This monthly column is to help parents, grandparents, and teachers introduce children to spiritual topics in the context of prayer. It includes a prayer for adults, one for children and adults to share, and a short affirmation for children to remember and take with them.


How to Create the Life You Want

As each new year arrives, many of us review what we’d like to leave behind and look for new ways of being. The process seems almost routine, but what if we jump in wholeheartedly?

What if we make the end of one year and the beginning of the next an annual commitment to conscious creation—then follow through as the months pass? Can you imagine how powerful this practice would become if we made it an annual tradition beginning in childhood?

Great, you say, but I’m still figuring it all out myself. How can I lead someone else into conscious creation before I have mastered it?

I assure you it’s possible. Practice makes progress. You don’t have to be an expert, and you may be surprised how much you will learn from the youngsters in your life if you give them the opportunity to dive into this with you.

Sharing your ideas, goals, failures, struggles, and successes together creates the richest and most rewarding learning experience for everyone, regardless of age. We are all learning and growing, and with a beginner’s mind and an adventurer’s heart, we live every day as a call forward, upward, and onward.

So, let’s make a plan. I’ll lay out some possibilities, and you can personalize it. Add or delete things that fit you and your life best. Want to add fun? Have multiple generations in your family take part and ask for even the youngest participant’s input.

We learn best when we engage, so let’s plug right in!

Living on Purpose

  1. Prepare to let go.
    Sometime in November and December, make an appointment (or several) with yourself and your group, if you have one, to reflect and take stock.

    Make lists: things you don’t want to repeat, things you want to be better at, things you really loved, or things you’d like to try. Add places you want to explore, both local and far-reaching. Create several lists that take you on a journey from what has been to what you would like to be in all areas of life.
  1. Have a releasing ceremony.
    As the year ends, write down behaviors, habits, and practices you want to let go. When you have written down whatever you’d like to release, you can burn the paper or rip it up and throw it away.

    You can imagine sending those thoughts into bubbles as you blow them, then watch them float away and pop as you feel them neutralize. You can also use dissolving paper and watch it disappear in water, imagining each thing disappearing in your life. Make your ceremony unique and memorable, in whatever way works for you.
  1. Envision the coming year.
    As the new year begins, find a space for you or your group that is fun, comfortable, and spacious if you can—a space where you feel enlivened and energized. Somewhere you can dream big. Bring supplies for writing or typing items you brainstorm, and then get to it!

    Color pictures, create vision boards, fill several dozen Post-it Notes with words to place around your house, use index cards and a recipe box, fill a jar or treasure chest with colored slips of paper filled with ideas—whatever best allows you to capture the possibilities for new and exciting adventures and things you’d like to try. List as many as you can, in whatever form has the most longevity for you. You will want to keep whatever you create as a ready reference as the year unfolds.
  1. Get practical.
    Once you have imagined all the new and wonderful things you would like to manifest, give yourself measurable steps toward success and then take them. Identify the tools you need to succeed and then use them.

    Make sure you have support. Maybe your group can meet regularly (in person or online) to hold each other accountable for continuing on the higher path. Be part of a faith community. Find counsel if you need it. Reach out to meet people who share your vision.
  1. Follow through.
    Schedule time for checking in, revising, releasing, and embracing new and different possibilities as they present themselves. Monthly, quarterly, or even twice each year—whatever interval keeps you moving forward in conscious creation. Make the time creative and fun so you will keep visioning and enjoying the process as you go.

Be patient with yourself and others. Embrace shifts and changes as they present themselves. Encourage daydreaming. Play what-if games. Find shapes in the clouds.

Ask yourself and your kids what the best day ever would be like, what the best world would look like, what the most beautiful flower or most useful tree or best invention might be, and then dream it up!

Encourage wonder, imagination, and gratitude, and life will step up accordingly.

A Prayer for Visioning, Creating, and Attracting for All Children

Centering my awareness on God everywhere present, I open my heart and envision the child within every being on earth feeling loved, nurtured, encouraged, valued, and divinely inspired. I sit for a moment and allow each of those feelings to wash over and through me, and I send these energetic patterns to manifest everywhere, in everyone. I claim it in the love, light, and nature of God.

A Shared Family Prayer for Visioning, Creating, and Attracting

We come together, joined by love, centered in God, and present to the unlimited possibility the future holds. Reaching within our hearts, we envision room there for everyone. We create a space within that allows each being to be fully loved, accepted, encouraged, and supported. We energetically encourage that sacred space to grow and enfold every being on earth. Visualizing that world, we feel it manifesting right before us, and we are grateful.

Together we affirm:

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

Call for Prayer:
1-816-969-2000

International:
01-816-969-2000

Write for Prayer:

Unity Prayer Ministry
1901 NW Blue Parkway
Unity Village, MO 64065

About the Author

Trish Yancey, LUT, CSE, serves as spiritual leader at Unity of Sebring, Florida. She is the author of The Heart of Prayer and other books for children.

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