A Meditation for Parents

Close your eyes and bring your attention to your body. Whether you are sitting, standing, or laying down, make sure your body feels relaxed and supported. Relax the muscles in your face, jaw, neck, and shoulders. 

Take a few deep breaths.  As you breathe in, imagine drawing peace, calm, humility, and openness into your body and mind. As you breathe out, imagine expelling tension, negativity, pride, and stress from your body and mind.

In this state of calm and receptiveness, take a moment to say a brief prayer that your mind will be guided to any revelation the Lord has for you today as you ponder. 

As your breathing returns to normal, turn your thoughts and attention to your children. Pick one child to focus on for these next few minutes. You can always listen again and think about a different child later. Maybe you have questions about the particular child you have chosen, or are in need of guidance on how to parent them. Maybe you want to strengthen your bond with them or feel more appreciation for them. Maybe you want to better understand their divine identity. Whatever your reason for starting this meditation today, allow your thoughts and the Spirit to guide you. Don’t worry about focusing on every question I ask.

To start off, I invite you to spend some time listing and thinking about your child’s strengths. What are they good at? What kinds of things come naturally to them? What are their temporal strengths? What are their spiritual strengths? 

 Now ponder the opposite. What are the things this child struggles with? What kinds of things do they have to work harder to achieve? What are their temporal weaknesses? Where might they be lacking spiritually? 

Now that you have considered both the strengths and weaknesses of this child, take some time to ponder the child’s needs. Don’t worry too much about trying to find a solution to any needs you think of, just consider the needs themselves. If a solution comes to you, wonderful. But don’t focus so much on addressing the need that you fail to fully understand it.

Next I invite you to consider how your child feels love. What does he or she respond positively to? What is his or her love language?

How does your child show love? Are they direct about showing love? Or do they show it in subtle ways? What kinds of things does he or she do to seek connection?

 Next, I invite you to consider how your child asks for help. How effectively can they identify their own needs? How effectively do they articulate their needs? Are there subtle ways in which they ask for help that might be easy to overlook?

 Finally, think of the story recorded in 3 Nephi of Jesus visiting the Book of Mormon people. The scriptures tell us that He “took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.” (3 Nephi 17:21.) Imagine Jesus visiting your community, taking this child by the hand, giving them a blessing, and praying with them. What would He say in that blessing? What would He pray for? 

After Jesus blessed and prayed for each child, He “wept again; And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.” (3 Nephi 17:22-23.)

You have just spent time pondering specific aspects about your child. Now imagine Christ standing behind this child and inviting you to behold your little one. What do you see? 

When you are ready, take a final deep breath and slowly turn your awareness back to your body. As you open your eyes and return to your surroundings, take a moment to jot down any thoughts, promptings, or questions that came to mind while you were pondering. And, if necessary, make a plan to act on those things.