A Prayer for Children: Deserving

Grow Along with Your Children

As adults, it’s likely we are all too familiar with believing we are unworthy to receive the best life has to offer. We may have struggled all our lives to embrace our inherent divinity and the blessings of knowing we are a part of God and God is a part of us. Well, you know what? This moment is perfect to break that cycle for good. Not just for us, but for generations to come.

It’s often said we teach best that which we need to learn, but it goes deeper than that. The most powerful teaching for children often comes when we’re involved in our own learning process. Opening to a healing journey, we become a living example of growth and evolution. We show our children in real time the best practices to help them grow into their best selves right along with us.

I’ve compiled a few tried-and-true suggestions for everyone to use as they begin the journey. Maybe you can take each step together, sharing your feelings and triumphs along the way. This is a great project to undertake with accountability partners of all ages. That way everyone has intergenerational help and perspectives available to make the journey richer and more enjoyable. As the saying goes, “Teamwork makes the dream work!”

Gather your team and set your shared intention to reveal and heal anything standing in the way of your feelings of self-worth. After reviewing the tools and practices below, choose one or two to practice together for one week. Check in at scheduled times and lift each other up if you’re struggling. At the end of each week, either switch practices or add new ones to what you’re already doing. When you’ve tried them all, keep what works and dream up some new ones together.

As we consciously include our children in the creation and implementation of their own growth opportunities, they become more confident and empowered. Perceived limitations and barriers fall away, and they grow in leaps and bounds with joyous assurance.

Tools and Practices to Increase Feelings of Worthiness

Begin or strengthen your affirmative prayer practice. Prayers are not to get something we lack. We affirm that we live in a world of infinite gifts, and the ones meant for us will clearly and easily present themselves as needed.

Look for the good. What we focus on grows. It’s true things take place that we’d prefer were not happening. We acknowledge those pieces where we find them, do what we can to shift them, then pay close attention to all the great things unfolding around us. When we look for things to celebrate, they make themselves known.

Take note. Keep lists of things that help you feel worthy, strengths you have, tools you can use when you feel less than deserving, funny jokes, stuff you love, cherished photos and memories, great things that happen, sayings you want to remember—and keep it handy to refer to whenever you need a lift.

Do something for someone else. Being of service is a fantastic way to feel great about yourself and your life. Find a cause you love then support it any way you can. You will quickly discover that you receive more than you could ever give, simply by offering your time, talents, and treasures to people who share your values and bring you joy.

Cultivate compassion. Begin within. Find at least three things to love about everyone and everything you encounter. Feeling especially adventurous? Tell them! Start with yourself first, and don’t be afraid to go big. Compassion and caring are contagious. They build a world we would love to live and grow in, so let the love you feel fill every corner of it. If three things come quickly to you, make it five, or even 10.

Head for home base. Every day carries its own challenges to our sense of self-worth. If you catch yourself feeling less than deserving, don’t just remember that God begins within; go there to center in the awareness of Divine Source anytime you feel you’ve stepped off base. Pause, even for a minute or two. Close your eyes if it helps, then take a deep breath. Know you are breathing the very breath of God. Let it expand your lungs and rejuvenate your body and your vision as you feel it resetting your outlook. Exhale it back into goodness clean and clear. Take as many breaths as you need, until you feel new again and ready to receive. Affirm: I am breathing God, and God is breathing me. I am as uniquely me as I came here to be.

A Prayer for All Children to Feel Deserving

With a centering breath, I affirm that I am in God and God is in me. The same is true for the children in my life and in the world. I open my heart and mind to receive all that is best and highest, all that is for my good. I know every being is worthy of all the richest blessings, and I look forward gratefully to receiving them.

A Shared Family Prayer About Feeling Deserving

As we begin with a centering breath, we take turns sharing something we are grateful for and something we love about each member of our family—something wonderfully unique that they contribute to our family and the world. After sharing, close with: For all this and more, we are grateful!