And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for
itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to
you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you
cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

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

For life goes not backward nor tarries with
yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living
arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go
swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for
gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves
also the bow that is stable.

~Kahlil Gibran~