For you my child...

Dear Lord,

This is my prayer for her.

That she may know you, not because you are my God, but because she would realise that you alone are her Father, who knew her before you knit her in her mothers womb.

That she may love you, not because of fear or obligation, but because you would give her the gift of faith; the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.

And that she may dedicate her life to you, not out of compulsion, but because of the knowledge that you are her God, who waits for her with love undefiled in the tabernacle, a love that is patient and kind..

This prayer, O Lord, I make my own today.

(Quoted from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet - On Children)

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.

So Help me God...