A Prayer For A Daughter To Know Her Worth

A Prayer for a Daughter to Know Her Worth

O God, we thank You for the gift

And the privilege of raising a daughter,

And we ask for Your help

As we walk with her

As she grows

And learns what it is

To become more the person

You made her to be.

Lord, we know our world

Does not give girls and women

The same kind of access

And opportunity

As their brothers,

Seeing a woman’s worth

As pennies on the dollar.

We lament the years of oppression

And glass ceilings women have faced,

The weight of expectations placed

Like pearls around their necks.

But we know that You have

Given us imagination

To see Your Kingdom here,

To see our daughter as You

Have created her to be—

All the brilliance of humanity,

The swirls of strength and gentleness,

The brilliance of power and kindness,

The vast array of the fruit of Your Spirit

On full display.

Our daughter is watching, Lord,

What we say

And what we do.

Give us speech that is empowering and honoring.

Give us fathers tenderness to listen,

To fully hear what our daughter is saying.

Give us mothers confidence to talk about beauty and bodies

Without an ounce of shame.

Help us not cave under culture’s crass expectations

Of filters and fillers.

Help our daughter resist the pressure

To measure her worth

By numbers on a scale.

Help her not be weighed down

By the lies of the serpent

Who whispers that she’s not enough

And never will be.

Help her never feel the need

To shrink the body or gifts You have given her

To fit the pressures of someone else.

Help our daughter know her worth.

Ignite in her passions.

Empower her to use her mind and heart

To make this world a more compassionate place

For all people.

Breathe in her ways to love with creativity

And imagination for what could be.

Help her dance on top of injustice

And crush the serpent with her heel.

Give her purpose; give her peace.

Help her choose the way of love.

Help her be brave.

Help her dare to begin again.

Help her never apologize when others say

She’s too much or not enough.

Help us not lock her into cells of our expectations,

But help us nurture and nourish her to be exactly who

You’ve created her to be.

Thank You for wildflowers and train sets.

Thank You for long division and poetry.

Thank You for tangly tresses and glitter glue.

God, in Your Kingdom,

The princess doesn’t need rescuing,

Except by Your merciful hand.

Help us surround her with empowerment.

Help us cheer her on and make a safe place

For her to land when she’s tired.

God, help her slay dragons

And stand up when something’s wrong.

Help her know that the ways of Your Kingdom

Mean down is up

And the way out is in.

Tune her heart to You,

And whisper into the quiet places of her heart that

While there are a million paths she can take,

Her worth doesn’t lie in productivity—

In what she can or can’t do—

But in her value as a beloved daughter

Of the Holy One.

And what a gift it is to love her into this knowledge.

When the hardships come,

May she hold on to You.

When the doubts rise,

May she be buoyed by Your love.

Help her stand and shout

As she advocates for others

And for herself, too.

Help her rest,

For that, too, is holy.

Help us encourage her

And show her women who have walked

Your ways of peace and power.

We pray for the daughters

Around the world

And in our own community

Who enter a culture that teaches lies

And demeans and demoralizes Your daughters, Lord.

We weep for all that is lost when half Your Kingdom

Is told the light inside them is worth less

Than the lights of others.

Lord, let our daughter shine,

And illuminate the darkness

Of every lie told,

Even the lies in Your name,

For the gospel is one of freedom,

And You have set us free.

We lament the ways we have perpetuated an unjust world

For our daughter.

We cry out for the ways we have turned our face

From Your image in our daughter.

Help us know it’s never too early

And never too late

To raise an empowered daughter

Who walks in the Spirit.

Ruth 1–4; Esther 1–10