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On Children<\/strong><\/p>\nYour children are not your children.
\nThey are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
\nThey come through you but not from you,
\nAnd though they are with you yet they belong not to you.<\/p>\n
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
\nFor they have their own thoughts.
\nYou may house their bodies but not their souls,
\nFor their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
\nwhich you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
\nYou may strive to be like them,
\nbut seek not to make them like you.
\nFor life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.<\/p>\n
You are the bows from which your children
\nas living arrows are sent forth.
\nThe archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
\nand He bends you with His might
\nthat His arrows may go swift and far.
\nLet your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
\nFor even as He loves the arrow that flies,
\nso He loves also the bow that is stable.<\/p>\n
As our daughter prepares to walk across the stage on Sunday, and as Lynchburg College\u2019s Class of 2012 prepares to accept their degrees, I hope that all graduates will feel that the bows of family and college have been stable enough to provide them security but flexible enough to allow them to fly.<\/p>\n
Peace,<\/p>\n
Anne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday we will gather on the lawn of a different university to watch our daughter graduate.\u00a0 This will be the last time for such a ritual in our family as both sons received their diplomas a few years ago.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n