Contributed by Janine Jessop, Victoria, Australia
I appreciate the HWs so much and read every word several times over. I keep every one and consider the growing that our members are doing one of the most positive things happening in the dispensation right now!
I will always remember my 3-year-old son's first real prayer: "Thank you Heavenly Father for this good breakfast and thank you for giving me to my Mum."
Recently my father-in-law, a devout Baptist, asked me to write down an explanation of what our church "does with Jesus". This Easter I presented him with my response, which came out very simply and naturally, I thought. I began with my understanding of what a divine man is, what the mission of messiah involved, the necessity for the Jewish people to unify with him, etc.
What did surprise me, however, was how strongly the paragraphs on the spiritual battle between God and Satan came out. Spiritual warfare is a topic one sometimes hears in Christian churches, but mostly in relation to our contemporary efforts to live a Godly life. Despite the fact that there is so much evidence of it in the Bible, one rarely hears the Easter story ever spoken of as anything but the gradual unfolding of God's will!
Here are a few of the paragraphs that I included.
. . . A spiritual war was raging between God and Satan, with Satan just as determined to maintain his control over man as God was to reclaim His rightful parenthood. Since Jesus' birth, Satan had been plotting to kill him. Being fully aware how crucial Jesus' life and example were to God and to the establishment of His kingdom on earth, he was ever vigilant to find some human frailty to exploit and work through. He found the first common base in Herod, and through the terrible slaughter of the baby boys of Bethlehem, made his first attempt on Jesus' life.
When this was unsuccessful, we see many other instances of Satan's desperation. At the beginning of His mission, Jesus was confronted directly by Satan who enticed Him in every way possible to abandon his mission. When he realized he had no base in Jesus, he began looking for any weakness in the people. Those from Jesus' own hometown wanted to throw him over a cliff and the same crowds, who had previously flocked to listen to Him, were incited to cry out for His crucifixion.
Finally, we read that Satan entered Judas. Jesus himself said that It would have been better that Judas never be born than that he betray the Son of God!" We have to ask ourselves, "Did Satan want Jesus dead or alive? The answer is clearly dead! . . . .
Good luck to readers with Christian relatives. I'd love to hear of any breakthroughs you are having as tribal messiahs.
Herbs.
Contributed by Reed Darsey, Bayou La Batre, AL
Reed sent some advice from Kelly Johnson on medicinal herbs. She takes damiana, which is considered to be sort of a natural "upper" to clear up hormonal imbalance. This makes periods easier to deal with, marital relations much more enjoyable, and PMS virtually disappear. She also uses suma to provide more energy during the day and to help her sleep at night. Both should be used with care, as should all medicating substances.
Please share other tips about natural ways to enhance health.
Sunday School
Contributed by Lucia Anderson, Mesa, AZ
Teaching Sunday School to four blessed children 8-10 years old is a good chance for me to get back to the basics.
We spent one Sunday studying the Table of Contents. What does the Divine Principle tell about? Having the children present a lecture they just listened to is an exciting part of our program.
Now we are studying subject and object, which, to me, is a key concept of the Principle. Our goal as human beings is to be a perfect object to God. I realized perfect 100% means
To what degree are you objective to God? That is the degree of your perfection.
I realized that the identification of subject and object is not always cut and dried. Of course, we understand that the subject is initiating and causal, and the object is responsive and reflective. We also clearly understand that subject and object are equal in value; both are absolutely necessary for unity to take place; one is not better or more important than the other. And we realize these subjective and objective roles are constantly changing.
There are many questions. If you are aware of God speaking to you through your child, does that make your child the subject, at least for a moment? What are the responsibilities and qualities of a good subject? A good object? How do the Cain/Abel and central figure concepts tie in? Why is it important to desire to be a good object? Superficial answers do not satisfy me, or the children either.
I realized that these kinds of questions are the very reason having True Father and True Mother is so vital to us:
In them we can observe:
* someone who is a true object (100% objective) to God;
* someone whose mind and body are in perfect subject/object relationship; and
* a husband who is a true subject and a wife who is a true object.
Also, in the True Family the children are striving to be exemplary in relating to their parents.
This is why we must study the True Family: Never before have there been on the earth examples of true subjectivity and true objectivity for us to emulate!
The Lord's Prayer
Contributed by Arlene Candelaresi, Cincinnati, OH
My 5-year-old daughter Elishia wrote this by herself and was singing it one morning. I was so moved by the words that I wanted to share it with you all. She said she named it the "Lord's Prayer" because she heard a prayer with that name in Sunday School.
3 We pray to the Lord to give Him Hope.
We pray to the Lord to tell Him we love Him.
We pray to the Lord to tell Him we want True Parents' Kingdom on earth.
Amen!
Powerful Prayer
Contributed by Lucia Anderson, Mesa, AZ
Here are the points of my current prayer. It is very powerful.
1. I pray for spiritual fire to come and fill me, give me passion, awaken me, inspire my prayer.
2. I acknowledge and express gratitude to all the ancestors who have laid the foundation for me to be here. I repent for all the wrongs and evils of the past, and pledge to do my best to restore these.
3. I pray that I can fully understand my responsibility, and fulfill it.
4. Intercessory prayers: True Family, blessed couples, spouse, relatives, blessing candidates, trinity, tribe,
5. I pray for SPIRITUAL REVIVAL in the US and around the world. I pray for Christians to unite with True Parents and women around the world to fulfill their responsibility.
6. I pray for a renewed relationship with God's Words, a burning desire to substantiate the Principle, and rebirth through the Word.
7. Specific prayer requests, current projects, etc.
Ten Tips For Staying Young
Contributed by Victoria Clevenger
These condensed tips for living well and longer are taken from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra, M.D., Harmony Books, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1993.
1. Listen to your body's wisdom. Ask your body how it feels about a certain behavior and be aware of a signal of comfort or discomfort.
2. Live in the present, fully accept what comes to you, appreciate and learn from it, and let it go.
3. Take time to be silent to contact your pure inner awareness and to be guided by intuition rather than external judgments.
4. Let go of your need for external approval. Your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, beyond anyone else's opinion.
5. Reacting with anger to a person or circumstance is a struggle with yourself. Relinquish this anger to heal yourself and cooperate with the flow of the universe.
6. The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world. You hate what you most deny in yourself; you love what you most wish for in yourself. Use this mirror of relationships to guide your evolution to total self-knowledge.
7. Judging cuts off understanding and the process of learning to love. Don't judge; every person you forgive adds to your self-love.
8. Don't contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions. The health of every cell contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.
9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with behavior motivated by love. Knowing your own inner being, which is love, makes you invulnerable to fear.
10. The physical world is a mirror of a deeper intelligence. You cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence. Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the earth.