love that. So what would that look like if you were gonna try and put that into practice where you're sitting around the table and looking at the love letters, which, I mean, that's a great example because really scripture is a love letter, I feel like inviting us into the story of of God. And I would love to know how could we make that practically possible for our children. And is there an age at which we can't do that anymore?
Michelle Moujaes:That's another question.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. That's a that's a really interesting question. The church gives us everything we need. That's been a reassurance to me, and it's very liberating. It takes a lot of the pressure off where, I don't have to wake up and say, gosh.
Tripp Prince:I hope I get it right. I hope as a parent, I I I don't mess this one up.
Michelle Moujaes:If
Tripp Prince:we we receive the gifts that have been given to us and walk faithfully in them, the Lord is faithful to meet us there. And so I'm sure you feel this. Whether you're a lifelong or a convert, our divine liturgies are a feast, so much so that I can leave a Sunday morning and think, I think I received about 3% of what was just prayed. Yeah. The the depth and the way in which the story is woven together and told through reading and through song and through vivid imagery, through through the homily, what you know, whatever it may be.
Tripp Prince:It's what we one of the things we've found is the Sunday invitation really can help shape what you do the rest of the week. And so don't view Sunday liturgy like you're ticking a box where it's like, okay. We we got the sacraments back to our real life.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Right.
Tripp Prince:But what if instead it's like, okay. That could be the lens through which we see the rest of the week. And so Sunday dinner, talk about the homily. Father said this or that. What did you guys think?
Tripp Prince:Did that did that connect with you at all? Just this past Sunday, our priest gave a a beautiful homily about discerning the will of God in seasons where big decisions are required. My daughter just started her senior year of high school and, is thinking about college and all sorts of things, and it's a very natural invitation to connect those dots into her, what she would say, her real life, her her Monday through Saturday, the the questions, the anxiety she carries. Where am I gonna go? Am I gonna get in?
Tripp Prince:Is this grade good enough? Can I afford it? All those kinds of questions say, well, what did father say? How did he open the scriptures and invite us to remember that the Lord, is with us when we're anxious?
Michelle Moujaes:That's actually really beautiful too because that makes attentiveness and presence in the liturgy that much deeper because it becomes part of your rhythm, and you know you're gonna go home and you're gonna share what you experienced. Yeah. That's great. I love it.
Tripp Prince:And it's hard to do, but, even when you can, go to Vespers. Vespers kind of it's a way to prepare for it, to say, I'm gonna show up to church ready. I've already read the verses. Sometimes that's a simple thing we can do. In the car, listen to the readings, on your way to liturgy.
Tripp Prince:Listen to what's going to be read in the service. So when you hear it chanted and maybe a child is tempted to kinda zone out, it's it's hard to lock in sometimes.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:You know? What if they already have it on their mind, and you talk about it the whole way in? Here's the gospel reading. Here's the epistle, whatever it may be. You come
Michelle Moujaes:prepared. Of mind. Know? Yes. Top of mind.
Michelle Moujaes:If you will forgive a a shameless plug, you can do that on Faith Tree has the encounter app too. And so one of the things that we offer on the app are the auditory daily readings, so you can actually listen to it in the car. And we have the liturgical texts as well, so you can really get in and prepare on that drive in and kind of redeem that time. I love it. I love it.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
Michelle Moujaes:Beautiful. Okay. So now you're you're talking about things on Sunday evening, and you're kind of debriefing, which I think is a beautiful a beautiful rhythm to get into. And then as far as do you have devoted family times, is that something where the family sits down and reads scripture together? Is it that you try and encourage your kids to build that into their own daily routine or quiet time, if you will?
Michelle Moujaes:What have you learned in your experience at Dwellin' Otherwise and how to really help children have that connection and love and hunger for Scripture?
Tripp Prince:Well, again, I would I would say my my aim is to to take it one step higher and say, I want my kids to have a love for Christ and to encounter him. And for them to say, I read scripture so that I can know the Lord, so that I can encounter Christ. And that's not a corrective. That's just to say it's so easy to, especially with where some of us have come from, it's so easy to slip back into that and say, okay. I read the Bible.
Tripp Prince:I I ticked that box. Here's here's what I would say. What we have found is small, simple acts of faithfulness go much further than heroic feats that last for a day or two and then fizzle out.
Michelle Moujaes:One of the good, Tripp. It's so good.
Tripp Prince:And and one of the challenges coming into such an ancient and tradition way of being a Christian is you see some heroes of our faith. We didn't have the monastic tradition when I was growing up. And so to learn of the ways in which the monastics have devoted their lives to Christ, to have given themselves so fully, if you aren't careful, if you don't have a wise spiritual father walking you into the church, there's a way in which you can feel really disappointed and despondent because you look at their example and you say, I can't fast like that. I can't read the Psalter, every month without fail. You know?
Tripp Prince:We we sometimes the men's group in church tries to read through the kathismas, and it's an exercise in in our best efforts often come up short. Because we'll start out with a dive in. I'm gonna read them all, and then you miss one day and you miss two, and all of a sudden, you're like, I've got 17 passages to read. And and and that can feel, like a source of shame or guilt. Like, oh, I'm not good enough.
Tripp Prince:I I I can't even read the bible for crying out loud. You know? What what good am I to the lord? And and so I don't want my kids to to have that view of the faith or of the scriptures. And so we've we've tried to say, what's a rule of life that we could actually keep?
Tripp Prince:And we don't keep it perfectly. We as a family, more nights than not, pray evening prayers together in our prayer corner at home every night.
Michelle Moujaes:Great. Love it.
Tripp Prince:We aspire to do it in the mornings as well, but with school and and various things, work, it it's still, to be candid, is a little more aspirational.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:But and we've we've even, at times, in the evening prayers, we've rotated in some passages that I'd love my kids to know by heart. Memorization is not a bad thing just because it's maybe not as native, within our Orthodox context. It's a very holy practice that we should embrace. And so, sometimes we'll choose a chapter from the Psalms, and in the evening prayers, we just read it for a week or two. And it's a way to to kind of just say our kids know this and and have internalized My kids also know more Bible than they realize.
Tripp Prince:I would just say, I grew up the only way I really could tell you if I knew a verse is if I could tell you the reference, if I knew the translation it was in, that sort of thing. If you, as a parent, take your children to church regularly, they will know so much scripture.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:They may not know the reference. It'd be nice to know the reference. That's a good thing. But, they've internalized and I pray, have embraced more than maybe we realize as well. So there's an encouragement with that also.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that so much. There's knowing bible stories, which I think is really important. If if you love someone, you study them. Yeah. Right?
Michelle Moujaes:If you love something, you study it. You wanna know more about it. And so knowing the stories, particularly, you know, I love in the four gospels in the New Testament where we hear really, like, you can feel what it was like to be in the presence of Jesus. So there's that piece. Then there's also the piece that, you know, ties Old Testament to New Testament.
Michelle Moujaes:And when we see so many like, always this is very crass example, so forgive me. But for the for the purposes of so you can know where where I'm going, I would tell my kids, okay. You you think of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Right? You have, like, Iron Man, and you have Captain America, and you have, you know, Wakanda.
Michelle Moujaes:And they're all part of a bigger story.
Tripp Prince:Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:And they're all part of telling the whole story of the MCU. I think scripture is somewhat similar in that you have the whole story. But when you're having those moments and you're standing in your prayer corner with your wife and your children
Tripp Prince:Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Is there a way to do both? Because I'm really good at the bible stories piece. Like, I can tell you what happened with Lazarus, and my kids kinda get that. Where I do feel very shaky, if I'm if I'm gonna be honest with you, is trying to tie all the richness of the entire library of books of the bible together for my children. How would you go about that?
Michelle Moujaes:Or is it just memorizing, you know, a psalm, the fear of, you know, the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and drilling in on that, or is it all of it?
Tripp Prince:I think discernment is needed with the age of your children, where they are at, how much of the story they can can receive. And it's an interesting thought to say the church itself kind of functions as an editor and and tells parts of the story, but not all of it. You know, if you attended every liturgy, of the year, you would still never hear the book of Revelation read. We don't read it in church. And so, similarly, I think if you really exclusively leaned on the readings assigned in the life of the church, you would not know the Old Testament terribly well.
Tripp Prince:Correct. We don't we don't read it liturgically often, and when we do, it's it's selective. It's, you know, Isaiah or the Proverbs or or something like that. And so there is a lot of room for to your to your point, maybe we focus on parts of the story, but for our children to also see how how do I see the whole of the Bible as a single narrative, as a part of this grand story of god's love for his people and his faithfulness to them. This may sound simple, but my children, when they were young, we really enjoyed storybook bibles.
Tripp Prince:Mhmm. Mhmm. There's a way in which many of those help us see that these are not isolated stories, but they're interconnected, and they tell a single story as a part of a whole. And and I think I struggled to see that as a child. I knew all the individual stories, but I didn't know what they had to do with one another.
Michelle Moujaes:With each other. That's right. That's right. To your to your point about storybook bibles, there was a very well known professor at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, and my brother was a student there. He was a seminarian.
Michelle Moujaes:And I remember I was on campus one day visiting him, and I got to meet this scholar. And I just asked him, like, tell me what your favorite version of the Bible is. There's so many. Which is your favorite? He said, buy whichever one's cheapest.
Michelle Moujaes:And I said, what? And he said, just start. That's my point to you. Just start and become more and more familiar with these stories, and then you can layer in knowing how they all fit together. But make it a daily part of your life where you're you're seeking and reading.
Michelle Moujaes:And I thought, well, that's a really good way to look at it.
Tripp Prince:Isn't that a good word? I can spend more time thinking about the Bible than I do ever actually just reading it. That's right. An hour researching. Especially as an Orthodox Christian, we don't have many resources, which if you're of a certain mindset, you'll say, well, I'm gonna go dig up the best one.
Tripp Prince:Which translation as an Orthodox Christian should I read to my kids? And I'll read Reddits and blogs, and two hours later, if I had just spent two hours reading the Bible on my shelf,
Michelle Moujaes:Absolutely. Whichever it
Tripp Prince:soul would have been so much better for it if I'd done that reading it to my kids. And, again, to to your point, don't fret over getting it perfect. Do something and then do the next right thing. That's If you're able to read the Bible to your kids, read the Bible to your kids.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:If you're in the car with your children, instead of putting on top 40, put on the encounter app or the dwell bible app and
Michelle Moujaes:Or the dwell app.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. In the scriptures.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that.
Tripp Prince:And trust that the Lord meets us when we do. It's not on us to all have perfect biblical theology where we can tell them how this gruesome story from Judges ties into, our hope in Christ. There is a way to do that, but don't let that be a deterrent from
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:Reading scripture with your kids. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, that's so good. Alright. Let me ask you this question. We know that whatever we do, our children are watching and typically will follow. So if we're climbing up a mountain, they're gonna climb right pretty close to where we climb.
Michelle Moujaes:What can we do as parents to grow in our own devotion to the practice of I don't know if the word is studying, but reading or engaging regularly with scripture. Is it something where we just make the commitment to go to Orthodox or go to Vespers and start to take it in that way? Is it where we have a small routine where we listen to the dwell bible app and really hear? Is there is there a a best practice that you've seen really help cultivate that love?
Tripp Prince:I would say this. We cannot give our children something we don't have.
Michelle Moujaes:So true.
Tripp Prince:Just at a most fundamental level, really whatever it may be. When I was an Anglican minister, I spent about a decade in family ministry. So day in and day out, I was working with parents, trying to encourage them as they try to disciple their children. And what I often found was this approach to faith where they almost viewed the church at times like some of us would view, hiring a piano teacher for our kids, which is I may not know how to play the piano, but I'd like my kid to know how to play it.
Michelle Moujaes:That's
Tripp Prince:right. So I'm gonna find an expert and tell them, give my kid what they don't have. You know? Go go teach them how to do this thing, and I'll pay you for it, and it's transactional. And then if they don't turn out a great piano player, then you did something wrong.
Michelle Moujaes:That's on you. That's so
Tripp Prince:true. Yeah. And I think without without ever articulating it that way, we can kind of approach the church in similar terms, our faith in similar terms, which is, hey, father. Hey, parish assistant. You you all are the experts.
Tripp Prince:Make my kid a Christian. And if if they don't stick with the faith, they turn 18 and move away and and have left it, the church did something wrong.
Michelle Moujaes:And That's it.
Tripp Prince:That could be true, but I wouldn't be so quick to to cast blame without first taking a good hard look at my own life and my own practices at home. Years ago, I actually, wrote a dissertation, a doctoral dissertation on family catechesis and the transmission of faith from generation to generation. Wow. And what was fascinating is the the stats show that the the children from from across the religious landscape, the children who maintain faith from childhood into adulthood and pass it on to their kids are ones for whom the faith was practiced in intentional and regular ways in their home.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:Church attendance mattered, but it was not a determining factor.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:And it was interesting. Multigenerational input was really important. A grandparent who invests in a grandchild, statistically showed incredible fruit on that child holding to the faith. And I could raise a convert hand here and say many of us who are converts listening or watching this find ourselves in a unique place because, though not all, many of us came from Christian confessions of one stripe or another and found our way into the Orthodox faith and are now kind of a first generation Orthodox family. And yet biologically, we have many people who love Christ and love the Scriptures and seek to deny themselves in his name and to serve faithfully.
Tripp Prince:And I wouldn't be quick to dismiss the gift that that is. Even though we've come from a different place or landed in a different place for example, I have God fearing in laws who I think the world of. They are not Orthodox, but they love our Lord fiercely. And any chance I get, I want them investing in my kids because if they do, my kids love our Lord more because of it and to see that as a gift. And so that's that's maybe a bit of a tangent, but going back to us as parents is to say, you have to model what you want in your children.
Tripp Prince:You have to actually model it. If you want them to have a living relationship with Christ, you must do the same. And I think, again, speaking from a convert angle, years ago, heard a lecture that's always stuck with me. Doctor Bradley Nassif, who you may know, dear dear man, now father Gabriel Nassif, was lecturing at Antiochian Village years ago about the New Testament. And he made an offhand comment, and he said something along these lines.
Tripp Prince:He said, for me personally, I carry a burden for the children of converts because I see a generation being raised in the church that for many of them, they didn't receive the blessing and the gift you converts received from your evangelical heritage. And I think sometimes we're drawn to that which was lacking from wherever we came from. And so Sure. If we came from traditions that didn't have an apostolic connection or a a reverence and a beauty in our worship. Maybe we're drawn to that, but when you're drawn to something, you can't leave the good behind either.
Tripp Prince:And there's a profound goodness that many of us were given in personal conversion, conversion of your personal life to the way of Christ. And I think our children need that, convert or lifelong. Celebrate the gift of the church. Live your life within the ark of the church, but model for your kids that you are also taking your faith seriously, that you are seeking daily conversion to the way of Christ through your practices, through your habits, by what you say yes to, what you say no to. That's great.
Tripp Prince:Scripture reading, but it's broader than that too. Not to get on a tech rant, but a mini a mini tech rabbit trick.
Michelle Moujaes:Do it.
Tripp Prince:From the Lord through Scripture requires presence. It requires attentive. And that means there has to be times when we're truly unplugged. We have to actually unplug ourselves, and our kids need to be unplugged. And so That's right.
Tripp Prince:I'll I'll give you a little example of how I've done this in my own life. I was raised on mister Rogers, which I take a great gift. Innocent innocent early days of television. And if you've ever seen the show, he would start just about every show with a song. And as he's singing, he he swaps his shoes.
Tripp Prince:Do you do you know this scene? Does that ring
Michelle Moujaes:a bell? Absolutely. 100%. Puts on the sweater.
Tripp Prince:His work shoes off, and he puts his play shoes on. And for me as a seven, eight, nine, 10 year old, what it meant was whatever he was doing that I wasn't a part of, now I'm invited in. Now he's present and here for me. And so I took that to heart a little while ago. I work for a digital software company.
Tripp Prince:I've got an Apple Watch on. My phone's over here. During my work hours, I'm really locked in, and I'm not fully attentive. I'll get a work message and then say, hey. Sorry.
Tripp Prince:I gotta take this or, you know, whatever it may be. But when I get, off of work, I come up, and the first thing I do is I take my smartwatch off, and I put an old Casio watch on. And I plug up my phone in the kitchen, and I don't unplug it until the next morning. And for me, it's a little mister Rogers hat tip to say, this is me telling my kids, I'm present now. I'm I'm on your time.
Tripp Prince:I'm here in the home.
Michelle Moujaes:And So good, Tripp.
Tripp Prince:We're gonna be present together. And and I think there's ways to model that to say to your kids, how are you offline? How are you intentionally offline so you can listen to the Lord, so you can be present?
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good. That requires a great deal of energy. I will tell you, my phone is like a long leash for me for sure, and I'm an avid speaker outer against tech. I have a really hard time with a lot of what tech brings to the table. Not a huge fan.
Michelle Moujaes:And I'm very vocal about it. And yet, at the same time, I am stuck with that phone in my hand pretty much all throughout my day. And I I think to myself, how do my kids see that disconnect? There's so much dissonance in the idea of, you know, I just gotta watch it, and there I am. So I think the call out, which is really beautiful is, okay, start with a bite sized chunk and see if you can extend.
Michelle Moujaes:And maybe it's as easy as leaving it in the kitchen plugged in, which will probably take some effort.
Tripp Prince:It made you pop into the kitchen every every now and then just to see if you
Michelle Moujaes:miss something. If something's blowing up. I love that. Yeah. Well, and here's the other thing.
Michelle Moujaes:They'll find us if they need us. Always a way for people to find us. We're not gonna miss anything for too long because news travels pretty quick. Yeah. So I love it, and I love the mister Rogers example.
Michelle Moujaes:Let me ask you this. Is there something, that you might offer for parents as they're building their own rhythms and love and growth in relating to scripture outside of the liturgical life. Like, that is such a that's such a huge call out that the liturgical life really is so full of kind of integrating the two. But for those of us who would wanna learn but feel some intimidation. So for example, you talked about revelation not being, in the divine liturgy.
Michelle Moujaes:I was like, I've never heard that, and I am a lifelong Orthodox. Like, how would we go about growing in our knowledge and understanding? Or or is that even a good target to have? So I'm gonna put both those questions to you.
Tripp Prince:There is a very real sense in which we grow in our life with Christ. I also find the more I learn, I realize
Michelle Moujaes:That was
Tripp Prince:I know. More I have to learn still.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:And so there is maybe a myth of progress in some ways in the sense the deeper I go, the more I realize there this is the rest of my life. There's not an end point. There's not a point at which you say, I now know the Bible. If you say something like that, you've probably fallen into the trap of it being a textbook to slice up and digest. Because if it's an invitation to encounter God who is himself inexhaustible, we will never run out of of insight or the need to to learn more of him or to encounter him in Scripture.
Tripp Prince:I think I would encourage personal Bible reading that is that is not overly privatized. There's a difference in personal and private, and I think that's an important distinction.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, tell me.
Tripp Prince:Well, our Lord is always personal. If you read the gospels, he calls us by name. He heals people individually, but we are always folded into the life of the family. We are not isolated. And I think as Americans, especially, we view ourselves first and foremost as isolated individuals.
Tripp Prince:And then as an individual, I say, here's the groups I'm gonna belong to. Whereas the the story of God, the people of Israel certainly saw it the opposite. You're first and foremost a part of the family, and then within that identity, you gain your personal identity. And so I would I would say, talk to your spiritual father. What is how does your parish study scripture?
Tripp Prince:Our parish does midweek bible studies, several of them. If yours does the same, go to them. Many of them are available online. Online is not a a replacement for face to face communion, but it can be a helpful supplement.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:And, of course, there's books. There's mountains of content and books and ways that help us read the Bible as Orthodox Christians. We have some great publishers within our family that have put together some some really beautiful books at all levels on how to understand the story of the Bible. But I I would say start with your parish family. How does your family read the Bible, and how can you be a part of the family in doing so?
Tripp Prince:It'll save you from a lot of pain. It'll save you from a lot of privatized understandings of the Bible then you may be tempted to act on or think that's how god views me. I I had to un undo a lot of relearning because I had been convinced this verse means that. Because when I read it, that's what my mind tells me it means. Then submit that to the church and say, no.
Tripp Prince:No. No. That's not what it's saying at all. That's not how I'm worried you. And it was liberating to do that.
Tripp Prince:And so in some ways, this is a kindness and a mercy from the church to say, it's not like we're trying to control you. We're trying to keep you
Michelle Moujaes:from heartache. Keep you from
Tripp Prince:places that don't lead to peace, that that lead you astray. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:No. I love that. I love that. And I do see I I haven't thought of the idea of privatized, but I'm the one who's who's interpreting. We're in big trouble.
Michelle Moujaes:So I wouldn't want to spend time, you know, going, oh, well, this is what I think that means. And and it's very easy to do if you are in isolation. That's that's a great word of wisdom. I love it.
Tripp Prince:Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Tell me about repetition. You mentioned that earlier about having your kids over the course of a week or so reading a psalm. So is that is that a reasonable daily practice for us to have our children? And my kids do that in their school or, you know, in their elementary and high school. They do a lot of memorization, but it man, they can recall things and lean on things that I don't know.
Tripp Prince:No. It absolutely is desirable. I'll tell you a funny story. When we first came into the church after a few weeks, the phrase that stood out to me the most was, again and again, we pray to the Lord. Mhmm.
Tripp Prince:And I thought that is a very true sentence because we've just said all these prayers. Coming from a very Western linear way of viewing faith, it's it's like, well, if I said it once, I've done it, and let's move on. And and yet what I've learned within the Orthodox faith is repetition is kind of a key and a clue for us to say we repeat the things that matter most.
Michelle Moujaes:Wow.
Tripp Prince:And we're not afraid of repetition. Our liturgies are not efficient.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. Great.
Tripp Prince:You know, in in that kind of traditional American way of thinking, let's just get to brass tacks and, you know, we've said it. Let's go to the next thing. Yep. We we pray for certain individuals, certain groups of people multiple times, almost word for word, the exact same prayer. And you think, well, we just did that twenty minutes ago.
Tripp Prince:Why are we, why are we
Michelle Moujaes:Did we already say this part? Did
Tripp Prince:we already say that? Yeah. And so, again, the church has taught us repetition is really important. And if you see something repeated, it's probably a clue for us that you should pay attention. And so repetition of Bible verses, I think, falls into the same category.
Tripp Prince:We say memorize these, repeat them, not to be rote or dead, but so that they become internalized and a part of war. And so, again, that's a parental thing we can do. We can help frame that for our kids. My kids are are in a classical school and sounds similar to yours, do a lot of repetition, a lot of memorization. They don't always appreciate it.
Tripp Prince:When I see my child with, you know, Latin verb endings, and they're just sitting there flashcards trying to memorize him. That's not life giving for them in that moment. And perhaps similarly, if if it's just, hey. Read this verse over and over and over again. But if you frame it kinda how you and I just did and just say, we're repeating this because it matters.
Tripp Prince:Tell I my wife I
Michelle Moujaes:love her. I was gonna say. 100 times. That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:Because that's what I'm trying to cultivate. I'm cultivating love.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:And our repetition of words, move our heads into our hearts. And and I think that's why we we repeat in the liturgy, why we repeat scripture to say, I want this to be true so deeply that even when I'm not feeling it, it is still true because I've repeated it so much and have internalized it so deeply. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that. That's beautiful. Alright. I'm gonna ask you one more question before maybe if you'll give us some time for some viewer questions that came in.
Tripp Prince:But Sure.
Michelle Moujaes:For parents that are are kind of beginning this journey and trying to help our children even become familiar with some basic stories. How much explaining should we do and should we be mindful of? So for example, we talk about, you know, the wisdom of of the church and being in the church family, and that's where we really gain a full understanding of the scripture reading, let's say, the day. So if we are not if we are privatized and we are trying to teach into our children, what would that look like to explain a story or talk about a story or try and guide them in that, especially if we don't feel like we're a theologian or a seminary student?
Tripp Prince:Yeah. I think across the board as parents, it's very easy to talk at our kids, and it's much harder to listen to our kids. I, at least I'll speak for myself, my temptation has often been if we read a scripture or read a passage to then kind of jump right in. Well, here's here's why this is important. Here's what you should know.
Tripp Prince:Have you ever thought about this? And did you know this person actually shows up there? It's harder to sit with some silence and just say, does anything does anything trouble you in that story? Does any part of that story give you hope? How do you see Jesus in that story?
Tripp Prince:And actually listen and let them say let them say something that maybe is wrong.
Michelle Moujaes:I was like, what if they get it wrong?
Tripp Prince:Yeah. We can be, I think, a little too, afraid of that. Like, oh, no. No. They're gonna say something wrong.
Tripp Prince:Like, well, if they never say something wrong, they may not say anything at all. We may not have actually given them space to let let it out, and we stumble our way forward. Sometimes we we say things and process it verbally and think twenty minutes later, I don't actually believe what I just said, but I needed to get it out to even know what I think or believe.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:And and so we're in the Greek church. And in the Greek church, there's this old out of out of print book called My Orthodox Prayer Book, but you can still get it digitally on Kindle. It has a little short liturgy with prayers you pray before reading the scripture. And, again, that was kind of a new a new thing for me was I I was kinda raised just to open the Bible and dive in. And it has these really be and I'm sure other books have them as well, but it had a few beautiful prayers that are asking for illumination, asking that the Holy Spirit would bring understanding as we read.
Tripp Prince:Pray those prayers before diving into the bible because they're not just words. We believe the spirit is speaking to us and that he will guide us. And so pray that as a parent. Lord, give me the courage to speak up. Give me the courage to hold back and help me know, which I should do with
Michelle Moujaes:my words, please. Yes. Yeah. That's the prayer I beg all the time. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Season my words. Season my words. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. So so good.
Michelle Moujaes:Do you have time for a few listener questions?
Tripp Prince:Absolutely.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. This one comes from David from Erie, Pennsylvania. He is the father of, he says, a strong willed 10 year old daughter. He writes, my daughter tells me straight up that Bible reading is boring. I don't wanna force it and make her resent it more, but I also don't wanna give up.
Michelle Moujaes:Where's the line?
Tripp Prince:I think there is great wisdom as a parent in letting our children know the things they're saying have actually been heard. I could see I I I've I've had a ten year old daughter in recent years, and I could see a temptation if she said to me, bible reading is boring. The first thing I might want to do is convince her of all the reasons it's not boring.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, okay.
Tripp Prince:But what she's saying may actually be true and maybe needs a a bit of validation from me to say, yeah. I can be boring. Let's talk about that. Is it okay to be bored? What do you mean when it's boring?
Tripp Prince:Boredom is is often the precursor to creativity and to inspiration. Part of why we struggle to create is we never let ourselves be bored because we're constantly good. True. Constantly stimulated.
Michelle Moujaes:Absolutely.
Tripp Prince:And so there may be a a nugget of wisdom and an invitation into a conversation if we let our kids set the terms of the conversation a little bit.
Michelle Moujaes:K.
Tripp Prince:I don't mean we don't parent them. Don't mean we don't direct them as as we are able, but there's a there's an incredible invitation in that question or that comment when a child says, reading the bible is bored or boring. Wow. You could you could do all sorts of things with that. And I don't I don't don't want them to to hate reading the bible, and maybe that's what they're getting at.
Tripp Prince:You know, the question is saying, like, you know, why would I bother? This is a waste of my time or, you know, whatever it may be. Again, I think that's where modeling can be really, really helpful. My son loves sports because he's seen me passionately love sports, and and he kinda caught that wave, caught that bug. If we think the Bible is boring, that's not gonna help that case.
Tripp Prince:It's not gonna help that child to see it in any other way than what maybe they're already encountering.
Michelle Moujaes:You know? And, also, it it calls to mind one of my dearest, dearest friends is a nun in England, an Orthodox nun. And she always reminds me quite gently, like, it does take a little bit of work. Yeah. Doesn't mean that it's gonna come easy.
Michelle Moujaes:Like, you have to sit with it and and be willing to wrestle with concepts that are new or with Yeah. You know, maybe you have to look up a word every once in a while, but that's okay too. Anything worth doing is worth doing really well. And so I I am I'm reminded that, yeah, sometimes it might feel a little bit boring and that is okay. I I love that.
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good. That's so good. Alright. Last one. This comes from Priya, who is in Bellingham, Washington.
Michelle Moujaes:She says, I have a six year old and a nine year old. My son who is the nine year constantly tells me he doesn't understand what he's reading or hearing when I try and read the Bible. To be honest, I can relate. I often don't understand much of it either. If I don't wanna kill his love for the Bible before he's even old enough to understand it, what am I supposed to do instead?
Tripp Prince:That's a great question.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Thank
Tripp Prince:you. Thank you for asking it, Priya. Everything in the life of the church is meant to invite us deeper into an encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I would read the gospel of John, and then when you finish it, I'd start it again.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes.
Tripp Prince:And do that for a few years and don't worry about the rest of it. Because there's a whole lot that's hard as an adult or a child to understand in the Bible, but the gospels were written that we would know the love of God in Christ, and there's a lot that can be known and understood there. And I think we can overcomplicate it, especially in our zeal in our zeal to be faithful and serious, devout Orthodox Christians.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Tripp Prince:We can say, don't that's too easy of an answer. Give me something real. Give me something deep. I was I remember as a catechumen, I went to my priest and said, father, I'm going to start reading the ladder of divine ascent. And he said, no.
Tripp Prince:You're not. You have no business reading that book.
Michelle Moujaes:Good for him.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. Not a monk, you're not even in the church yet. Go read the gospels and just park your bus there for a long time. And so I would I would give the same advice. We don't read them liturgically, but there is is no shame in reading more accessible translations of the Bible.
Tripp Prince:Read the New International Version. Read the New Living Translation to your young children, and and glory to God that we have them. I think in many ways, they invite us into the story of scripture, in ways that younger ears can hear.
Michelle Moujaes:Love it.
Tripp Prince:And and so that that may not be universally shared, but, I don't read my children the King James. I love the King James. I revere it. It's beautiful. We read a lot of the NLT because my children understand the words, and it rather than discouraging them, it makes them curious and invites them in deeper.
Tripp Prince:Maybe someday they'll they'll dive into the EOB or the KJV or whatever else we're reading at the you know, at that time, but read read the gospels to your children in a translation they can understand. She said there's six and nine.
Michelle Moujaes:Six and nine.
Tripp Prince:I forget the name of this one, so it's not a very helpful recommendation. But I think the American Bible Society partnered with the Greek church years ago and put out a children's storybook bible that had almost like watercolor icons in it.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. That's right.
Tripp Prince:I read that one to my kids cover to cover, and they loved it. Driven, and so it sucked them in. And the icons helped our children see images that were familiar. It made a connection between what they may see at church. But there's a goodness in that.
Tripp Prince:There's no shame in in starting there to help your children understand it because you want them to love the word, the the the word of God and to point to the incarnate word. And so
Michelle Moujaes:That is beautiful. Tripp, this has been a gift. You gave us gold. Tell us where people can find you and Dwell. Where can we find you?
Tripp Prince:Dwellbible.com is the Dwell website. And, like I said, Christians from a wide range of traditions are on there, but we do have Orthodox resources, Orthodox daily readings, several Orthodox voices in the app as well. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:And there's so good.
Tripp Prince:Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:I use it all the time. It is it is a gift as well. Thank you, Tripp, for being with us.
Tripp Prince:Thank you, Michelle.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, this was such a needed reframe, and I think a lot of moms and dads just breathe a sigh of relief listening to this. To you listening right now, if you've ever felt like engaging with the Bible in your home has turned into a chore or, like, a source of guilt or that it's just one more thing that you're failing at, hear this. The goal is never a completed worksheet. It was never a perfectly memorized verse recited on command. The goal is a child who over years of ordinary, unhurried exposure comes to know the voice of God is familiar, welcome, and good, that they know Jesus Christ, that they are in relationship and encounter him.
Michelle Moujaes:And it happens through repetition. Yes. But not through performance. It happens best in the ordinary rhythms of your actual life, in the car, the table, or the last few minutes before bed. And so here's what I want you to do this week.
Michelle Moujaes:Pick one of those ordinary moments that Tripp talked about. Maybe it's the dinner table after liturgy. Maybe it's in the morning before school. Maybe it's in the prayer corner each evening and let holy scripture simply be present, read aloud, or better yet, listen to together. No quizzes or worksheets, just scripture spoken over your family.
Michelle Moujaes:Don't forget to download the free parent discussion guide. And if this episode encouraged you, please share it with another parent who needs to hear it. I'll see you next time.