Let children be who they are
- November 12th, 2009
- 1 Comment »
These thoughts are taken from Kahlil Gibran (a well-known and respected poet, philosopher and artist):
“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 can 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 of gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
The way to help children is to allow them to be who they are.
There’s nothing much you can do about the eventual direction children will take. All you can do is offer the best tools possible for handling life, and applaud them when they do well and be there when they fall on their faces.
this is so true, not so easy to follow, but it does make it easier to help guide them when we can understand them