Four Worlds of Heart in Family

All the evidence from the previous posts show that there is something important for human development in the very structure of the family.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon summarizes that roles in the family create a certain 'realm of heart'. This heart fostered between the relationships between mother-father, parents-children, siblings, and God and family becomes a school for love.

People learn about love through being sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers.

“The family teaches by its form,” as educator Gabriel Moran explains it.

Each realm of heart reflects an aspect of God's love.

God is the Parent of all parents. He has the absolute love that surpasses the love of even model parents. With that love He can embrace all the parents of the world. In fact, God created man from His parental love.

Without that love from God, we die.

God is always ready to give the type of love that is best suited for the person who is seeking a relationship with Him.

If we are ready for parental love from God, He is prepared to give it. If we want brotherly love, conjugal love, or the love of a friend from Him, He is ready with these.

It is so amazing and wonderful that God who is a God of love protects us in every possible relationship

When we fulfill each realm of heart (children's realm, siblings realm conjugal realm, and the parent's realm) we grow to resemble God's many-faceted love.

Each type of love that is exhibited in the family forms a world of experiences and responsibilities that becomes a matrix for the growth of heart.

Lessons in Loving Others

The family works to school people to have other-centered love through providing crucial relationships to learn from. Each realm of heart involves relating to significant others or partners in love.

In the child's ream of heart, the parents become their most significant other. The sibling's realms of heart, their brothers/sisters and peers are increasingly significant. Within the spouse's realms of heart, one has a relationship with the opposite sex who are emotionally and physically committed for the rest of one's life.

Children are the significant other in the parent's realm of heart.

True love begins with the infant responding to a parent in the child’s realm of love.

A baby is not alone in the universe. He or she is compelled to bond with others by all the forces within.

Many theorists conclude that a baby's attachment to their parent is a necessary building block of relating to others with empathy for the rest of their life.

The quality of the interactions between a parent and child is an essential love relationship that gives each a lifelong perspective on others.

When brothers and sisters interact with their siblings, this realm of heart offers a new territory where the growing child must accommodate others. He or she now shares the parents' universe with their sibilings.

One learns they must not hurt their sibling but must wait their turn and share.

In turn, the relationship of brother and sister in the family can offer joy of companionship and expand each child's love into new dimensions.

When a child must cooperate with their playmates or children at school, issues of fair play, justice, and honesty come to the foreground as he or she learns that there are yet others who need respect and accommodations.

Through experiencing the sibling's realm of heart, a child begins to relate to the world of their peers. The repertoire they obtain through these relationship expand dramatically, as well as their heart for others in society as they mature.

Maturity brings the world of the opposite sex into sharp focus.

A newlywed couple often feel that they are the only two people in the world.

This is how rich the world or realm they occupy together. It is an exclusive, intensely exciting, deeply affecting circle of relationships in which each will learn to love someone who is truly their 'other'. 

They will experience a different emotion and mental make-up than with others they encounter.

When one becomes a parent, he or she enters a realm of relationship with a child that opens up a whole new world of loving and caring.

The parent's realm of love is perhaps the most transformative relationship that resembles the heart and love of God the most closely.

With their children, parents have a dependent 'other' who needs and demands more than anyone else has demanded in a lifetime. They must be attendant to their growth. As a parent, rewards and blessings are enormous as well as anxieties and emotional taxes.

The heart grows here earnestly through other-centered love.

Grandparent's love is an extension of the parent's realm of heart. This love has its own special gifts to bestow and receive from the grandparents.

When we grow and understand the inner workings of the family through experiencing these four realms of heart, we grow to appreciate the brilliantly designed vehicle of emotional, moral and spiritual growth.

The impact of your family does not stop within its own relationships either. The lessons one learns from their interactions in the family is profound and far-reaching. It extrapolates into a person's orientation toward the rest of the world.

Ethicist James Q. Wilson said, “The family is a continuing locus of reciprocal obligations that constitute an unending school for moral instruction . . . . We learn to cope with the people of this world because we learn to cope with the members of our family.”

Photos courtesy of : freedigitalphotos.net 

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This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook “Educating for True Love” written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

A Loving Family Expands to Loving World

The ideal family alone can serve as the building block of the Kingdom of God.

—Sun Myung Moon

What if every human was raised in a godly, ideal home? 

Where brothers and sisters respected each other, mother and father were devoted to another and were the examples of true love? Abuse, fighting and separation did not exist?

We can easily see that this would mature into the Kingdom of Heaven. Such people raised in a family would understand how to love others in the world based on the teachings of exemplary love within their own family.

When they encountered younger people their sisters and brother's age they would treat them just the same. When they encountered the elderly who are their grandparents' age, they would treat them just like their own flesh and blood.

The family is the primary means through which most people learn about love.

Unfortunately, this is also how evil entered the world.

Through the first family of Adam and Eve, thousands of generations later followed in their footsteps. What if Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel were to have followed in God's ways? 

What kind of society would we be born into in this day and age?

In order to cultivate true love over a lifetime, we need to establish loving relationships and family. The family packs a double punch in a life of love more than any other relationship.

The way one was raised in their family trains him or her in love as a child and sibling. This leads them to their own personal growth and maturity. 

Then, each individual based on their upbringing, takes what they learn to cultivate love in a new family with a spouse and children.

All of these experiences come full circle to educate a person in true love.

Many religions and moral traditions equate a loving relationship in the family as a template for a person's relationship with God.

In the Talmud, for instance, it is written, “When a man honors his father and mother, God says, ‘I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me” Kiddushin, 30b

Jesus was the first to encourage his followers to think and relate with God as their father.

Confucius said, “Surely proper behavior toward parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness,” Analects 1.2 and “Filial piety is the root of all virtue” Classic of Filial Piety

Hinduism, Shinto, Buddhism, Islam and the traditional Native American and African faiths also echoes this sentiment.

Family life may be seen as a vocation for growing closer to God and allowing Him/Her to manifest and dwell in true love.

A Buddhist master stated that the family is demanding of members responsibilities as any monastery.

From this viewpoint, the family can be a vehicle of holiness and an instrument of salvation.

People within a community of faith refer to one another as 'brothers and sisters' or 'brethren.' Priests lead the members of the Catholic Church and they call him 'Father', and the title of the head of the Catholic Church is the “Holy Father.” 

Such communities are led by nuns who are called 'Sister' and sometimes 'Mother'.

The importance of the family in raising good human beings is corroborated by the findings of social scientists.

Family enhances human and moral development in numerous and positive ways.

Social scientists and policymakers uphold the family as the crucial factor in the physical as well as the mental, emotional, and moral well-being of the children. Therefore, the family is the backbone of social order.

Unfortunately, the status of the family in society in our times have come into question.

Even though times have changed, the fundamental patterns of father, mother and children are still in place showing that the members of the family has basic need for its structure.

Couples live together and raise their children even if they are from previous relationships. Even though there are are the non traditional relationships of same-sex couples, there is still a masculine and feminine role in each relationship. 

Many still want to have their union recognized through a traditional marriage and even adopt children.

Those who do not have a family form surrogate and substitute families. Gangs are joined by youngsters in order to get the same strength and protection they get from the feeling of a family from their 'home boys'.

A convicted criminal leader of the L.A. Crips notorious gang had said in an interview that he turned toward the streets because he did not have a proper family upbringing. 

The same with homeless children, or teenagers of the street, they also form 'families' and band together.

Still, none of these substitutes for the missing qualities in their own homes can fulfill the same benefits as a basic family structure of a father, mother with their biological children.

As far back as our knowledge takes us, anthropologist Margaret Mead affirmed about the centrality of the traditional family, human beings have always lived in families. There is no period where this was not so.

Even though modern society has made proposals for change and there have been actual experiments to dissolve the family or displace the traditional roles, human society still reaffirms their dependence on the family as the basic unit of human living. This is a family with a father, mother and children.

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This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook “Educating for True Love” written by a team of writers to explain the philosophy of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Center on Higher Purpose for Unity

The previous two posts spoke about finding unity through working toward a greater purpose. It is not easy to live our lives for a purpose that is beyond ourselves.

Even though it seems that it would be naturally perfect for members of a family to favor their family over other, employees to put the company ahead of themselves, citizens work for the needs of the community and countries put the whole of humanity ahead of themselves, unfortunately, we are beings who are not governed by the impulses of our original godly heart.

We witness harmony in nature, but seldom see it within human life. Even though we are God's greatest creation, people are self-destructive.

When an individual is abused by the collective, this aggravates the fear. 

Unfortunately, unlike nature, people needs constant reminders and incentives in order to maintain the right priorities. On the other hand, the impulse to give to the greater good is also strong.

There is a natural fear to give too much and thus being used, this is counterbalanced by the fear of being useless. It is horrible when one feels they are not needed for beauty, goodness and truth in the world.

Being of service to others, being allied with an important end is a fundamental need.

A person feels their value is derived in general not only from personal integrity and the affection of loved ones, but also from having an 'objective worth', a value that comes from benefiting the public good.

Eleanor Roosevelt commented about citizenship:

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”

Many have come to realize this truth from experience through combating sadness or stagnation. Therefore, they actively reach out to help someone else instead of wallow in their own world.

Such people know that as long as they pursue happiness or personal growth it will elude them; only when they give to service to a greater goal do these blessings find them.

The heart and conscience pushes each of us to give our time, energy and heart for a worthy purpose. They push us to be like the wax of the candle that gives itself to sustain the light and warmth of the flame.

Humanity has too often denied God's concerns and welfare of the whole for its own petty interests.

To reverse this wrong direction, sometimes the heart and conscience call people to deny themselves to an extraordinarily degree.

Who can explain the course which Mohandas Gandhi gave of himself? Such a sacrifice of sacrifice of self confounds worldly thinking.

There is clearly a deep joy that rewards those who have killed their smaller selves in order to become a part of a greater endeavor.

Relationship as Higher Purpose

The most basic shared projects is the relationship itself.

Members of the family, teammates and business partners often wisely sacrifice for the sake of their alliance, for the 'we-ness”.

This 'we-ness' has a vitality that depends on how much the participants favor the interest of the relationship over their own personal interests to reach their personal goals and meet the individual needs through the relationship instead of around or in spite of it. Any sports team that is good, understands this.

“In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity,” says legendary University of Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. “Every player must put the team first—ahead of personal glory.”

People who have been married for a while know this too. They make many sacrifices for the marriage. When a couple makes love within a caring marriage, this is a metaphor for such an idea.

Each partner seeks to satisfy the other and ultimately come to surrender to their higher union.

Rather than lose anything in this surrender, each person gains deep joy and a meaningful connection through it.

In families that are resilient, researcher and counselor Ross Campbell fond that there is an overarching moral or spiritual purpose that binds the members together.

It is a paradox that centering on something higher than the family also strengthens the bonds within the family itself.

A family finds they have a rapport with one another when they give their time and energy to others through altruism such as helping out the neighbors, hosts guests or volunteering for the community.

Such families build 'social capital' as Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University, states is the connection with and good will of neighbors which enhances the family's well-being and helps, supports, and gives strengthen when they are in need of it.

Daniel and Lai-Cheng's family is bound through a patriotic purpose. They are oftentimes hundreds of miles apart. Daniel is in the British Royal Air Force which calls him to leave for about nine months out of the year. Even though Lai-Cheng struggles like all military wives to care for her three young children on a budget and alone, she shares her husband's commitment to her country just as if she was in the service.

She is proud of the example Daniel is setting for the children, to live for something beyond themselves.

She understands that in order for her husband to be happy, he has to have the kind of work he loves.

When he is home, he cares for his children and gives his wife a break from her strenous routine. When he is away, they stay in regular contact.

Lai-Cheng remarks, “I think it works because even though we are often apart and do different things, I know we

are both willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what we want: a family that cares for each other and serves our country.”

Family has become its own island for many, a haven set apart from the wider world. This position impoverishes both home and community and places impossible demands on the nuclear family to meet all the members' needs.

Also, the Western viewpoint of romantic love is too thin for a foundation of lasting love and care for children.

There is a constant questions of “Am I happy? Is this meeting my needs?” This strains the bond and places the cart before the horse.

When the relationship itself and the public purpose is ideally honored first, this nourishes and fortifies the participants' attachment to one another.

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This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook "Educating for True Love" written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

Children Represent Their Parents' Love

Children are the incarnation of their parents' love.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon



Children are the substantial evidence of their parents' union of love.

A baby seems to have the reflection of God.  The more you see one's baby, the more mysterious the baby seems.  Mysterious.  This is love.

Parents miss their parents because parents are the home of love.  Parents miss their children because they are the home of perfect love.

All of creation of things, we see in the plant and animal world are composed of relative relationships.  They are made of both male and female elements that look different.

There are male and female aspects in all trees, and in each and every flower.
The relative relationship of male and female exists in the world of mammals, birds, animals and in human beings.

Why does such a relative relationship exist?

This is so they can receive and give true love.  We need a partner because in order for harmony, principles, give-and-take action etc and all of creation to survive and exist, a relative relationship should take place.  No one throughout history has thought of this simple fact.
A seed needs to exist, especially a good seed.

We can say that one needs a good seed and a good fiancée. 

How do you leave behind a good seed?

If you ask any man, they will say, “I want to be a good fiancee.”  This is because they want to leave a better seed.  The conclusion is that one needs a good partner.

Do you agree? You probably never thought of that fact until now.

After looking from this point-of-view, what was God's ultimate purpose for creating Adam and Eve?  Would you answer, “To make them love each other and make them a couple,” or is your answer, “In order to leave a good seed.”

Why do you love someone or something?  It is for happiness.

Children are the result of love.

Children are the resultant beings to continue to exist.

Why do you think you need a fiancee?  You may be right if you think it is because of love, but what is a higher level than this?

It is children.  Parents cannot help but love their children because they are the result of their love for their fiancee.

People on the whole most likely want something that is connected to them to be the best.  They want their family, nation and world to be the best one.

What is the proper way of thinking?  It is the way of thinking in the other person's shoes.

When we think from this point-of-view, what is the best in a family?

The best in the family is not the most money, knowledge or power, but the parents.

Next, is your lovely husband and wife, and finally your children.

The reason why parents, husband and wife, and children are good is because love is involved in each part.

Parental love is essential to children, the complete oneness of love between husband and wife is essential as brotherly love and children's filial heart toward their parents.

You feel a different extent of feeling according to the depth of the relationship.  IT is only natural that some brethren feel more intimate and love based on the historical close relationship that binds them.

Mothers and fathers love their children dearly because the children originate from them.

Therefore, if their parent's character was taken out of their children, there would be nothing left of their own characters left.




Without his or her parents' characters, a child will become a being who has neither
nature nor relationships.






We are born to testify to love.

If you were born to just shop or eat, how sad that existence is.  If you were just born to study in school, what a headache that would be.

However, if you say, “I was born to love,” you will surely move everybody.
Repeatedly, the question is asked, why were you born.

Love is the motive for your birth. 

You were born by the motive of love as the result of love.

Man and woman are to be born and to be loved by his mother and father.  Even birds or animals love their young because they were born as testifiers to love.

All of them originated from love.

To deny your own cause and effect is the same as denying heaven and earth.

Man is namely destined to follow the way of love so that man can't help but loving his own sons and daughters. This is why parents live for the sake of the other.

Children are happy if they live, filled with their parents' love.  It is a good thing when your mother and father live, being in ecstasy of love.

Western children say they do not need their parents.  This means that they have lost their family which is the main foundation and nest of love.

Parents love their children at the sacrifice of their own life.  This is because children show up in the family on behalf of heaven and earth.  This is why God wishes to go to live in the family together with His sons and daughters.

Moral principles teach people to love their parents, husband and wife and their children, but why?
After man went in the wrong direction with the first parents' mistake, we lost the Master who is in charge of love.

When God speaks of love, He is speaking of endless true love.  He says that love will remain forever.  This love is God's love.

You should know the purpose why you miss someone or love someone is not because of yourself, but because of God.

Look at the one who loves other people based on himself alone.  Then see where he goes after he dies.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: What is the True Way of Life?

This speech is rewritten and derived from “Raising Children in God's Will”

Grandparents have value

We speak a lot about how the world will be better for the generations to come due to the past sacrifices of many saints and people of faith but what about those who do not get to enjoy the best things life has to offer?

Today in America, we see the trend where the young can enjoy a life in paradise, but not so for the elderly.

It is a great place for young men and women, but not for children or grandfathers and grandmothers.

Everyone else is digging pits of hell that will lead to ruin.  This is happening because the American system does not fit into the original form.

American families require that the grandfather has to call before they can drop by their own children's or grand children's home.  Does such a way of living sound close to the Kingdom of Heaven?

How about a loving daughter-in-law that tries to buy her gray-haired grandparents something that is better than what she buys her husband?  Such a beautiful heart is a lovely sight to see.

When they are able to have even more joy then the joy the daughter-in-law feels, before long the grandparents will giver her everything that hey have kept hidden, even things to do with their love.

The Grandfather is in the Position of God in the Family

Who is the oldest grandfather in the world?  It is God.

You learn the love of the Grandfather of all from your own grandfather.

When you learn such a tradition, you will be able to receive the treasure of love from all the secret storage rooms of the oldest Grandfather, God.

That will be a wonderful time!

As a grandfather and grandmother represent God, they are the most experienced in the world.  They don't sleep long because they are old.

You should think, "My grandfather is God who protects my family without getting any sleep."

If you have such an attentive grandfather or grandmother within your family, your house will not catch fire or ever be robbed.

If your grandparents are not sleeping, then they are praying in those hours.

Your grandparents pray at night for God to bless their sons and daughters.

While they pray, they will guide you saying, hey, so and so, it is dangerous to go out today, please listen to me.  They will let you know, do not go out today!

Do not fight what is thought to be instinct, but are good ancestors!  Son, do not go anywhere, Daughter and daughter-in-law do not go far from home today, there is danger ahead." Don't grandchildren need such grandparents?

Have you ever witnessed such phenomenon?

When the grandmother and grandfather love each other, they will dance, the mother and father will dance, and the brothers and sisters will dance together.

Those who live using this as their model are protected by the universe.

If someone was to try to kill such a person, the universe would do everything to prevent such a crime.

Even parents need to get permission from the grandfather before sending their grandson anywhere.  They simply do not just make decisions on their own even though they are now adults.

This is because the grandfather stands in the position of God.

The Relationship Between Grandparents and Grandchildren

There are a lot of complaints in this day and age of how children are not being taught manners and the big debate whether parents should spank their children or not.

If a grandchild was to demand things in front of his mother and father and his brothers and sisters this is obviously an impolite manner.

The grandparents are over eighty years old, and then this little brat is going to audaciously stand firm in front of his father and mother and elder brothers and sisters who have superiority before him demanding answers about his grandpa and grandma.

Would anyone scold the child who demands where are his grandparents?

Why not?  If someone did the same thing in another situation, you would scold him or her saying, "How can you treat Grandpa like this?"  But if the child stands firm and asks again, you would be pleased.

He asks in such a way because he misses his grandfather.  So, it is a good thing not a bad thing to miss him.  All of heaven and earth misses him.  He misses everyone, too.

A child will understand from experience that his father would become tired after 10 minutes of sitting in his laps, but his grandfather or an elderly person would stay still even after an hour or two.  Of all the family members, his grandfather will embrace him the most.

It is not a bad thing to be embraced and touched by his grandfather who says, "Your nose is like this. Your ears are like that." He is patted, caressed and touched all over, but he does not mind. How great that would be! 

This is awesome!

This is the same as a tree becoming one with the root.  Then, if man is the root and the main sprout comes to like each other, what will happen?

All the other roots and branches attach to the main ones and will not be able to avoid liking one another.  You should think about this.

When the main root and main sprout like each other, that relationship can embrace everything.


Q. So, who is the main root in the family?

The grandfather always has his eyes on his eldest grandson. The main root of the family would be the grandson - the first grandson.

Even though we have as a culture in America lost value in the elderly or even our own grandparents, we must remember that they represent the past.

There is also a connection of how families have secluded themselves away from the tradition of revering grandparents to the fall of the family.

Without this main root or past for which to connect our lineage, all falls away.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Live as if You May Die in a Year


This post was rewritten and derived from Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Thirteen,  Chapter 4, Section 4,5

Why Do We Like the Concept Family?

As we witness the chaos of the world, instability in jobs, and relationships, there is one relationship that never changes no matter what - family.

Your siblings, mother, father and extended family will always be tied together by blood ties.

God made this unit of relationships that teach us how to love brothers and sisters, the elderly and the young of the world.

So, why do we like the family?

It is because family provides a base to freely exchange happiness.

This is why we yearn for our hometown where we grew up.  It is the place where our parents and siblings live.

The family is originally a good place.  Why is it good?

Because your parents, siblings and relatives are there.  Therefore, we become homesick for our native land, our hometown.

People think more about their hometown than they think of their nation.  Even living in a large city like New York, people long for their hometown.

Why do you like your families?

It is because the family becomes a free activity center for their parents' love.

God must be able to act freely there.

When God comes upon a society full of people who are more driven internally, and have the shining core of love no matter how shabby they may be, God will be able to act freely around them.

Do you feel uneasy when you visit someone else's home?

Like you are out of place?  This is because there has not been a bond of love established there for you.
You will feel awkward in someone else's dwelling because the love between the people there does not emanate in all four directions but just between the family members.

This was not the original role of the family. Thus we are destined to walk a path in oneness, unity.

The best thing is not decided by you?

Then what would hold the highest value in the family?  

The parents.

You as an individual could have great wealth, knowledge, respect and power, but none of these attributes are superior to the parents' position.

Your spouse would come next and then your children.  When it comes to your family, is there anything more valuable in life than your parents, spouse or children?  There is nothing more precious.

Why do we like our spouse, our parents and our children?

Because love is there.

Parental love is something absolutely needed by the children. 

Also, fraternal love and filial love of the children are absolutely necessary in the family.

Then who are the most beloved people in your families?  Wouldn't they be your parents?  Why do you like them most?

This is because throughout your lives, they are the closest to you in a relationship of love.  Then your beloved spouse comes next.

If husband and wife come to love each other unconditionally rather than set on conditions or circumstances, that love will be the greatest thing that will bring happiness and harmony into the family.

Even if it may not be closely related to an eternal love that is absolutely given by Heaven.  If this love becomes one, that reciprocated between the husband and wife, that is the greatest love in the family.

This is how I see it. Filial love, the love children have toward their parents, is next. If children can sacrifice themselves for their parents and love them with a bright and positive attitude rather than despair, while longing for ideal circumstances in which their love can sprout as the hope of tomorrow, that love will be one with pure and true value for the happiness of that family. 


Thus, if the family that is complete with true parental love, true conjugal love and true filial love, centered on God, then we can only conclude that it is the most ideal family in the world.  A true family.

The Family Is the Base of Eternal Happiness

On what basis can we say that someone is a truly a happy person in our daily life?

Is someone happy because they have some special talent, hold any power or authority?  Do these things alone make a person happy?  They cannot.

Also, can a person that has a lot of money be totally happy because they do not have to envy what others have? No.

Could a person become happy because they obtained a global amount of knowledge or hold some control over the world at will?

As we see in today's climate that, this is not the case.  People cannot truly become happy with just those things.

Even if they do so momentarily, happiness will not be eternal by going this route.  What happens the moments that these material objects are lost?  Can they maintain that state?

Such external things will never be the source of eternal happiness even if a person acquires enough wealth that they do not envy anyone in heaven and earth and sing songs of joy.

They will still feel a gaping hole in their soul and yearn for even more.

Material things may be a means to find happiness, but they are not able to be happiness itself.

Then, what is determined in order to feel happiness?

You must have a beloved spouse, parents and children.  Nobody can deny that the original way to happiness is through the creation of a true family.

We may see that if we lack one of them, we feel sorrow and dissatisfaction will inevitably remain in our hearts.

All people on earth generally feel that the family is a base of happiness. 

A family must have parents as the head of it, like the president of a nation.

People who grow up without parents are called orphans and are seen as pitiful people.  It is pitiful for one to not have parents or a spouse.

The family has parents and a conjugal bond at the same time.

However much the spouses may have loved each other, there will be utter pain and misery when one of them loses the other.

It is the same for when a couple cannot conceive children.

The family must have parents, spouse and children in order to become the foundation for eternal happiness.

God's original purpose for seeking to restore humankind was for His own happiness.

This establishment of happiness cannot take place apart from human beings.  At that point of convergence, it can only be brought about through God's relationship with them.

When all of the ingredients needed for our emotional well-being are present in our family, God also wants to feel happiness in such a setting.

From where does happiness arise?  What kind of setting will allow us to sing songs of joy?  It is in the setting of the family.

This family happiness cannot be attained if there are emotional problems, or if there is no heart or love experienced between the family members.

If a couple cannot have children, also, there cannot be any happiness there.

This is the same for children who do not have parents.  There will be no joy for them.

Where there is a man, there will have to be a woman as his partner. 

This same truth is for the woman.

The husband and wife desire to keep their love at a higher dimension within their subject-object relationship.  Further, they must have children.

A unified family is only realized once a couple has parents above them and children below them.  A family is united vertically (spirit) and horizontally (physical) in this way.

Then upon whom does this family center?

We already know that we center the idea of unity based solely on human beings.

But this method is impossible for two separate beings to come together eternally since they alone cannot pursue a higher value.

But if there is an absolute Subject Partner of love, then the parents will want to become one with this Subject Partner as their center.

That center where all of the family members become one in love, is a place of happiness and hope.

Everything must then be brought into oneness and unified through something more valuable and stimulating.

This is not possible based on our human love alone, but only from God, the true subject partner.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: We Enter Heaven as a Family Unit

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Four Chapter Eleven, Section 1 and 2.

The Love of Siblings Teaches Love of Parent

The ideal of family has changed over the last decades beginning after World War II. You can even see the change in ideals from the 'Leave to Beaver' family structure of mother cooking at home raising the children and the father as the overseer of the family. There are significant reasons why this is so.   God fought a hard battle with Satan in the second world war in order to bring about a world where He could substantially rule. Instead, after winning the battle, Satan was able to claim that foundation because there was no unity with the returning Messiah and the Christian world. In fact, he suffered greatly and was rejected by the established churches. Therefore, he had to walk his own path of 40 years of suffering to establish God's foundation on the earth. If the religious world had followed his directions given from God at that time, based on the teachings of the Divine Principle, the world of peace would have been established in that time. At that time the world of family tradition still followed the ways of God compared to the times of today where divorce, wife swapping and second/third husbands is the new trend. Now we stand on a solid foundation where God can truly come directly to do His work through the foundation of families. Why did God give us family, our brothers and sisters?   Why did He make such a unit? We need brothers and sisters so we can look at them and realize that our mother and father must have been like that when they were younger. Children can see through his brothers and sisters the process of his mother grew up. Sisters can observe elder brothers and understand how her father grew up and lived.  You should know that this is the love among siblings.  You can become one by growing up in this environment.  Should you love your brothers and sisters or not? What if parents have only one son and only one daughter? Then the son needs an elder sister and an elder brother doesn't he? The daughter needs an elder brother and an elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and young sister. Through them you come to appreciate and love who your parents are. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. What if parents have only one son and one daughter? The son needs an elder sister and an elder brother, doesn't he? Also the daughter needs an elder brother and elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and younger sister. There needs to be an elder brother, an elder sister, a younger brother, and a younger sister. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. Brotherly love is a model of love for all the people of the world. A family that has a younger sister, younger brother, elder sister and elder brother has achieved complete unity and will receive God's protection. America has moved away from the tradition of larger families and some have even forsook marriage or having children at all. The elder brother and elder sister means east and west, and the younger brother and younger sister mean north and south.  When this pattern is completed there will be three dimensions. This family becomes the origin of a clan, a people, and a nation upon expansion.  When such a principle of love takes root, the origin of peace will be established. When an elder brother loves his younger sister, and the younger sister loves her elder brother, they cannot just love one another, they must also involve their parents in that love. They can cherish their childhood experiences of growing up in the bosom of their parents. They should be a brother and sister who are connected on the basis of parent and child of oneness. Only then will they be able to ascend as they grow up. They should grow up like this all the way through elementary and middle school. However far you go in your travels around the world and throughout life, nothing will be able to replace the love of your brothers and sisters in a family who share the same blood from their birth. When you go out to society, is there anyone who is closer to you than your brother or sister? Although some people may be close, they will eventually drift away from you. Why do you need brothers and sisters? They are those who are connected to the vertical (spiritual) and horizontal (physical) plane. If Adam and Eve are horizontal, then God and Adam and Eve are vertical.  At this intersection it creates a plane. This is why both a horizontal setting and the front and back are needed. Through their unification, a sphere is formed. Therefore, when the love of brothers and sisters expand to a love for all the people of the world, then sibling love transcends family. Only when we can embrace the world and love all people with sibling love,will we join everything together in an ideal sphere of love. When this occurs, no mishap will severely shock us; all the substance of God's thought finally bear fruit. God's ideal of children unites and bears fruit there: the fruit of children's love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife and the fruit of parents' love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife, and the fruit of parents' love. When God's original world of creation is finally manifested on earth, upper and lower, front and rear, and left and right will be merged with Him. Through brothers and sisters, a nation arises and all humankind arises. The brother and sister relationship signifies front and back like a flat surface, but when flesh is added then a sphere is formed. So, it is brothers and sisters and the people of the nation who from this sphere. Brothers and sisters expand to become a people, and the love of brothers and sisters is connected with the love of the world. A family where there are many brothers and sisters growing up is like a model to embrace all people of the world. This family creates an ideal Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Hence, brothers and sisters expand in number.  When there are many siblings, two may have to share a plate at mealtime. They do not fight because there is only one plate of rice. Even if there are many siblings and they have to suffer to live in hardship, if they have such a heart of love that says, "Although I may starve, I will give this to my elder sister," or "I have to give this to my younger brother or sister," then everything will work out very well. Return for tomorrow's post: Love Nation, World, Humankind = World Peace This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three, "True Love" Chapter Two, Section 7

Through Loving Our Children, Become as God

Why are children so valued to a couple?

It is because children, who are the fruit of their parents' love, stand before them as representatives of the world.

Why do we think of people without children as being lonely?

Because children enable us to deeply experiences the circumstances of the heart of God while He created the entire universe through love.

Our children are born through us based on our motivation.

By having and loving our children we come to realize how God loved and fought for people through this course of restoration.

Children result from a concentration of parental love

Parents sacrifice for their children and return to God through their children.

They come to deeply experience parental love while loving their children.

Then they are led to feel and be aware of God's love, which is a manifestation of something original.  Since those who cannot have children cannot feel this deep parental love nor come to understand God's parental love, their love is always incomplete.

What kind of children can reside in the Kingdom of Heaven?

They are those who have paid off the debt of parental love on their own.

When parents become old and senile, the sons and daughters should endure the difficulties of their care with the same heart their parents had toward them when they were little.

This means cleaning up their urine and bowel movements.  Only then, will they be children of filial piety.

Parents have given their very lives for the sake of their own children.

Therefore, children should sacrifice their lives for the sake of their parents.

Since life comes from love, then sacrificing one's life in front of that love is a logical conclusion.

I say that this is not a contradiction. When children strive not to be indebted to their parents, the parents feel their worth.


If a parent has to discipline their child with a stick using their loving hands, they cry loudly after spanking their child. Would the child fight back and curse them then?

True love carries dual values in harmony.

A great mother will embrace her children while teaching them principles of becoming a person of goodness who will be able to move the world and to endure any difficulties they encounter.

This type of mother penetrates the heavenly principle.

That kind of goodness never perishes.

You give birth to a child, give your milk and think they are cute.  But because of whom do you adore your child?

You should adore your child on the behalf of heaven and earth and on the account of the nation, world and God.

The power of heavenly fortune in accordance with God's love is moving beyond the world to embrace heaven and earth.

A mother should embrace and breastfeed her sons and daughters with the eager heart that she is embracing God's beloved sons and daughters on behalf of heaven and earth.

Parental love is the basis of a child's pride and happiness. 

Children receive life from their parents who have created harmonious oneness in true love.

They want to be raised in such a love.

The most precious responsibility that parents have toward children is not to raise them externally, but to give them life elements of true love that will make their spirituality complete.

No matter how much a father loves his child, his love cannot match the mothers' love.

Why is this?

This is because the mother has devoted herself, even her body, suffered more for the sake of her child. Hence, we can say that she is more loving than anyone else.

In this sense, women have an elevated and precious position in the arena of emotions.

A father cannot know love to that degree that the mother has no matter how much he loves his baby.  For this reason, if anyone goes to heaven, women will go to the heavenly kingdom of heart.  From this standpoint, it is not bad to be born a woman.

You will come to see God is fair!

The way of true children is filial piety

When you come to know your parents, what do you do you need to do for them?

You should have filial piety in return.

Also, by going beyond your parents, you should become patriots in your nation, because your parents have had authority within the nation and the world.

Before you can become a patriot, you must first set the standard by becoming children of filial piety before your parents.

Before you can become a child of filial piety, you should be a member of the family who is proud of true brothers and sisters.

The term "family member" is a title that brings the right to sing the praises of your brothers and sisters.

A child of filial piety is precious because he respects and serves his parents with unchanging love whether he is in childhood, an adult or in old age.  We call such a person a child of filial piety.

How do you become a child of filial piety?

You must align yourself with the direction of your parents' heart.

One who walks this path does not do things separately from his parents.  When his parents go east, he should go east, and when they go west, he should go west.

There so be no question or debate about it.

Even if you are told to go a certain way and are told to turn back ten times, you should again turn back and follow your parents.

In your family, you are asked to offer your filial duty.

This requires that you become a fellow traveler on the path of love your parents walk, centering on your parents.

The parents' path of true love follows along with the heavenly principles.

It is not that just the parents standing by themselves, but there are invisible, vertical heavenly principles that are connected to them and work through them.

Thus, pushing you to be one with your parents is to ask you to follow the way which connects the realms of heart with the tides of history.

This is the reason why you fulfill your duty of filial piety toward your parents.

This path is also connected to the patriot, like the shoot of the bamboo.

What should patriots who faithfully serve their country do? They should walk the path of saints for the world.

If you are unable to fulfill your duty as a filial child, but you manage to become a patriot in your country, your parents will be able to say job well done.

Even if you have abandoned your parents and left home, if you become a patriot to your nation, your mother and father, even though they may have died and gone to spirit world, will praise you saying you have done extremely well.

What is a child of filial piety?

He is a person who takes responsibility for the parents' sorrow by seeking out the difficult places and fulfills his responsibility.  Thereby, he brings joy to his parents.

If the parents have done ten loads of work and the child has made effort to do fifteen loads, the parents will feel joy that corresponds to five loads.

The one who makes effort by serving the parents and thinking how to fulfill such an amount is a child of filial piety.  that knows no limits because they love their children eternally.  Then what are genuine children like?

Genuine children are the ones who reciprocate the love of their parents eternally with a loving heart which overflows with love.  This is the way of a child of filial piety.

If God needs something from His children, what would that be?

Is it for them to make a lot of money and become millionaires?  Is it to be president while holding the most power in the country?

What God wanted from Adam and Eve was for them to grow up and be children of filial piety, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters.

Have you ever thought that you should be a filial child in the family, to become a patriot in the nation, to become a saint in the world, or a divine son or daughter before heaven and earth in accordance with God's own thinking?

When you look from the viewpoint of history, all of the saints have taught about becoming such children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters.

When children grow up in the tradition of love, do you think they could be indifferent if their parents wanted a divorce?

Absolutely not.

The children would insist, "I am your child, I am the one with whom you are combined.  You have to make whatever negotiation necessary, and you have to be great parents for me.  I need you."

We must make young people and parents awaken to the fact that because of their children, parents have no right to divorce.

Return for Tomorrow's Post:


This post was rewritten and derived from the Book, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three, True Love Chapter Two, Section 6

Family Protected Through Loving Children

A family where loving parents embrace their children and share in joy will not be able to be attacked by anything in the universe. Rather, your family will have natural protection.  People have not known this fundamental principle. If a child is born crippled or has a terminal illness, it is natural for the deep heart of the parent to flow to the crippled child.  Is that wrong? The heart of such a handicapped person is like a valley, and the heart of the parents like a big area on the hilltop. The heart of such parents flows from the top to that deep valley. There is nothing bad in the heart of parents who live for the sake of their children.  The more miserable their situation and worn out their clothes are, then the further they dig into the deep valley of tears. What would happen if a baby was ashamed of taking a poop?  A baby isn't ashamed if they pee or poop accidentally on their parents. Rather he smiles openly in front of their parents as they watch them clean up after him. This is only possible with love.  In love, there is no such thing as dirty things. Love can overcome everything. A mother who breastfeeds her baby at her bosom has an earnest heart. The parents' heart is such that even when their baby's poop and pee smells, they are able to forget this and overlook instances like this because of their love. If fallen parents have such a heart toward their children, how much more heart does God have as the subject partner of love? God wanted to love Adam and Eve through His original heart.  We should think about this deeply. The parents heart always feels lacking and they feel they can always give something more. They want to love more, wondering if they have loved enough even after giving love and they feel regretful and sorry even after giving. Because of this, their heart can be part of the essential core of eternal love. This is the same heart that was the original motivation at the very beginning of love. When parents divorce, it is the same as cutting their children in half with a knife.  The public law of the universe does not allow this. Parents who violate this will receive punishment and be followed by misfortune wherever they go. They will be unable to find true happiness. When the baby becomes hungry, the mother's breasts becomes swollen with milk.  When the milk swells them up and her breast become sore, there is an abundant pressure. The heart of the mother who embraces her baby and gives him milk is hard to express in words. When her swollen breasts go down, then the mother feels relieved and happy. No one can understand this feeling unless she is a mother herself.  Moreover, as the mother bonds and watches her baby suck her breasts while touching it, love springs up abundantly in her heart. If you were to ask a mother if she would rather lose her husband or her child, if she really loves her child, she will say that should would never give up her child.  She would rather give up her husband if she had to choose. Husbands may be hurt to hear this. These days, some people would say that if a child dies they can just have another one. This is the last option.  In the principle of matters of order, we see that the husband and wife are horizontal and come last.  The history of love is like this. What on earth is the original love? It is the kind of love where a parent would give their life for their child. Their love goes beyond their own life.  Why must this be so?  Originally, the universe was not created for the sake of life, because it was created for the sake of love.  Love came first. Since this is the case, then life goes along with love, and not that love goes along with life. Genuine love sacrifices life and goes beyond life.  This is because this love of Heaven is a love that can connect with the universe. The salmon's life is a great example. The salmon dies after laying its eggs. nevertheless the male and female first become one to lay their eggs. This means that salmon couples are deeply in love.  It is as if they have been sentenced to die. The male makes a hole in the ground once the female lays her eggs and protects them.  This is truly an ideal couple. The body of the mother becomes food for her young. Why would the Creator think to create salmon in such a way?  Seeing this, we see how important our young are.  God created the salmon as a model to show that love, and our young are the most precious things. The life of the salmon is truly a great textbook for humankind. Parents' love is complete even after being shared over and over again Why is it we cannot help loving our children? Because when we love our children, it is like inheriting God's great work of creation the horizontal (earth) and substantial level. Through loving our children, we feel the joy God felt after creating Adam and Eve. We inherit God's love and God's authority to create.   Parents who have raised many children see that their heart of love is wide, large and deep. They can feel on their own that they cannot fight even their wicked enemies.  They stand on that foundation and live according to that broad of a law. When a baby is born, he follows the electric current of love and automatically seeks out his mother's nipple. He does not care how ugly or beautiful his mother is.  To witness such a sight of unmatched harmony and holiness. Each of us are the fruit of our parents' love for one another.  We are born in love, and grow up while receiving love. You are the visible, real fruit of what your mother and father's love is like.  Therefore, it is natural that the parents have to love the person who is the fruit of their love. Through this fruit, the infinite love bears fruit yet again. This is the path where we can be connected to individual love, family love, tribal love, universal love and even the fundamental love of God. You are a unique participant and companion in love in front of your parents. This love makes you equal to your mother and father and you can rise to an equal position. This is the privilege of love. Parents want to bequeath everything they own to their sons and daughters, whom they truly love. You can jump in and inherit a hundred percent of the universe when you have found an equal position of value of love in the tradition of love. This is why all parents want a child of filial piety. Children of filial piety pass on the inheritance of love as participants in the eternal love of their parents. A baby who is born through love can do whatever he wants and you will not dislike him one bit. Rather, no matter what, you will love your baby because he is made from your flesh and blood and is a second you, created through love. Even when he defecates or urinates, has a runny nose, he is still cute and adorable in your eyes. This is because these things are soaked in love. The love between the parents and children comes from the parents.  We receive our parents' love from the moment of our birth. After we receive the parents' love and grow up, then we receive the horizontal love between husband and wife. In order for the love of the husband and wife to continue, they must have children and love them. Parents can feel genuine love only when they have children. Through only the love of brothers and sisters, we cannot learn about parents' love. In other words, we come to know parental love when we ourselves experience the circular course through becoming parents and complete the circle. The love string of our parents and the string of our ideals are connected to each of us.  This cannot be cut off by anyone.  All of the power of the universe protects such a union. Thus, wherever I go, my parents will follow me. My parents always want to be with me, even in the spirit world. Thus, it is a sin to dislike your parents accompanying you. The highest value for human beings is to think of and love our parents like they are our own body and practice filial piety. We are born from our parents' love and are engrafted to their love. Before the connection of life and lineage are made through love, the connections are in place. Why are each of us so precious?  Not because we have life, but because we participated together in our parents' love. Parents have loved, but the individual is the fruit of that love. Each of us are precious because we are born with the beginning point and the fruit.  True parents strive to continue this tradition of love. This is the same for those in the East and the West.  All parents want to have an universal tradition of love by transcending our own tribe. All people want and strive to bring their family into completeness and harmony so they can live a happy and peaceful life. In this case tradition is the essence. Only tradition can connect with the future. Which is greater: conjugal love of husband and wife or the love between parents and child? Westerners value the conjugal love of husband and wife as greater, but this is not so. Love for a child is greater than the love of the spouse. In conjugal love, the husband and wife fight because they think the other does not love them. But parents and children fight thinking that they must love the other more, this is the original heart. The parent and child relationship is such a way because the love of parents and child is the center and vertical.  It follows the road that is close to the heavenly law.  Thus, we find that the love that serves others is closer to the genuine love. However strong a man is, or however tough a woman may be, they will bow down to that love. The reason parents are precious is because they give and sacrifice for the sake of their children.  So things come to be the other way around. When parents get old, they become children. Long before, the parents were their children's first teacher, but they become seventy and eighty years old they become like children again. At the same time, the child takes the place of the father or mother.  The child should love his parents just as the parents have loved them when they raised them.  This is the principle of heaven and earth. Return for Tomorrow's Post: This post was rewritten and derived from the book, Cheon Seong Gyeon Book Three, "True Love' Chapter 2, Section 3