Fostering Children’s Healthy Independence

FOSTERING CHILDREN’S HEALTHY INDEPENDENCE

Please God, Teach me when to hold back from doing for my children, to help foster their skills and their trust – in themselves and in You. Show me how to continue to adjust my parenting as my children grow, and to do so at each stage with playfulness, humility, and humor. Teach me to respond to their questions with curiosity and shared inquiry more often than with answers. Remind us that words sculpt reality. Help us to foster meaningful dialogue in our home. Guide my communication with my spouse, children, and the people in our lives to draw my children to know their soul and heed its guidance. Direct me to meet weakness with tiferet– a balance of loving‑ kindness and boundaries, so that with patience we may foster the strength that is possible. Support us to face what is hard and painful and to compassionately put in the effort to draw out what we can learn and gain from the pain. Help me to refine the role You intend for me in our world, that I may add light, and through this to support my children in growing into their role in bringing about the world that can be. Guide me to embody the values I want my children to learn and live by.