POEM FOR NAMING CEREMONIES
Your children are not your children,
They are sons and daughters of life longing for themselves.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
Eledumare my children belong to you,Protect and
lead them towards the achievement of their purpose in life.
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.
Eledumare my children belong to you,Protect and
lead them towards the achievement of their purpose in life.
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.
Eledumare my children belong to you,Protect and
lead them towards the achievement of their purpose in life.
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.
Eledumare my children belong to you,Protect and
lead them towards the achievement of their purpose in life.
Mimo Mimo ni ti oluwa Eledumare
Iba fun Eledumare
Iba Asee
