A Prayer for Children: Endurance

“For nothing will be impossible with God.” - Luke 1:37

Does that mean we won’t experience failure?

Absolutely not. Turns out people who have the greatest success are people who know they might fail and play full-out anyway!

When we think of endurance, we often think of needing the stamina for a long race. A big goal or a challenging situation can be considered a race—sometimes a sprint, other times a marathon—that we have the opportunity to go and grow through.

We need not only physical stamina but a well-tuned body, mind, and spirit to live our best and brightest lives.

The teen years are a good time to look at how we can best maintain optimal health and wellness so we can handle the trials and adversity that are a part of life.

Take care of your body.

This is your vessel, your starship, your game piece. How are you treating it? What are you fueling it with? If you owned a top-performance race car, could you fill it with low-grade fuel and expect optimal results?

What we eat, how much we sleep and exercise, what we watch on TV, or the games we play all contribute to and generate our energy levels, which in turn affect how we handle life. It’s all connected!

Mind your mind.

How do you speak to yourself and others? What we say to ourselves, how we feel about ourselves, our thoughts and beliefs about life all contribute to our experience.

Does this mean we won’t have bad or negative thoughts? Of course not. We are human after all.

It does mean that we don’t have to spiral into a “thought storm.” We can catch a disempowering thought and shift the next one. A small but mighty shift in our thinking happens when we change our have to’s to get to’s.

Take a minute to learn about education or the food and water supplies in struggling countries. You might shift your thinking from I have to go to school and Do I have to eat this? to I get to go to school and receive an education, and I’m grateful for this meal.

Think of healthy thoughts as daily vitamins to keep your energy up and your focus clear. Mastering your mindset is a golden ticket to traversing adversity.

Tune into Spirit. Knowing we are connected to Spirit/God/Source is perhaps the ultimate key to the kingdom. The same creative energy that holds the stars and planets in place, flows the tides, grows the food, provides the air, blooms the flowers, and so much more—this same energy is always with us and within us as we navigate life.

A powerful way to stay tuned in to Source is through the power of gratitude. When you are going through a challenging situation, finding things to be grateful for can pull you out of despair or pain and back into the present moment where, almost always, everything is okay. Bonus points if you can find things to be grateful for about the specific tough situation you’re experiencing!

A Prayer for Endurance for Children

As my child grows through their tween and teen years, I trust. I trust they have the courage, strength, resilience, compassion, determination, inner wisdom, and more to endure the journey toward their life’s purpose. I keep in mind that adversity, trials, and struggles are encountered on the way to greatness, and in the tough times we often discover our best and brightest selves. I allow my teens to endure life’s challenges and, in doing so, give them the opportunity to shine.

A Shared Family Prayer for Endurance

Taking three deep belly breaths, we relax into the awareness that with God, all things are possible. We tune in to the vision of who each of us desires to be and what we hope to achieve. We use imagination to dwell in the experience of our visions, as if they were already realized. We feel a sense of accomplishment—maybe we hear applause or congratulations, we taste a celebratory meal—and see what has been created. From the finish line, we take a moment to look back and stand in awe of all that we have endured. We are grateful for this journey—the ups, downs, twists, turns, breakthroughs, setbacks, successes, and failures—knowing they are all part of the ride called life! We acknowledge all involved—ourselves, others, and God! We are thankful, grateful, and blessed.

Together we affirm:

Did you know? All children are welcome to pray with Unity Prayer Ministry associates.