Siblings Unite Based on Parents' Love

In my childhood, I would often look at bird nests. Once I climbed a tree to look into a nest, and the mother bird started pecking at me. She was desperate and willing to die to protect her nest, and not only once.

When I brushed her aside, she flew away, and then came back. Seeing this, we cannot deny the powerful instinct of animals to transcend their own lives to protect their offspring. It is similar with human beings. You should be able to invest your li
fe for the sake of love. That is the way of a true person. 

Reverend Sun Myung Moon



Truly good people are those who have established love as their root.

They try to protect their loved ones even at the cost of their own lives.

This is where goodness originates.  This is something that will never change.

Father Moon speaks about the magnificence of parenthood seen even in nature:

"When I was in Danbury prison, I witnessed an interesting thing. A slope was being bulldozed into a tennis court.  However, when the rainy season came, work had to stop for a few weeks until the weather cleared up.

During the delay, a water bird built a nest only three meters away from the path the inmates used for their exercise. 

The water bird was not easily noticeable as her colors allowed her to blend into the background.

Therefore, while she was guarding her eggs, no one realized she was there, even through they repeatedly walked right by her.

When the water bird curled up, she looked just like a round black stone from the side, but when her eggs hatched and the baby birds started feeding, they were pretty noisy and gave away their location.

Several of the inmates tried to mess around with the water bird, but she proved very capable of protecting her young. 

When she returned with food, she never landed close to her nest, but chose different locations, then slowly crept over to her chicks.

Every day she approached from a different direction in order to protect her young. This is how she protected them. 

As her chicks grew larger, she would make lots of noise and peck any inmates who came too close. She was clearly warning them to stay away."



Who could have taught the water bird to be like this?  It is the power of the universe.

All things in creation are on a level plane centering on God's love as the axis.   Even though each may hold different positions on that plane, their level of love and care is the same.

Even a honey bee cannot be separated from the taste of nectar from a flower.  It will not let go, even if its abdomen is torn off.  True Love is like this.

True love is not based on gain that can be calculated.   You can cast away your life for it.  Being able to forsake and disregard one own's life is the path of true love.  Parents walk this path.

Parental heart willingly goes the way of death for the sake of love. 

When we look at the case of parents, if their children are in mortal danger, parents will willingly die in place of their child.  This is true love.

Imagine a man that can boasts about all the accomplishments he has throughout the world.  He is extremely wealthy through his own hard work, sweat and tears.

But if his child is suddenly faced with a life-and-death situation or he is told his child has terminal cancer, none of those things will matter anymore.

He would sacrifice his own life and all of his wealth and possessions to save his child's life.

Parental Love Is Eternal

Since parental love is so sacrificial, do you think there is a limit to the parents' love for their children?

Parents not only love their children during childhood, but their love will continue through the child's entire life and even into eternity.

If the parent and child are able to establish a relationship that brings increasing worth and value, then infinite stimulation, then something new will arise within that relationship.

The parent-child relationship is the greatest gift God gave to us.

The love of a mother or father is one of the greatest forms of love in the human world. 

Even people who are in the highest positions in society are vulnerable to the needs of their children.

Parental love is the mother of all kinds of love.

Love toward children is unconditional and unlimited.  Therefore, those who grow up without receiving parental love thirst for it most of all.

Even though an orphan may have a house to sleep in and food to eat, they will always lack and long for something in their heart.

They long for the love of a parent.  Most of you were raised by loving parents.

Whether the children are young or old, their parents always love them.

Even when their children are seventy years old, they will still look at him the way they used to when they raised him long before; this is the parental heart.

As the children grow, the parents' heart continues to draw even closer.

The sense of responsibility toward their children increases.  The heart to live for the sake of the children deepens even further.

You can see this when we see how parents relate to their children in society.

Parents go through many difficulties for the sake of their children, but do not feel the hardship. 

This is because they love their children. After giving their flesh and blood to their children, do parents keep a record?

No.  They are rather pained at not being able to give their children even more.  The same is for mothers, correct?

When women breastfeed your babies, if they are unable to feed well you feel worried.

Isn't it true as you raise your children that they take away your flesh and blood?  In a sense, aren't children the greatest of all thieves?

Yet, mothers still feel anxious when their babies do not feed properly .

Why is it that parents love their children so much?

It is because this is the law of love.

A mother's touch when her baby is feeding at her breast is centered on love.  Also, when she holds her baby, the mother experiences a beautiful calm atmosphere.

This is because heaven and earth entered a state of peace.

This is why no matter how much trouble babies can be, mothers still have room in their hearts to accept and even encourage such behavior.

In one sense, we can think of a baby while he is getting his proper nourishment sucks out his mother's flesh and blood.

Yet, there is no loving mother who would stop giving her children in this sense.  There is no limit to the love parents feel for their children.  

Through raising a baby, this allows multitudes of chances of discovery of new things.  For instance, a baby stimulates new hope for the mother and father.  At such times, there are also new realizations.  This bond is unchangeable.

Parental Love Sets the Standard for All Forms of Love

Parental love is the highest.

Those who were blessed to have been raised with true parental love become well-rounded people and understand the full dynamics of love.  Children will never forget their parents' love.

Therefore, the family is the school of love.  Therefore the full experience of parental love is impossible without parents.

We speak about the depth of parental love, but what should the love among children be like?

What should be used as the standard for loving?  Brothers and sisters should love each other just as their father and mother do.

We should learn about about brotherly and sisterly love from our parents.

They should be able to say to their parents, "Our mother and father are the greatest in the whole world.  They stand in the position of God."

When children witness their parents' unchanging hearts and see the love shared between their parents, they say, "Let us learn from this love and become united among ourselves as well."  This is an ideal family taking root.

When children grow up into adulthood, they will soon search for a partner with whom their mind and heart can be one.

This is only realized through marriage: when a man and woman thus totally respect each other and strive to establish the standard of love and heart.

You should have a family in which the mother and father can unite with God's heart and love.  Then the children take after their loving parents and also unite with God's heart and love.

This is the order of tradition of love: the elder brother, as a representative of the parents sacrifices himself and loves his younger siblings centering on the parents' love.  The position of elder brother brings with it the responsibility to suffer most among his siblings.

This is the same with the parents' position, who also suffer the most for the sake of the children.  If parents shed tears and sacrifice for the sake of their children, the children will naturally want to follow their parents.

When parents and children relate based on God as the center, then the children will express love to each other in many different ways.

The older child should love the younger sibling int he same way that the parents love him.

In a family that is united through such a love, the love within that family will continuously blossom.  Then it will become the love within a society and within a nation.

In this way the world becomes the world of love.

Why do you receive love from your parents?

It is because the father and mother's original motivation to rely on each other and love each other originates in you their child.

Therefore, when brothers and sisters love each other centering on that initial motivation, their love also will not change.

Similarly, when you think of your neighbor as if he was your own self, the right social environment will develop.

We must understand that the family is at the formation stage, society is at the growth stage and the nation is the completion stage.  You must go through each of these three stages.

All families then should be linked together.

Only then will love develop among the society and unity will be realized on the national level.  All of this stems from the love of a family.

Society is divided into many sectors.  Even though the company has one CEO at the head, how many heads of states does a country have?  It is just one, right?

One person is responsible.  In this way, there is a unified pattern that is established while the scale increases.  Becoming one, but also being divided into many parts is the essence of the four-position relationships within a family. (siblings, parents, spouse, centered on God)

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Having Family Brings Completeness

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Four-True Family, Chapter Eight, Section 5-7