We need to believe that it is possible for even a young child to serve the larger purpose in profound and practical ways and, believing that, support our child’s initiatives even when their scope extends far beyond our own comprehension. We will learn that when it comes to service on behalf of humans or the environment, our child will rarely take ‘no’ for an answer and their perseverance will propel them around obstacles we thought were impenetrable. Their capacity to ‘risk all’ when it matters, and to trust in the outworking of the larger purpose is something that we will need to learn to emulate.

We need to have at least begun to clean our own emotional life of its dependencies, petty jealousies, capacity for gossip, half-truths and lack of integrity. Not only will we commit to doing this for our own sake, our child will demand it of us. Then we need to have learned to love and give unconditionally. Our child will already be learning about service without attachment to outcome, and may be much better than we will ever be at serving with loving detachment, then walking away once the task is completed, unfazed by apparent lack of gratitude. Spiritually gifted children working with the new Aquarian energies may even seem at times appear to be cold, so easily do they move on to the next task. Don’t be fooled. They have large hearts.

Finally (though there will doubtless be other things to be attended to), we need to have begun to remember the potency of joy. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is an ephemeral emotion often so very dependent on outer circumstance. True joy wells up from the soul, sustaining us at our core regardless of outer circumstance. Our child will be already learning that joy uplifts and nurtures, and that in sharing it with others they offer a precious gift.