Chapter 3 - How To Raise Children — SunHak Institute of History USA

Section 1. Attitudes of Parents Toward Child-Rearing

1. Hoping Their Children Will Do Better than Themselves

You experienced ladies, aren't you happy when a passerby says your child is a million times better looking than you are? You will be tickled pink (Laughter) That means the mother is a million times better looking. Wouldn't that be so! Which mother in the world would take that compliment as meaning that she is the one who is a million times uglier than her child? Which mother would even think like that? All mothers are happy under the circumstances. Those are mothers' sentiments everywhere. Mothers are just happy with the results.

If a family wants the children to do worse than their father, the household will surely fall, not prosper. Even if the father is president of the country, if his children don't do as well the family will eventually bite the dust in a few generations. So, when the child says to his father, "I don't believe I should do worse than you," then the father must not criticize the decision. Rather, he should wholeheartedly agree with the view.

2. Children Should Do More Good than Parents

Are there any parents, even though they themselves may be evil, who would say to their children, "I am a murderer and robber so I want you to be one too"? They would tell their children to be good even if they themselves are evil. When parents tell their children "not to become an evil person," that means they admit that they have been evil themselves. When they say, "I want you to do well," that means they themselves have not done well.

Good parenting requires that one devote oneself fully to one's children. That's where the merit is, as it is the foundation of all education.

This is the value we must spread to society and to the world. Don't you think? Are there truly bad parents? I read once that one particular couple went on a cruise after sending their sons to an orphanage. Now, this is a sure way to create bad children, as few children who are constantly with their parents ever go bad.

Do parents ever teach their children to do evil? Most parents want to leave goodness to their children even if they have nothing else to give. Parents want to give their most precious gift to their children, with interests compounded daily. Don't you think?

3. Parents Spare Nothing

People who have worked hard to amass a fortune would gladly give up everything they have to save their parents if that's what's called for to revive them. They would be willing to give up all external things. Parents, on their part, would be willing to give up not only all external things, but they would even want to give up their own lives to save their children.

When I was a child I observed many bird nests. If you climb up the tree to go to their nests, the parent birds would attack you, pecking you desperately to protect their young even though you are many times bigger than they are. They are desperate in defense of their offspring. Not just once, but over and over if necessary. Their protective desire transcends their love for their own lives. Isn't that very obvious?

Human beings do the same. One must be willing to give up one's life for love. That makes one a true human being. What is a good human being, we asked earlier? True goodness is in the willingness to give up one's life for the loved ones. This is the only justifiable definition of good. It's incontrovertible. Do you recognize this? True goodness is in love ...

When I was in Danbury I saw an interesting phenomenon. They were trying to flatten a slope to make a tennis court out of it. The work went on and off because of the rain, which would close up the operation for a while until it became dry enough. During one particular off period, a bird nest had settled there, only about three meters off the track, near where prisoners used to take a walk everyday. The bird colors blended well into the environment so that no one noticed them until they had hatched although people walked by every day. That's how the birds were hatched. It was when they heard the little birds chirping for food that people discovered them. The prisoners tried to do nasty things to the birds, naturally. What was interesting was the way the parents brought food. They would land some distance from the nest and would walk, varying their positions every day to avoid some predators like falcons nearby. That's why they varied their routines every day. That's how they protected their chicks.

As they grew, their parents got awfully fussy about people coming near their chicks, as if they didn't want you to see them. (Laughter) But, who taught them that, to do precisely that all the time? If you pretend that you are not watching, they calm down, but if you look at them again they get very fussy. (Laughter) Who taught them this? It's the universal force. The father-son bloodlines ... God created love as the axis and everything else on the same plane around it, so that their position may be lower but still on the same plane. Do you understand what I am saying?

Honeybees do the same. They search for honey among the flowers and use their wings and legs to get it. I know something about honeybees as I was involved in bee-keeping one time. If you tried to pull the bee away during its honey sucking, it would rather lose its innards than part company with honey. Honey must be awfully good to lose one's life for it! True love is like that. One is willing to give up one's life for it. One does not calculate benefits and losses on love. True love demands everything else to become insignificant. Parents will risk their lives to save their children in peril. Parents are willing to die for their love. That's true love, understand?

Section 2. Guiding the Children

1. Educating Children About Prudence

Children must be raised to be prudent in everything even if they are raised in a reputable family. In other words, worthy children are raised to be prudent in all things. Every step taken, every word uttered, every action contemplated must be prudent. Manners are complex and it's not easy to master them.

Nowadays no one cares that much about manners in this age of permissiveness. It's critical. Do young people like manners? If we don't teach them manners, it's our own ruination: no future. Prudent families contain many useful educational resources. They teach them how to deal with adults, with siblings, with parents.

2. Dedication Needed

Cornerstones must be placed correctly, and center-points well measured. Without correct cornerstones, no sound structure will be possible. Universal victory and historical victory may depend on the cornerstones. Think you are at this very moment laying down the cornerstones. Awesome, isn't it? So, you must be dedicated in all things over and over. Because we are not perfect we must dedicate ourselves hundreds of times, thousands of times, until we attain results that are worthy of perfection. Think about the consequences one hundred years, three hundred years, one thousand years later, from mislaid cornerstones. Other mislaid parts can be fixed only if the cornerstones are laid properly.

Everybody wants an excellent son. But, how shall we raise and educate an excellent human being? Some might say, send them through kindergarten and college. But education is a lifetime dedication.

We need people who can establish new ways. That's why God particularly favors with love those who struggle against evil. We need parents who would dedicate themselves to their children from infancy. We need great servants dedicated to children. The Unification Church has been guiding you to become those very servants. While we look to the higher grounds, we must also be loved by those that are lowly. That is why all blessed families must struggle. When we take pity on our own children, we should also remember to take pity on all other children. In this way, no one shall fail.

Parents must be dedicated to posterity. They must be determined to leave blessings to their children. Such families will not fail.

The main problem is how the blessed families, their children, and their children's children, all three generations, may live together with their teacher. Do you understand what I am saying? Did you know that if you are a servant dedicated to three generations you would be the most meritorious in the eyes of heaven? In view of this, you must be dedicated to educating your children so that they learn these ideals.

You must raise them straight, yes, straight. If you don't have enough to eat, pray to God. If you get some bread as a result, that shows God's pity and power. Yes, that shows it. You must teach your children that heaven is taking pity on you when strangers offer help that is unexpected.

3. Subjecting Them to Hardships

There is an old Korean saying, "Whip the ones you love and feed the ones you hate." Do you understand what it means? It makes perfect sense. Why? In order to maintain the correct tradition ... one must become tear-soaked in love expressed through the parental whip. I can understand that, do you?

Everybody, did sweetness come out of bitterness or did bitterness come out of sweetness? Which came first? [Bitterness] (Laughter) Of course. The rules of life dictate that. Now, did light come out of darkness, or darkness out of light? [Light out of darkness] (Laughter) Yes, of course. So, if you accept bitterness there is an abundance of sweetness that comes out of it. Those who accept any amount of bitterness can create any amount of sweetness.

Now, love is good, love is sweet, love is bitter, which is it? "Sweet." That's for the Westerners. For the Asians, it's bitter. (Laughter) That's right. The Asians understand true sweetness. But, if you know only sweetness, you don't know what to do with bitterness. Which are more numerous? Those who want to work hard all their lives or those who don't want to work hard all their lives? Which ones? Do you prefer to live without work or with work? [Live with work]

You know the story of the grasshopper and the ant? Which one do you admire more? The grasshopper that lives off the dew drops while singing and dancing his life away in the warm sun, or the ant that works all day and all evening without rest ... Would you really want to be the ant, disfigured and darkened from overwork, not the grasshopper? (Laughter) The grasshopper only has a big mouth, just a big mouth.

When you raise your children, do you want them to be grasshoppers or ants? Which ones? [Ants] But why? Is it so that we can while away our youth as grasshoppers and then work like ants in middle age? Or, is it the other way around, working like ants while young and resting like grasshoppers later in life? Which way? [Working like ants while young] Really? [Yes] Could you enjoy singing when you are too old? (Laughter) You can enjoy just as much hearing and watching someone else sing.

4. Often Force Is Necessary

We run into obstacles whenever we expect to do everything we want or live the way we want. Why? Because this only leads to a certain ruination. The more truthful one's way of life, the more obstacles are thrown in the way. It's because we have fallen. God throws in obstacles all the way whenever we try something. That's the only way he can save mankind. We as fallen creatures cannot find our own ways of salvation. Only God can.

How does God find them? Not by abandoning mankind to their own devices, but by dragging us into a fortress to teach us a lesson. It's a form of kidnapping. It is evil to kidnap a good person in order to make him a bad one. But is it good or evil to kidnap a bad one to make him a good one through subjecting him to all sorts of trials? It is good to kidnap a bad one and, if he is stubborn, subject him to beating, leg bending, nose pulling, and so on, until he realizes, "Oh, I am a good person." It is evil to subject a good person to such trials to make him evil. But how would the evil-turned-good person feet toward his tormentor? Would he feel thankful or resentful? What's your answer? Resentful or thankful? Of course, he is thankful.

Some of you have dealt with a farm ox. During rainy days you might want to skip feeding him. The ox tail sometimes whipped me when I was young. Some of you have obviously experienced it because you are laughing. It's not just me. When you are told to take the ox out to the pasture and feed him by a certain hour of the day, but there is no grass in the pasture, what do you do? Then you say, "Well, there is a spot with good grass up on the hill. Let's go there," and take the ox up the steep hill. But on the way, the ox finds some grass, quite meager by comparison, and wants to settle there. But, you have to whip him and kick him without pity. Have you ever done that? Would the ox's feelings be hurt and refuse to eat once you finally get to the place with abundant grass? No, the ox would be ear-to-ear in gratitude and would really go to town on the good grass.

Reverend Moon understands this and has been whipping and kicking you, but you don't understand this. You don't know that there is a pasture with good grass out there. But if you knew that, you would want to be whipped and kicked to get there. Do you understand what I am saying? Once during the Korean War, I witnessed the following among the refugees. A mother was carrying her five-year-old child on her back but the fellow, not knowing anything about the war around him, was singing and having a good time. Then the mother got tired and told him to walk, and the boy refused, whining, "I don't like you, Mom. I don't want to go any more unless you carry me. Carry me, carry me." (Laughter)

What do you think the loving parents should do to the child? They must carry the child. That's the correct way. But, under the circumstances, trying to carry the child would result in both of them dying. So, what to do? You must make the boy walk. You might have to threaten him, slap him in the face, to make him walk, until you reach safety. If you were the parents, what would you do? Abandon the child? Kill the child? Or use force to take him? Which is the best method? Abandon? Kill? What to do if neither is possible? You must drag him by all means, even if you have to pull him by the nose or by the ear.

This is true love. If you dragged him by force like that he would be absolutely grateful afterward, saying, "Oh, boy, thank you, Mother for saving me, while all of my friends are dead." One would be struck by lightning if one complained about the matchmaking harm that the pulled ear or dragged nose would cause in the future. Rather, the child would renew his appreciation whenever he sees his deformed ear: "How great is my mother's love, how awesome is my mother's love," he would say this over and over as long as he lives.

Some of you say, "Our teacher lives to torture us." Don't you? I have no sympathy for you when I put you to work. I feel sympathy only when we are together. I feel like pulling you by the nose when I need to put you to work. I feet like whipping you, kicking you whenever you refuse to go. This is the correct way. Why do we have to do that? Because we want to enter the highest sphere of God's love. We want to monopolize God's love in a way that no religious teacher before, no organization before, no nation before were ever able to attain, by surpassing all that they tried to do before in history. This is the correct education, this is the correct strategy. (32-255)

5. The Love Rod

All Korean customs are like that, aren't they? When the children of wealthy families in the past didn't study, they were hit with a willow switch. The daily routine has to be followed according to strict orders. If this is not done, then people can fall. (126-24)

Education cannot happen if you say nice things all the time. The grandfather tries to educate his grandson by hitting with a willow switch saying, "Pay attention, boy!" Doesn't he? That is the method of education. Have you forgotten, when you were young, being hit and punished by your parents ... ? Especially the teachers.

I attended a private school when I was young, and our teacher usually made us write down several pages from things like the Analects of Confucius or Mencius. The next day we had to give a lecture on it. If we couldn't do it we were beaten with willow switches. Anyway I remember being beaten. I remember I hoped that the teacher's raised hand would freeze in mid air. (Laughter) I wanted him to just stand there, shaking with his hand in the air and then throw away the stick. All sorts of things raced through my mind. (101-168)

There are two types of people, those who shout "Hey!" and strike like a bolt of lightening as though the sky was breaking and there is the kind that just shouts, "Hey!" The sound of a loving "Hey!" and a furious "Hey!" may sound the same, but the two worlds are divided. One is heaven and the other is hell. Isn't that so? The rod is the same.

There are two types of beating. There is a love rod. Do you agree? A love rod. During the course of one's married life, the wife often criticizes and nags her husband. If a man friend did the same thing, there would probably be a fight. He would say, "You son of a bitch! Why are you criticizing and nagging me?" But if his wife criticizes him he just giggles. (Laughter) The fact that she tears him to pieces is because of her deep love for him. Isn't that so? There are two types of rod. (170-81)

The love rod immediately forgets. Look at my children. Because I have so many children to raise there are times when I have to punish them. The next day, everything is forgotten. Your children are very precious. You don't remember all their mistakes, saying, "I remember you did this." The rod of love forgets. (141-46)

Blessing will follow after the love rod. Do you understand? [Yes] Does a thief follow? [Blessings will follow] What! [Blessings] You like blessings, don't you? [Yes!] It is true. If the parents hit their child when he has done no wrong, then the very foundation of their fortune all melts away. The parents that like hitting their children should stand in front of their children with bowed heads, shedding tears of repentance. As far as love is concerned, there can be no king who wields his power openly and no authoritarian parent.

6. You Should Guide Your Children with Tears of Love

The words you have spoken until now have been false. They have been words that have not been spoken on the foundation of heart. From now, you have to speak words that stand on the foundation of heart. You have to speak centering on True Parents and God's thought. You must not swear as you please. You should not say to your children, "You sons of b..." You should not swear, and you should not hit them just as you please. You children are your second God. And children should not resist their parents. The parents are their first God. And their grandfather and grandmother are the God above that. (136-296)

In the field of emotions, if you feel more pity for the other person than you feel for yourself, then the way to become one will arise naturally. What do you think about parents who hit their child in anger? They should immediately repent. If a mother doesn't hit her child but rather sheds streams of tears out of pity and love for her child, it is much more effective. Isn't that so? If the mother does this, then the mother won't surrender. She will always be victorious and be able to bring her children to surrender. Actually, she will get less result if she hits them.

The older brother might be really annoyed at his younger brothers and sisters but if his mother persuades him in this way he is the one who will end up surrendering. Do you think this is possible? [Yes] So what do you need for unification? You need an emotional side. The same applies to my family. Mother has to receive my permission to hit the children. If she says, "I think I will have to punish them this once," I say, "Go ahead" and then she punishes them. When there is no other option than to punish the children, she does it in this way. I would not stand for it if she raised her hand towards the children for no reason. You must not do that. The question is with how much love did you treat your children? You have to know about these kinds of things. Do you understand? Now you know how you should live your private lives, don't you? (44-156)

7. Raise Your Children To Be One With The Will

If you give God's words without responsibility, you will lose power. If you have received God's words in your heart, then you should believe them. You have to act after having drawn the line of goodness that you have. That is why, when the noble families of long ago educated their children, they always taught their children not to speak lightly in the morning if possible. They taught them that in the morning, if possible, they should listen rather than speak. This kind of attitude is needed in one's life of faith as well. (40-73)

Blessed family members should not try to achieve God's sovereignty, God's people, or God's domain (territory) conceptually; they have to achieve it substantially, always thinking about it. It is the time to act with responsibility. So even when you take one step, it should be a step to realize your goal. When you educate your children as well, you have to think about how you can educate them to become people who can fulfill their mission in front of the Will. Even when you are breast-feeding your child, you have to breast-feed him or her having this kind of thought. (12-134)

You should become a husband and wife that the Messiah needs. You should have children that the Messiah needs. Become sons and daughters who have the tradition of the country. Follow the tradition of the sovereign. You must become parents who teach your children to do this. You must become people of love. The attitude of love is not just to say, "How cute. How cute." You have to be able to say, "Heavenly Father, how impatiently you have waited, through the thousands of years of the course of restoration, for sons and daughters whom you could love." You have to think, "Children with that kind of heart and love have to exist in order for the true country and the true world to appear." You have to think and teach your children, "Even when you are sleeping, steep in the right way."

Therefore you have to become parents who don't express your last wish when you are about to die, but who teach your children while you are alive. You have to become people who can die with thanks that you have taught your children well. You should not be parents who, when are about to express your last dying words, busily say, "Oh, don't do this or that." It is a parent's job when they die, to look back on the secrets they have shared and the deeds that they have accomplished together with joy, asking their children to do even better than the parents have done. (55-87)

Section 3. The Reason You Have to Study

1. Studying Is Not Easy

Where is the student who goes to school because he likes it? In the beginning, all children go to school because they have no choice. Moreover, elementary school students go to school because they have no choice. They are frightened of their parents. Do any children study because they like it? Everyone is like that in the beginning. They start to study because they have no choice. It is only later that they come to know the taste of teaming and go to school to learn. Then the parents are quite surprised.

When the children realize that education contains many stimulating contents, they begin to enjoy studying. They don't like study in itself, but they come to realize that their area of freedom is relative to how much they study. That's why they come to enjoy studying. There is no one who enjoys study in itself. There might be a person who enjoys sleeping, but there is no one who enjoys study from the beginning. They come to enjoy study because, through it, their area of activity is widened. (36-120)

Do you students like to go to school? Do you like studying in school? Actually, what is good about study? Think about it. You go to school early in the morning. You have to endure five or six long hours sitting down listening to the teacher. What is good about that? But you say to yourself, "What's to be done?" You study, but is studying as delicious as the food you eat when you are hungry? It's quite frustrating isn't it? Seen in this light, everyone dislikes studying. They study because they have to. (42-18)

Parents tell their children to study hard at school. But that's not easy to do. It's painful! But it is a warning for them to prepare for the future. The professor standing on the podium energetically teaching his students is also preparation for the future. A farmer going out and energetically working on his land is also preparation for the future. It is preparation for building the country. (147-205)

2. What the Purpose of Study Should Be

Rev. Moon of the Unification Church is no different than you. I might be a little fatter, but other than that, nothing is different. Then what is different? The way I look at things centering on the conscience is different. The resultant actions are different. For example, between the parents who raise their children in order to be taken care of and live well when they are old, and the parents who raise their children so the whole village can benefit, which is better? [The parents who raise their children so the whole village can benefit.] As you know that, you don't need any more education.

Going further, of the parents who raise their children to benefit the village and the parents who raise their children to benefit the country, which is better? In other words, which parent is greater? The parents who educate their sons and daughters to say, "The reason I push them to study in kindergarten, push them to study hard in elementary school, push them to study hard in middle school, push them to study hard in university, and even push them when they are studying for a doctoral degree ..." (103-199)

Most children want to play when they see their neighborhood friends. They are really happy. They are even happy to see the village dog. To the children who like to run and play about, you should say, "Hey, you little rascals. Don't do that!" If your children study, shedding tears, they will succeed in life. Who should they study for? Not for themselves. They should study for the country and the world. Do you understand? Is this good or evil? Is it bad? [It is right]

Do you like your mother and father hitting you? [Yes] If the children don't study, the fact that the mother has to say, "Your father and I are sacrificing very much to give you a good education so that you can be happy in the future. Why don't you study? I'll teach you to disobey me!" is because of the fallen history of man. The fact that you and I have to put right this world, is a pledge that you and I have made together. (97-99)

Section 4. What the Parents Should Teach

1. The Thing That Is More Important Than Study

Those people who have been blessed by me, put up your hands. All right, where do you think you are headed for? Before you heard my words, you lived as you pleased. The blessed families these days say to their second-generation children, "Study! Study! Study!" You stupid people have forgotten the very basics of the path of the life of faith. You, who have become half-wits, do you think that by telling your children to study hard, they will become faithful and filial sons and daughters? That's preposterous. They will say, "My mother and father suffered in the Unification Church, but I am not going to go that path!"

You have to teach them the way of love that will enable them to digest all these things. That is why the mother and the father have to drag their children wherever they go, even going without food, they have to show their children with tears how to love the neighborhood, and pray for the country. When they had little sense, they thought this kind of thing was a waste of time but after they come to their senses, they will say, "Our mother and father are the best!" The children know that their mother and father are not shedding tears for them. The more they grow up, the more they will come to realize that their parents will love the country and live for God's Will and to save humankind, even if it means discarding their children. I have come to realize this. They thought this is to take responsibility for the fate of this country and this race, and to be a pioneer to make the base for the restoration of humankind." Or the parents who worry about their sons and daughters' future and educate them to become people who can benefit the village? You, over there. How about answering this question? [The parents who educate their children to live for the country]

It is good to live for the country, but we were not born with the authority to be the master of one country. We are people who were born for all people, for the world. Because all the things on the earth belong to humankind, we have to live for the world. So although Koreans may teach their children to say, "I am studying for Korea," you should teach them to have a philanthropic ideology to go beyond their tribe, their nation and their race, and to become pioneers who, with the heart of a brother or sister, sacrifice their bodies and their whole lives for the restoration of humankind.

Of the parents who teach their children to be like this and the parents who teach their children to be loyal to their country, who are better? You, ladies over there. How about answering this question? Which of the parents is greater? [The parents who teach their children to live for the world] You know everything already. Yes, that's how it is. (38-233)

3. You Need to Urge Your Children To Study Hard

Parents letting their children sleep when they want and play when they want, those urging them to sleep more and play more are fine as far as I am concerned. After all, these are not bad things. Why do they keep on saying to us, "Study! Don't fight with your brother. Love your parents. Do this! Do that! Why do they tell us not to fight?" Children often wonder in this way. (95-50)

You should always urge your children on, even if they know already. If you keep on encouraging them, they will gain power. It is not good to say nothing at all. This applies to your school-aged children as well. Even if they already study hard, you should urge them to study harder. You have to do this frequently. [Laughter] You shouldn't just leave them to study or not as they please. (131-244)

Think about it. You have to push your children to study hard in kindergarten, push them to study hard in elementary school, push them to study hard in middle school, push them to study hard in university, and even push them when they are studying for a doctoral degree. (103-199)

When Hyo Jin was still young and not so wise, he didn't understand about me too well. However, the more he came to understand and grow up, the more he bowed his head, unable to lift his face before me. He is like that these days. When I leave America, he telephones his brother-in-law, although he could telephone me directly, and says, "Hey, what is Father doing these days? Find out everything and report back to me." He could ask me. Mother is here, too: he could ask her as well if he wanted to. But asking Father is .... The more he thinks like this, the less he feels able to raise his head.

When he sees me he remembers that the father of his youth and the father today is exactly the same. There is no change but ... When I see this, I feel rather sorry. And there are times when I turn my head away first. You should not live as you please. The universe will chase away that kind of person. Do you think that your children will become successful just by your worrying about them? They won't. You have to raise them giving love as the nourishment. You have to teach them the direction they can go with love. The more they grow up, the older they get, when they find a gold vein, although they thought that the mountain was not much, the more they dig the more they will come to realize that the mountain itself is just one big piece of gold. The more they dig, dig ... Do you think they will stop digging because it is difficult? (139-77)

Section 5. You Must Educate Centering on Love

Where must humans place their value standard? They should place it in the ideal world. They should place it in the ideal human being. In order to love the world, you have to love humankind, first. That's how it is. In what way should you love people? You shouldn't just love them in any old fashion. What is the method to love people? You should love humankind as a man loves a woman and as a woman loves a man.

In what way was "I" born? When you were born to your mother and father you were not born as a bride or bridegroom. You were born as sons and daughters and then you received an education about love. Isn't that true? You have to be educated about love. What kind of education must the parents give their sons and daughters? You don't have to educate them in knowledge. You have to educate them about love. Are the mother and father fighting against an education in love? There is no such phrase as "fighting love," is there?

You have to educate your children about how to be one. You have to be a mother and a father, which heaven likes. You have to be a father that the mother likes, and a mother that the father likes. When they love each other together, then "I" like my father and mother, and "they" like me. It shouldn't be, "I only like my father."

If you look at this from God's point of view or from Adam and Eve's point of view, it is the Four Position Foundation. Everything is the Four Position Foundation. Whether you look at it from this way or you look at it from that way, it is all the Four Position Foundation. That is why, centering on the love of God, you have to receive an education in love in front of God.

Where is the starting point for this? It doesn't start with people. Because God is the parent, Adam and Eve had to receive an education in love from God. And where should Adam and Eve place their value standard? In their education about the love of God. How long do you have to receive an education in love? Until the father can impart to you everything he knows about love. In other words you have to grow up receiving your parents' love until you inherit their love.

But is there any record in the Bible of Adam and Eve receiving an education in love from God? Did you look for this in the Bible? Is there, or isn't there? There is no record in the Bible about Adam and Eve having received an education in love from God. The only thing that is recorded is the bad record of Adam and Eve's fall. This put a stick in the wheels. The question I am asking is, "Did Adam and Eve, who were supposed to receive an education in love centering on the love of God, ever receive this kind of education? If they didn't, then we cannot say that God's ideal exists.

What was the standard of "love education" that Adam and Eve received? You want to go to Heaven, don't you? But you cannot receive this kind of education in the Kingdom of Heaven. You have to receive this kind of education on the earth and then go. If you don't receive this kind of education on this earth then there will be a big problem. I tell you it's a big problem. So what kind of education is that? Do you know? What kind of attitude should Adam and Eve have had if they wanted to be educated?

Because they were in a child/parent relationship to God, they should have followed Him everywhere He went. The children should follow the parents whenever and wherever they go. If the parents go up a mountain, they should follow them up the mountain. If they go down into the valley, they should follow them down into the valley. If they go into a cave, they should follow them into the cave. They should be with their parents at all times. If they don't see their parents for a while they should want to see them.

Do you think that if God had to separate from His children, He could? Because God is the absolute being, you should absolutely want to see Him. Because He is the absolute being, if you like Him, you should like Him absolutely. Do you think it is all right to say, "Well, if He wants to come, He can, if He doesn't, He doesn't. If He wants to remain somewhere, He can, if He doesn't want to, it doesn't matter to me"?

You have to be absolute in your attitude to God. So God is the mother of life. Isn't that right? The parents are the mother body of their children's lives. They are responsible for their children's lives. They are the mother body of life, the mother body of love and the mother body of protection. They protect and raise their children in love.

Where do you think happiness comes from? If the realm of protection is not established then the child's life can be threatened. God is one body He is he subject of the Dual Characteristics and because of this, although He can love within His own body, He is in the position of the male subject and female object partner as one body. And although He may be able to feel love, He cannot feel the stimulus of being a separate male and female entity.

So if Adam and Eve had been blessed in marriage, then when God saw Adam and Eve, put aside God and enjoy a more stimulating love than God did, God as the subject of love, would not have felt bad. Why? Because God is the subject who can feel joy when He relates to their position of oneness. When He feels that His object partners experience an even more valuable love than He has, then He feels happiness. I think that this is the most important law of love of the Principle of Creation. If you don't receive that kind of education, you cannot go into that position.

So in the Unification Church, in the Garden of Eden of the Unification Church, if Adam and Eve had not fallen and there was a dwelling place where Adam and Eve could have received the heartistic, internal education of love they should have received, then even if you told the Unification Church not to become a worldwide religion, it would still become so. It will become that. What do you have to feel after you have entered the Unification Church? How should you feel it? The woman has to feel the joy that she has found the best father. She has to feel the standard of hope that she truly has found the greatest partner of value. Then she has to feet the joy of having found the greatest brother of brother's in the world. (51-171)

What is the hope of creation? At the same time as wanting to receive God's love and perfected Adam and Eve's love, it also wants to receive the love of sons and daughters who were born receiving the combined love of God's love and the parents love. Therefore, what is the precious legacy of our families? You have to know that the greatest legacy, something that has never existed in the world today, is the passing on of the inheritance of God's love and true parental love, to the children. You have to introduce God well. You have to be able to teach your children well about what kind of love God's love is but you don't know it. You have to become parents who stand in place of God and love with His love and put God in place of your own parents. (93-336)

Your heads are shaking loosely. This is a problem. Your heads shouldn't be shaking loosely. The communists are whispering, all sorts of people are whispering. How strongly do you believe in the Unification Church? Do you believe as much as I do? Then am I victorious? You have to have an absolute character. An absolute character centers on true love and never concerns itself with immoral things. That is the standard.

You have done all manner of things in your past, haven't you? Some of you, even after joining the Unification Church think back to your past with affection, thinking, "Oh ... I've joined the Unification Church. I did that in the past, I would like to live like that again." Isn't that so? [No!] No? Receiving the blessing in that kind of state is a big problem. This is why you have to go through a three-year separation period in the Unification Church. You have to pass through this three-year course. Don't even dream' about immoral things. Do you understand what I am saying?

Absolute love. Who does absolute love begin with? [God] And then? [True Parents] And then? [True Children] I see you seem to know it. You have to know this clearly. I say, you have to know this clearly. The Four Position Foundation can not happen if this is not realized. Can anybody explain to you that your parents are not your parents? [No, they can't] That is an absolute truth. It is absolute. It's the same. You have to think like that when you become husband and wife. It is an absolute relationship. You have to know that just as you cannot deny your mother and father, you cannot deny your wife. Because you are that kind of couple, you cannot deny your children. You cannot deny your children. You have to establish the tradition. (106-74)

Section 6. The Lesson That Rev. Moon Teaches

Parents have to teach their children to be filial sons and daughters and to study in order to be able to let them inherit the future tradition. Just letting them do what they want means that the parents are not fulfilling their responsibility and so they have to use any means possible to have their children inherit God's tradition. So what is the lesson that Rev. Moon teaches? Love the ideal country, world and heaven, which loves "me." (95-64)

If you hit something with your left hand, where does it go? It goes to the right. And if you hit with your right hand, where does it go? It goes to the left. So you have to hit good people on the left side to make them go along the right way. It is the same for evil people as well, but who hits the evil people? God does. He says, "Don't do as the world does. Are you going to continue doing this?" And He has a neighboring country hit them, if need be. He says, "Go along the right way." The good of this world and the good of heaven is different.

So we have to go along this ridgeline and in order to do that we shouldn't have any baggage. You shouldn't eat and eat until you are full. Feeble from hunger, as though your very life was in the balance, you have to cross over a mountain range that is something like the 38th parallel. Why do you have to do this? In order to completely separate your self from the satanic world. You shouldn't hold onto anything at all from the satanic world and. You should cross over to God's side completely clearing up everything from the satanic world. This teaching is given by God to the children He loves the most, in order that the unified world can be realized. The family which has received this ideology, must stand in that position, the race that has received this ideology, must stand in that position, and the nation which has received this ideology must stand in that position. (18-236)

1. The Things You Should Say to Your Children

When you teach your children you should not say to them, "You must become a great person." You should say, "In order to become a great person, you should do this, this and this. You should go along this path." The father fulfilling the father's position; the mother, the mother's; the older brother, the older brother's; the older sister, the older sister's; the whole family should fulfill its responsibility. In other words you have to know how to select according to your position, the bond of the true brother or sister, the true couple, the true relative who can go along the path of the true man and true woman. And you have to become people who don't violate God's law. We have to pass through a numerical course for the road to become one people, to be open. Do you understand? (68-332)

From the spiritual standard, what is the final blessing that true humankind should seek? There is one thing. What is the hope of children who have lost their parents and are like orphans? It is not money. It is not the law. Their one and only desire is for their dead father and mother to come back to life.

In the same way, what I am saying is, if we want to give a present to humankind, let us give the greatest present in the true sense of the word. Let us introduce the true things to them. Let us show them the right and proper things. Let us teach them things, which are absolutely true.

What should we teach them? We shouldn't teach them how to make money. And we don't want to teach them to study hard and get on in the world. For this time and age today, we have to teach them the way to go as true children who are connected to the True Parents, which are the hope of all humankind. There is no greater value than that. (26-50)

You have to educate your children from this kind of position. You have to become the true mother and father who educate your children saying, "Even if I die, you have to pick up the baton in the relay race we are running and keep going. The reason I am suffering as I am, is to save the world. It is only in this way that the ideal world can come about. And because this is surely God's hope, True Parents' hope, your father's hope, your mother's hope, and your, hope, too, it is also the eternal, unchanging hope that all the people in heaven and earth can praise." You have to know that you must pass on this baton even with your last dying breath. Do you understand or don't you? [We understand] Will you do it, or won't you? [We will do it]

Then the parents of a family have to become parents who can stand in the place of God. The parents should teach their children saying, "My sons and daughters, love your brothers and sisters more than you love me. You have to know how to love your neighbors, your country and the world." You have to educate your children in this way in order for you to be able to gain the qualification to be the true parents amongst parents. Why is this? Because it is only through doing this that your sons and daughters and your household will be able to enter the position of goodness, and centering on this goodness, develop. Are your mother and father like that? [Yes] You have to understand these things. (95-153)

Even though the parents may call their children and say, "You should become this or that kind of person, and you should do this or that kind of work." It is not as great as saying to them, "You should become a person who knows God." Telling someone to become a person who knows God is the greatest teaching. Many people say, "God!" before they die. But even through the greatest hardship and suffering, you have to become people who can say as their final words, "I know God." (11-308)

Religion is the ground of teaching. What is the ground of teaching of the family. The parents should teach their children, "Hey, even though you grew up in any old fashion, there is one thing you should not forget. You have to love God more than you love your parents, and you have to love your country more than you love your parents." And the children have to accept that their parents are true parents. (127-291)

Human beings have set up moral laws that teach children to be filial children centered on their family, which teach husband and wife to live for each other and teach that parents should love their children. But the Heavenly Law is wider than that. Human moral laws teach to act centering on the individual, heavenly moral laws teach to act centering on heaven. You should love, but love as God loves. "I am the longing master. I long after this earth. Have the love and heart to embrace all things." This is what the Heavenly Law tells us. The returning point of Heavenly Law starts with this. The returning point for humankind starts with the individual family but the returning point of the Heavenly Law starts with the universal family which will appear in the Last Days. (8-106)

You have to become upright parents and as upright parents, give upright education to your children. Upright education means that even if it means causing them greater sadness than any other person before, you should teach them, for their future, to live for the world. Doing this is for the society, for the country and for the world. (97-99)

2. Precious Things Transcend Education

Let us say that there are sons and daughters who have received their parents love. Can you explain to children who have never received their parents' love what it is? Even if you explained for a thousand years they could never know it. Would they understand if you said, "Parents' love is like this. The love between parents and children is like this. The love between couples is like this"? Even if you explained for billions of years, could they understand what it is? Do you think that there is a way to know? There is no way. That kind of thing is learned through experience.

You have to have children before you can say, "Oh, parental love for children is like this. Now I see." No matter how enthusiastically you explain to a couple without children about parental love, they will never understand. That kind of thing can only be realized through experience. It is not something you can learn. Is love something you can learn through knowledge or anything else other than experience? No, it isn't. Am I right or wrong? Learning about love transcends education. That is how it is. (60-78)

Can you learn about Mom and Dad's love for their children at school? Have you ever seen a school that teaches this? And is there a person who has ever learned about love in this way? Love is something that you can know, even without learning. When a man and a woman meet, they haven't learned how to make babies. In the family as well, when the husband and wife who are from different backgrounds meet no one has taught them how to make a family. Love is not something you can be taught, it is not, "This is what it is. Have a taste." And it is not something you can learn through a scientific experiment. No one taught this long, long ago, and millions of years from now neither will a school, which teaches it, appear. (23-120)

Do babies come out having learned about love in the womb? Is a baby born knowing how to use a spoon? How about chopsticks? Everything starts birth. They have never used a spoon before, have they? (172-180)

The same applies to water, too. Does anyone teach you that you must drink water in such and such a way? Have you learned it somewhere, or not? Of course, you haven't learned it. You don't need to learn the most precious things. (23-21)

If Adam and Eve stand in the position of the parents of horizontal true love, then the vertical standard appears naturally. If the horizontal standard is completely established then it goes without saying that there will be children whom the parents love. When you had your children, who taught you how to love them? Have you ever learned this? [No, never] You have never learned but you still know how to love them. Why is that? Because it is the Heavenly Principle. It's the root. The root.

If you go into the sphere of original human beings, it is like this. God is the center of my mind. The existence of the mind indicates that you are born inheriting the heavenly vertical parentship. The mind which is born from the vertical parents becomes one with the body which is born from the horizontal parents. Where? When they become one at the 90 degree angle, and go into this position here, then everything can be seen. Who God is, where hell is, you can see all of heaven and earth. You don't need education. In the world of animals, even in the small world of insects, they love, don't they? There is no animal that doesn't have male and female. This applies to the world of minerals as well. No one teaches them, it just takes place naturally. (187-116)

You have graduated from this university or this graduate school ... Studying is difficult, isn't it? If you are in a position where you are completely one with God, inside and out, without learning anything you will know everything already. You will be a person who knows everything. Instead of learning through research, you will know what heaven and earth is, you will know what the spiritual world is, you will know how to live your life. Learn? You don't need to learn. Even the baby insects know what to eat after they are born. They know how to survive. They know this from the family lineage. The supreme lord of creation knows everything already about what to eat and what not to eat and everything else. Even though we should have become that kind or marvelous person, the fact that we didn't was because of the fall. Even though man fell, the relationship between these two, the subject and object, is following the action of the original nature. Because the dirt resultant from the action between these two has piled up until today, if we remove this dirt then the action between these two will gradually become stronger. And the day it is removed completely is the day that you will suddenly know everything. Humankind has been searching for the road which makes this possible until today. Do you understand? You have to understand this. (56-153)

3. Things You Should Pay Attention to When Teaching

Is the Unification Church made up of ghosts, Spirit Gods? Are we Divine Spirits or just physical beings? The Divine Principle teaches that we will become Divine Spirits. We are Divine Spirits, or Spirit Gods. When we ask where God the creator of the vast universe is, He is not somewhere else. He is amongst the descendants who have been born with the connection of vertical true love. God is amongst the men and women who have been born inheriting the true blood lineage of the vertical parents of true love.

Where is God? He is within love. He is within true love. If my mind and body establish true love, then God will be there. Where is God's house? True love is God's house. If you reach that standard of original man who has not fallen, the parents of humankind are the vertical parents. Centering on true love, who are the horizontal parents of the horizontal parents? [True Parents] This is the ideology of the Messiah. What does Messiah mean? You have to know this. I have to explain this to you clearly. If I don't teach you then when we go to the spirit world you will say, "Why didn't the mother and father who have the name of True Parents teach me these things?" If Mother doesn't teach you then at least I have to teach you in order to be free of any accusation. (188-217)

So what do you have to live centered on? The family in which the parents center on their children, teaching them, "We must not be separated," will be ruined. On the other hand, the family in which the parents teach their children to live for the society, and the nation, will prosper. The family, in which the parents say, "I am a butcher, so you must become a butcher or, I am a salesman, so you must become a salesman," will be ruined.

All parents say to their children, "You must become a great person for the sake of the country." But today the world is already at our front door. So the age for saying, "Live for the country," has passed. We should educate them now, saying, "You have to become a world level figure" Are you doing this or not? This is what we are supposed to do. Live together with the world! Because I know your state of mind, I am giving you this kind of conclusion. (28-192)

There are many difficulties for parents raising their loving children. However, you have to endure these difficulties and raise your children pledging yourself for tomorrow's hope. Because the parents love the country, it is not a sin for them to treat their children better than the country. When you love your children more than you love the country, having the hope that you will have your children keep the future country safe, it is not a sin.

In other words, because you were not a loyal subject to the country, loving your children more than the country in order to have them take your place, being the loyal subjects of the future, is not a sin. On the other hand, it is a sin if you don't try to make them into loyal subjects of the future, and love your children more than you love the country, hoping that they will be filial to you alone. All the formulas are like this. (33-328)

In your families, you mothers have to become heartistic mothers. You have to become heartistic mothers of righteousness. When you make a mistake in the way you relate to your children, you must repent. There are some people, who feel resentful when their husband swears at them once, but then turn around and treat the children in the same way.

If heaven has sent you children that heaven and earth can love, the mother has to embrace them with a love even greater than that. She must pray for their blessing, and also become a foundation through which she can help them to have the heartistic relationship with heaven. If you don't do this ... You have to know just how important the position of the mother is. Do you understand? [Yes]

You should raise your children in your family, but you should not think about telling them that they should become children who, centering on your family give love only to you. If you are a Unification Church member, even when you start breast feeding your baby, you have to think that your baby is living for heaven and earth. If you probe the connection of your sons and daughters you will find that they are the children originating before the Fall of Adam and Eve which God had planned to create, and that they are connected to the heart of God.

So your sons and daughters are beings that will represent the historical re-creation. But you are just embracing them saying, "My son. My daughter." So when Unification Church family members bring up their children, they should know how to treat them with respect. It is not right to swear at your children saying this and this. No, that is not the order of things. You should have hope and that hope is passed on to your children. Everything is connected, be it through the children, through your spouse or through your parents. We can say that the remaining hope of humankind is the hope that will be set up by Heaven, but you can only achieve this hope through the way of the Heavenly moral law. (8-108)

Don't show your tears to your children. Don't let them hear the sound of fighting voices. That kind of thing is very frightening to the children. They worry about their parents more than they worry about heaven, the country, or anyone else. Don't make the clean way dirty. It is good to have children but if you don't raise them in the right way you are failures as parents. This is a very serious matter. You must treat them very carefully. They are the second God. Isn't that so?

When you hug your children, centering on heart, embrace them as though you were embracing humankind from God's position, with the heart of truly great parents, so that they can give hope to the world, taking the place of the country, the world and heaven. As a filial son and daughter, you make children who can comfort God. You give them to the universe and make them belong to the cosmos. In order to fulfill this great work, from now on you must both take up the burden. Just because they are still rough, you must not treat them as though they are like some kind of wart stuck on the side of the body. (183-143)

4. Foundation Parents Are Required to Have

1) The Foundation of Faith You Should Establish First

You are the same. In order to be sons and daughters of God, you have to build the condition in which you love Satan like God, who has been in the position to love Satan. You must build this condition at the level of individuals, families, nations and the world. I, your teacher, am indemnifying them representing you as such a huge abyss surrounds you. Do you understand? (136-172)

Well, the Unification Church uses the term "spiritual children." Spiritual children? There is no such phrase in the dictionary. What does the phrase, spiritual children mean? There are two kinds of ancestors for us people living in the fallen world at present in our path to find God. One is the ancestor found in the fallen world and the other is the ancestor of our direct line. Those are the two ancestors.

Until now, there have been only fallen ancestors. Not just spiritually. We have fallen not only spiritually but also physically. Although our ancestors exist, God cannot recognize them. That's why Christianity talks about spiritual salvation. The age of Christianity is for spiritual redemption and the age of the Second Advent is for substantial redemption. The coming Messiah is an ancestor. He must prepare spiritual and substantial ancestors. And God has to find his own children. I myself have to give birth to babies and God has to have his children through me, not from ordinary people. (125-109)

Well, you need to know what spiritual sons and daughters are. They represent three things. First, the necessity of the archangel's restoration. Second, the restoration of the whole satanic world. Third, to be in the state of children who can be blessed. Therefore, spiritual parents should graft spiritual children onto their real children. To whom do spiritual children have to be grafted? They have to be grafted onto their spiritual parents' direct children. Do you understand? To whom? Do they need to be grafted onto their spiritual mother or father? As they are your children, they should be grafted onto your direct children. (127-61)

Your spiritual children should be completely together with each other. If you marry, you have babies in your womb. Three of your spiritual children have to obey and yield to your babies from when the babies are in the womb. The restoration of Cain and Abel was done after they were born. But basically, they should have been restored when they were in the womb. Who is Cain? He is an archangel. Who is Abel? He is Adam.

The role of archangel was to attend Adam from the moment Adam was created. Don't you think so? That's why your children have to be taken care of by your spiritual children from when they were born. When Adam was created, the archangel helped with the work of creation, but after he was born, he fell. For the purpose of restoration through indemnity you need three spiritual sons and daughters who should serve your babies when the babies are in the womb, which means they should be in the position of servants completely. Otherwise they cannot be restored entirely as three archangels in the spirit world. Don't submit to Adam. Isn't that so? If you don't decide to do it, you can never escape from the interference of Satan completely.

When did I do it then? Ye Jin and Hyo Jin were born during a period of three years. Three years. During that period, all of you went to rural districts and fought. You fought but did the work inside. You restored it through indemnity inside yourself. When babies are in the womb, we give them whatever they would like to eat and do for them whatever they want. Like this, you should be placed in the position of respecting them with the determination that you will give them your life and all your property. Otherwise three archangels in the spirit world cannot restore the standpoint of serving Adam through indemnity. You cannot restore through indemnity fundamentally. This is the major purpose of the Unification Church. You cannot go to heaven if you don't completely get out of the condition which enables Satan to interfere. (160-88)

2) The Characteristics of Oriental Thought and the Thought of the Unification Church

In Korea when they write with a brush, which part is big? The beginning part or the finished part? [The beginning part] The beginning part is big and the lower is thin. It means that the center of a cause is up and the center of a result is down. Down is a standpoint not for settling down but for revolving. The love of parents exists in members of a family. It is a point to rotate around, not to settle down. Settling down means we have to return to God.

When our love for God is bigger than that for our children, I think that it can be in accord with the center of universal principles and love. That's the reason why Oriental thought in which we might give up our wife and children but must not give up our parents, is great. However, how about Western manners? Down is bigger. They are beginning not from the top but from the bottom, which means they are starting from "me" and getting higher and higher. I am in the center of everything. It does not concern the parents. Therefore, God has made an effort to mix those two thoughts. (126-250)

Oriental thought teaches us that we should sacrifice our family in favor of saving the nation when it is in great danger. At the same time it teaches us the necessity of sacrificing a nation to save the world and universe. But you don't have such instruction in America, do you?

The Principle of the Unification Church introduces the view of the world centering on God. It suggests to us the way of living as individuals, families, and tribes. But the rules don't come from Reverend Moon. They are the reflection of Heavenly Law. If you don't follow these, you cannot enroll in the other world. The order in which to get higher education is through primary, middle, high, undergraduate, postgraduate schools and then a doctoral course. In the spirit world when God asks you what you did in your life before the church, you must not answer that you lived with a husband and children.

God has lost the world. Therefore, you should say, "Although I lived with my husband and children I loved God and all human beings and tried to realize God's will and live with God. So, there was a lot of persecution against my family." Saying, "My father was starved to death living there, and my mother was beaten to death while she was witnessing." is something to be proud of. You don't have to be ashamed of these things. You should know that the lives of unprepared people are the same as the voices of resentment falling into death. (147-195)

3) Lessons Learned from Abraham's Offering of Isaac

Grandfather Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldees, his hometown. One day God asked him to go from one strange place to another. Then God ordered him to give himself as an offering. So he followed the Will. But did he suggest it first? He didn't even pray, " God, I have already prepared a table for you, then would you please take it?" He didn't think about it. But God came and said, " You worked hard, so I will bless you. Give me an offering, and your offspring will be as many as the stars in the sky and sand on the ground."

So he did it. While serving, he should have cut the pigeon in half. But he didn't because he thought it wasn't important. How could he cut such a small pigeon? However, why was God so angry? God promised to bless him, but afterwards he said to him that his offspring would be slaves for four hundred years. Did the man think God was the real God? He could have thought of God as Satan.

What was Abraham's great aspect? He took the words of God seriously. When God gave him such a punishment he considered it much more fearfully than if he killed himself, so Grandfather Abraham is great. Owing to the enormous mistake he had made, he got a big shock but he still respected God. So when he was asked to kill his own son he decided to perform it immediately hoping that he might be forgiven. We should know how deliberately he considered God's order until he determined to follow it. Therefore, he could offer his son -- given miraculously by a blessing from God at the age of a hundred years -- as a sacrifice.

God gave it and then took it back? Can it be believed? All those things are a contradiction. According to human thinking, it was an absolutely mistaken order. Even the fathers of the fallen world would not have done so if they had wished their children to be happy. How much more should God not have done such a thing? Here is a deep meaning that we do not know. Generally, human beings cannot love anyone more than themselves. We cannot think beyond ourselves. Although a person is in love he does not want to love only the other, without loving himself as well. We tend to make ourselves a plus and then love others. Men don't want to do anything by denying themselves.

Despite it all, Abraham chose the way of love in the position of denying himself. What kind of love did he try to look for? He wanted to find the love of God. Denying himself, his tribe and relatives, which family and tribe did he find? We should know that it was Abraham who found the family and tribe that God could be happy with even though the world objected. In spite of the fact that he gave his son as a sacrifice he deeply desired to realize the tribe and the nation which God could be pleased with. As this desire surpassed any other difficult conditions, he could overcome the way of a wanderer safely.

We need to know that he could only go along the way, which God directed, forgetting such difficulty because his desire was great and his heart was always strong. (57-295)

What kinds of people can go to Heaven? What was the reason that Abraham became a spiritual father? Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice for burning. The reason he did that was for the sake of his descendants in the future. This was his motivation. How tragic it was when he offered his own son for the children in the future. The people capable of offering their sons and daughters as sacrifices for the future more than for the present will pull the foundation for the future right into the present. Abraham gave his son for the world of the future. He loved his sons and daughters more than anything in his age and in the future. But he could offer his son to God as he had the heart of loving all human beings more than his son.

4) Love Your Sons and Daughters Having the Ideal Standard of a Country

Your sons and daughters are important and necessary. But when you consider all aspects, you should not live thoughtlessly. You should live a life doing everything -- breathing, walking, and praying -- for the whole purpose. When you fulfill this you can go with the fortune of heaven. All members of the Unification Church should realize this. You do everything that you want and ignore God's will. Do you think that is right? When you do the national and worldwide things with a thorough attitude, Heaven can be restored. Heaven isn't made in your life of itself. You have to build it on your own. (18-215)

You sometimes show off your children to me although they were born with my blessing. It is the same in Western countries. You phone me from all over the countries, then say, "Father, please give a name to my son or daughter." You ask me to give names to your children. You call me again and again. You rascals! Are you so busy naming your children? You shouldn't do that. You should love your children after you are equipped with the qualifications to love the country.

Aren't you supposed to love your children after you love God? God is the God of all countries, and He is the center of the universe. As a result, if you love him you gain the qualification to love heaven and earth. You get a condition in which you loved the country, the race, the tribe, the family and the individual. You love the bigger and if you qualify for it ... Do you understand?

Well, is the father who kisses his baby on its lips allowed to do it? When you kiss your new born baby because it is cute, did you do so with God's approval? As a husband when you hold your wife and kiss and love her, have you received God's approval? If you didn't it's horrifying. Put the brakes on your hand and your lips. Stop! Emergency brakes! Screech! And you fall on your back with surprise. I am asking you, did you ever put on the brakes? (125-254)

It is my responsibility and also God's to do this in order to save the world. Isn't it certain? [Yes] When you think, "Why are True Parents doing that?" you should think at the same time that their responsibility is to digest the world but they haven't finished it yet. If you took at a chimpanzee in Africa they eat lice. (Laugher) Fathers and mothers should be better than a chimpanzee. Do you understand? Fathers and mothers should do more than that. (129-151)

5) You Should Regard the Will as the Greatest Importance

Today we are living for the Will and the world, so we are living for our offspring. (43-229)

How can you become the person God relies on? What should we consider as the first thing to become such a person? This is the question. You should be a good example before the Will and material things. Do you get what I mean? You should be a person to show your children a fine example following the Will. You should not care for material things more than the Will. You should take care of the Will more than your children. You should cherish the Will more than your husband or wife. (41-88)

Children can notice immediately whether their parents are good or not. If you move forward steadily for the Will, the day the world recognizes them will come. Even though a couple dies they should leave the way of heaven. What does the family exist for? Although it is for the children, it should exist for the country and God first. It is the way to benefit your children in the end. It is the only course in which your children can be together with the fortune of God, the world and the nation. Therefore, although the children have trouble in some way you should not assist them but help God, the world and the nation. (21-88)

What kind of person can inherit history? What should the descendants of future generations have done in order to take over? The man should be a person who lives for the world, all human beings and the spirit world. It is the principle that people who live for those two worlds can inherit it. Do you understand?

Section 7. Parents' Responsibility

1. You Should Be A Model First

When can you adore my family as the Abel type family and at the same time when can your children become one with mine? This is the problem. To do so, you should give them the education of heaven. Teaching them, you should be an example first. You should be a dutiful son first. When you yourselves become devoted sons and daughters following the rules of heaven, the relationship of traditional filial piety of heaven will be established.

From that position you have to teach your sons and daughters the moral way to live for the Will and become loyal subjects of the Heavenly Kingdom. You have to become the parents who can grab hold of your children's hands letting them drink the tears you shed, teaching them that the country they are living in is not their real nation; rather, that they are a people without a nation, but that there is a nation which they will have to serve.

Just as you can hear the breath of a baby in your embrace, you have to come close to them, teaching them from the position where they can shed tears worrying about heaven together with you. You have to teach them to become filial sons and daughters, just as their father is filial, and to be loyal subjects just as their father has written the history of struggle, working for the nation even in the face of great persecution. I have, until now, made it the absolute purpose of my life to worry about how I can leave this tradition to you. (30-113)

Parents cannot force their children to be filial, teaching them to be dutiful. The thought of being filial should come from the heart. Therefore, it cannot come true over night. It should influence them for a long time. What does the word 'influence' mean? A father should show a good model of himself in his daily life to his son. You should be a specialist to practice such things. (29-99)

What are you going to tell your children? You should now teach and show your children, husbands and wives, how to take over the tradition in its official aspects, recollecting the past. So children themselves ... This is not something they can learn in school. In order to inherit the tradition they should show off and give the things they learned from school to their parents. Do you understand? [Yes] Then the flowers of love will bloom. A family of love will come true. (111-257)

Parents should be a good example following the Will. You should show children a life of faith such as praying, and serving in your house as seriously as other Christians. And you should make them realize how important the pledge ceremony is. During this time you should teach children as parents with the Will as well as perform the ceremony. Parents should practice something first, for the sake of educating the children. Parents should be devoted to God's Will. By it, you can make them never talk back whatever you say and respect you. Otherwise they won't obey their parents.

As children look at the parents centering on the Will, and the principle, they know their parents ignore what the headquarters directs and don't live as it says. But if they force the children to live following the fundamental truth, their children will laugh at them. Considering that kind of problem, you cannot avoid taking a new took at reality. (31-268)

We should love and harmonize with each other and have to be able to give and sacrifice first, making such love a rule to keep. As the subject of love is Abel, he gives it to the object first. That is the origin of love. (66-123)

What is the basis of living to be a good example? It is to be a man who is required to find God, to brighten our history, to improve this age and to take part in developing the future. I will assume the responsibility and carry it with me considering reality. It is necessary to keep the achievement you attain during a certain time as property you own in history. You should know this clearly. (21-232)

2. The Role of a Mother

What do babies like most after they are born? Of course they like eating. They like drinking mother's milk. But they aren't always fond of drinking milk. They like not only drinking it but also watching mother. In fact, they are drinking for the purpose of looking at mom. Therefore, a mother doesn't think it is a waste of time to breast feed her babies. A relation is made like that. A mother misses her baby because she gives to it infinitely. As she gives it her life and earnestness, she treats the baby with an absolute relation so it would obey her as much as she loves it. (27-55)

A great mother educates her children to persist in whatever difficult positions arise in order to be good people who affect the world. Because they know the principle of heaven, the goodness of mothers never fails. (13-238)

Even though a mother stays where she is all of her children come into her arms. It is possible within love. No matter what difficulties parents have, if they embrace their beloved children in their arms, they gain power. They should lose power in such hardships but they get stronger. As a result, they feel joy in that action. They are weary and exhausted but gain strength made from love. If something is hit by a force all of it is destroyed.

When you see your sons and daughters you should be mothers who can pray to God for them lest they should be unlucky and banished from the parents. "God, I know the grievous heart you felt when you lost Adam and Eve so, please never allow these children to be like them. As those children can't indemnify, if they have to be forgiven please, let me take the responsibility for them."

3. The Role of a Father

Husbands should tell the children that their mother is a person to be much more respected than any other great men's wives in history. And she is different from other mothers in loving the world and the country. You should also teach them that their mother is living in a small and poor house but that she is the best mother in the world. Every member of the family should give their whole mind to the mother. Children should consider their mother as the greatest woman and sing a song for the mother wishing her the blessing of God. The husband should also offer a fervent prayer for his wife. When those things are done, a new historical tradition will come into being. Do you understand? (37-69)

The husband who has a wife that loves her children should be thankful to her. (134-315)

Who has to take the responsibility to bring them up and shelter them? A father should do that. (29-95)

Michael Mickler