120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 18

Chapter 1 verse 17 on children

[Lebanon] Gibran
Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters that "life" desires for itself.

They come through you, but not from you.

Although they live with you, they do not belong to you.

You can give your love to your children, but you cannot give your thoughts to them.

For your child has a mind of his own.

You may house their bodies, but not their souls.

For their souls dwell in the houses of tomorrow, which you cannot see even in your dreams.

You may try to be like them, but not to make them like you.

For life is not backwards, nor stuck with yesterday.

You are the bow from which your children are living arrows.

The sharp archer selects the target in the "infinite" way, and draws the bow to the full with divine power, so that his arrow can be shot far away quickly.

Let you be bent and filled with joy in the hands of the sharpshooter.

God loves the fixed bow as much as the flying arrow.

【Together with you】

Don't always pat your children on the head and say: The hope is on you, and the responsibility is on you.Why not put the hope and responsibility on yourself to try to make it happen?

The child belongs only to himself, and the child has what they should do.Because God knows what is best for a man, he puts heaven far away and woman near.Thus, men create the world, and women create men.

(End of this chapter)