I

Nothing except the predestination of the Creator

has a bearing on a person's fate.

No one can control what kind of future a person will have;

it's predetermined long in advance,

and even one's parents cannot change one's fate,

cannot change one's fate.

As far as fate is concerned, everyone is independent,

and everyone has their own fate.

So, no one's parents can stave off one's fate in life

or exert the slightest influence on the role one plays in life.

No one's parents can stave off one's fate in life

or exert the slightest influence on the role one plays in life.

II

The family into which one is destined to be born

and the environment in which one grows up

are nothing more than the preconditions for fulfilling one's mission in life.

They don't in any way determine a person's fate in life

or the kind of destiny within which a person fulfills their mission.

And so, no one's parents can assist one

in accomplishing one's mission in life,

and likewise, no one's relatives can help one

assume one's role in life, assume one's role in life.

How one accomplishes one's mission

and in what kind of living environment one performs one's role

are entirely determined by one's fate in life,

are entirely determined by one's fate in life.

III

No other objective conditions can influence a person's mission,

which is predestined by the Creator.

All people become mature in the particular environments in which they grow up;

then gradually, step by step, they set off down their own roads in life

and fulfill the destinies planned for them by the Creator.

Naturally, involuntarily, they enter the vast sea of humanity

and assume their own posts in life,

where they begin to fulfill their responsibilities as created beings

for the sake of the Creator's predestination and His sovereignty.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III