True Love is....

In addition to love being kind and patient and several qualities listed in the Bible, it is also forgiving, other-Centered,, serving and sacrificial, eternal faithful and obedient and principled.

In order for true love to benefit another person, it has to be unconditional. This means that love is based on the person's worth as a human being. 

No matter what a person's status or appearance, unconditional love respects and recognizes the worth of the other person simply because he was created by God.

True love can transcend national boundaries or racial boundaries and discrimination between religious sects. In this unity, we are all brothers and sisters. In the sight of God, there is no such thing as Orientals, Whites, and Blacks . . . we are different only on the surface. Underneath, we come from the same God.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon's comment on unconditional true love:

A second aspect of true love's unconditional nature is that it is given to the worthy and unworthy alike. The Bible states that God's sun shins upon both the good and evil people. Of course, it is easier for us to love those who are lovable, but unconditional love asks us to love those who are unlovable in the moment just because they were conceived in the perfect love of God. In addition, we should love others because they are destined to return to God's bosom.

The day will come when they are restored and revealed as an indispensable part of God: His precious and beloved children.

Unconditional love does not meant to overlook and accept bad conduct, but to give with the hope of redeeming the other and calling him back to live in God's true way.

Once people feel accepted and love, they are far more likely to confess, repent and make the necessary effofrts to change.

The founder of Boys Town, Father Flanagan, had a philosophy that, “There is no such thing as a bad boy.” He believed that beneath the rough, tough, dirty exterior of the worst street urchin, God's child awaited to be allowed to thus come out in safety in order to be loved. 

This kind of unconditional love 'broke down' many many incorrigible boys and cleansed them with healing tears and inspired many to live amended lives.

To this day, Boys Town remains the most successful child rehabilitation system in the world.

Many of its alumni who were once abused and neglect, go on to live a productive and valuable life just because one man had a vision to love without any condition.

True Love Is Eternal

Reverend Sun Myung Moon commented on the quality of true love:

People like gold because it doesn’t change . . . . What element in diamonds makes people love them? As far as its hardness and solidity is concerned, the diamond excels any other stone. Other rocks and metals will be eroded as time goes by, but diamonds won’t . . . . The more valuable something is, the less changeable it is.

True love does not waver – it is eternal. It does not change based on a whim, circumstance or outo f convenience.

A good friend will stay at his pal's side through the good and also the bad times. A devoted husband stays with his wife in her beautiful youth and as her beauty fades. A parent who is deserted by his child will still look out he window every night hoping for his rebellious son's return.

Constancy is the ballast of all lasting and true relationships.

People who truly practice unconditional love, they are there for one another in times of pleasure as well as time of pain.

Also, God's unchanging love is a place where the heart can return again and again for forgiveness, renewal, reassurance, wisdom and a fresh determination.

There was a bumper sticker that read, “If you don't feel close to God – guess who moved?” We are assured that it wasn't God that moved.

One parent won the heart of her teenage daughter through her unending determination. The teenager became rebellious and increasingly 'smart-mouthed' and rebellious which caused the parent pain.

Everything came to a crisis point when the police department called her and said they had her daughter. The mother was understandingly furious and didn't speak to her daughter all night. 

Then she thought again how she believed in her daughter's essential goodness. So, to demonstrate her faith in her daughter, the mother wrapped a small gift box and gave it to her daughter.

The daughter unwrapped it and found a rock inside with a note that read:

This rock is a thousand years old. That's how long it will take before I give up on you.

Right then, the teenager broke down in extreme tears when she witnessed her mother's devotion to her. The two became very close after that incident.

Just as a human mother does not give up on her child, God does not give up on His children either. Even when people give up on themselves. 

They may feel worthless, hopeless, in despair and feel they are beyond redemption just as the teenager girl undoubtedly felt about herself in the story above.

God's love is like a rock.

God is always there waiting and hoping for His child's return. Jesus expressed, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.”

God is a parent who is always home and ready to answer the door. He always hopes that the children He loves so steadfastly come to pay Him a visit. He hopes to be embraced again in the love that never wavers.

“What made Jesus sacred was that he trusted and loved people, wanted to live with them and save them more than anything else—even though they betrayed him. He blessed his enemies.”

Sixty-six volumes in the Holy Scripture can be condensed into a significant meaning – Jesus' main teaching is unchangeability.

True Love Is Unique

The uniqueness of each individual is taken in account in true love. It is not a 'one size fits all' kind of love. Each person needs to be loved exactly for who he or she is. Each one of us is a unique entity in the universe with their own likes and dislikes and preferences.

To love with discernment requires wisdom, attentiveness, and patience.

No two petals on a flower look alike as well as small stones, pebbles on the side of a mountain upon careful examination. This is one of the beauties of nature. Also, in the way you were born. True love's uniqueness is vividly demonstrated through family relationships.

A highly-successful marriage program advises the husband and wife to make an individual list of the kinds of things that make them feel loved. Then the couple share their list with their spouse.

A wife may feel cared for when her husband brings her a cup of tea in the morning. The husband may feel loved when the wife lines up fresh socks in the linen drawer.

Little favors such as these may not seem profound if they are not catered to the person's unique ways.

Siblings are different from each other and need to be encouraged and nurtured in different ways. This compells parents to love their children in unique ways. Children's love needs change as they grow. A nine-year-old who loved being kissed when he was younger will feel that his mother is smothering him when she does it at ten years old.

A way of giving love has turned into an offense and must be adjusted to the uniqueness of the growing individual.

Children’s lives are a veritable education in how to love the unique adults who are their parents.

Even though there are principles of love that work for and apply to everyone, love is tailor-made to each individual in order to make him or her feel uniquely loved.

God shows this kind of understanding toward each of His children. He gently guides us through things that spake most strongly to each of our individual hearts.

God shows his appreciation for our uniqueness by speaking to the person's heart through music, art literature, sports pets and dancing. Whatever a person love, God uses such things to reach out to him or her. In essencece, God is saying, “I know you. I understand you. I love you for who you are.”

Return for Tomorrow’s Post:




This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, Educating for True Love, Chapter 1 written by a team of writers to explaining Dr. Rev. Sun Myung Moon's thoughts on morality, society and Family.

God's Prayer

Do you think God prays sometimes? Sometimes without thinking a parent murmurs to himself or herself, "Oh, I wish my son would do this, or be that way." That is God's prayer also. God is murmuring about you, about me and about the  Church because this is an emergency and He is engrossed in His concern. That is God's prayer.




You don't even have to sit down to pray; you can just talk to yourself as you go, whispering and murmuring your concern. That's prayer. In our case praying and doing is our life. Praying and waiting is not our life. If you pray unconsciously in everyday life then undoubtedly you are becoming sons and daughters of prayer.

If you give your last ounce of energy but it is not enough, then ask God for assistance and your prayer will be answered. If that were not the case, how could we ever subjugate Satan? Satan has given unending anguish and heartbreak to God for 6,000 years and if there were no way we could finally subjugate him then there would be no end to it. There must be a way.

 

"Test your own power of prayer; take one person and pray for him fervently, constantly, without telling him. Pray tearfully for his well-being and then that person will feel a magnetic attraction to you."

The power of prayer works wonders, but prayer must be serious and done with one united heart, not a divided heart. When the moment of engagement comes, it is a most serious moment for both men and women, but in the Unification Church it is different because you leave it to Father Moon.  In that moment you become dead serious, but prayer is even more serious than that. If you pray with that attitude then it will be answered.

If your parents are on their deathbed it is a serious moment, and the words you speak then are urgent. There is no way you could doze at that time. Your prayer to God is more serious than that. Prayer is like a covenant between you and God, a promise. Once you make a contract, you follow through and then it will undoubtedly be fulfilled. That is the attitude I am talking about.

You must not be disappointed when prayer is not answered immediately. Some answers come late. At other times you should not be overjoyed when prayer is answered quickly. That is not necessarily the best thing. Because you are surrounded by the world there are many stages to go through horizontally and vertically.

The answer to prayer does not come from you but down from heaven and it takes time to reach you. There have been many foolish people who received answers to their prayers up to a point but who didn't go the final inch, and when they weren't satisfied they betrayed God. When you pray for the world you may not see things changing immediately around you, but far away the communist world starts to crumble. The impact of prayer can be felt in a far-away place.

If you are in the Abel position, the answer comes from Cain and takes time to reach you. You must think that your prayer today may not be fulfilled until thousands of years from now. I pray such prayers. I am not praying just for this world today; I am praying for 1,000 and 2,000 years from now. If that prayer makes a bridge between that time and now then the Unification Church will continue to flourish even a long time after I am gone from the earth.

That kind of prayer is needed. If many of you pray that kind of eternal prayer, the world will start to shake and the impact will be far-reaching. The root of that prayer is your tears, sweat and blood, and out of it beautiful flowers will blossom. When Jesus prayed on Gethsemane he was deadly serious, shedding tears, sweat and blood. All day long you must be in a prayer mood, not just one hour, but 24 hours.

What prayer position do you prefer? The best is to kneel and lower your head. You have to restrict your body's freedom, as though it were bound. You will feel pain, but overcome it because you must be serious. Then God will know your attitude. That is a necessity for prayer. Without prayer Jesus and the saints could not have done the great things that had an impact on the world.

When you resort to the power of prayer you can have hope because you never know when the fulfillment will come. My prayer is centered on the culmination of the third seven-year course. You may think I relax when I am alone, but there is no moment of relaxation because my mind is always concentrated on the completion of the third seven-year course.

You must understand the importance of prayer and have conviction that prayer will be answered. Through prayer you can receive power. Through prayer you can receive visions into the future and guide yourself accordingly. You will know what kind of difficulty is coming and how to divert it and overcome. If you know how to steer yourself then you can do big things, and prayer alone can pioneer such a path. It is more important than eating. I go out to nature because it gives me a better environment for prayer, and I love nature for that reason.

I love the quiet of midnight. I don't say much about the visions I receive, but if you receive them then don't you think I do too? That kind of new world can only be reached through prayer. In that position you can taste love. This world is desert-like, but the world created through prayer has a climate where love can thrive. You must learn how to generate your own power.

You cannot expect that I will always pull you and push you out. You must make yourself self-propelling. In order to do that, prayer must be the diet of your life. Whether people recognize your efforts or not, you must do your duty enthusiastically because you have a covenant with God. Day and night you move on; there is no pause. That is a living testimony.

 

"God will concern Himself with my well-being because I am concerned with God's. If I only paid attention to my family instead of to the world and God, my family would get sick."

Every several years Father Moon's topic of prayer changes, which shows progress to a new era. In a prayerful mind he knows precisely what time it is in God's timetable. That kind of preparation is necessary for self-perfection, and we must learn it through the power of prayer. Do you pray in this way, for His kingdom and righteousness? Pray that this country can become a center of God's righteousness.

Your country has seen many fervent patriots, but you must pray with more fervor than any of them. If your concern for this country is greater than God's then this country will survive, but otherwise it will crumble. What is our goal and destination in the Unification Church? I am leading you where God desires for you to be. It doesn't make any difference whether it is difficult or easy because whether there are many obstacles in front of us is irrelevant.

The important thing is not just getting there, but getting there in the shortest possible time. If we go quickly then there is less danger, but when the process is stretched out there are many opportunities for disaster and we must not allow that. This is a transitional period; we are entering into a new era, a new plateau and history of faith.

Therefore, this is a critical moment for you and God. Last night I spoke to the department heads about the true meaning of home church (witnessing 360 homes in your area). Home church is the greatest gift God and True Parents (True Adam and True Eve) can give mankind. It has never existed before and will not again in the future. When you make this gift yours by fulfilling it, you will definitely become a son and daughter of God. Father Moon has repared this precious gift for us for his entire life of 92 years and now I freely give it to you. You can make it yours in six months.

This is an incredible opportunity. Home church should be the subject of your prayer. Pray with a parental heart for your home church people as your children who are struggling in hell. Your heart as a parent must be grieved and desiring to save them. If you don't have that feeling then you are in a dire emergency; you must open your heart to parental feeling of love toward your people. If you don't have real love for them, then push yourself until you do.

No one has to teach a parent to love his children. If you feel like a parent to your home church, then your love will be the same and no one will have to teach you. Just finishing elementary school takes six years of daily attendance. Do you think home church is comparable even to elementary school? It is the school for becoming a messiah.

Think of how important it is. Even though you might attend it your entire life, you must give your heart and soul because you could not have any better school. Even though you have only 360 homes, God will treat your efforts there as though you had given them for the entire universe. In America there are about 70 million homes, and if each person had 360 homes we would need 200,000 members to cover all America.

If the entire Christian population accepted Divine Principle, the Complete Testament, and wanted to do home church, what would happen?  There is nothing more important for you than this. Test your own power of prayer; take one person and pray for him fervently, constantly, without telling him. Pray tearfully for his well-being and then that person will feel a magnetic attraction to you.

He won't know why he feels drawn to you. If you receive in your prayer that you will meet a person at such and such a time, when you go there then that person will come. If you are dead serious then these things will happen. Hypnosis can transfer a person into another state of consciousness, but how much more can prayer change lives. There is no distance or limit to its influence because the power of thought travels everywhere throughout the universe.

You can mobilize the entire spirit world by the power of prayer. You have experienced that the Messiah will work through your prayers and tell you certain things. There is no limit to the power of prayer. When you have the right attitude in prayer then miracle after miracle will happen. The most important part of a launching pad is the foundation. At take-off it must not break under the heat and pressure. Your prayer is like a missile firing and you need a solid foundation.

You must not pray from greed for yourself. That prayer would be harmful to you. Public prayer as a public person will cleanse you and elevate you higher and higher. If you live with this high sensitivity to spirit world, you will sense what is forthcoming. Your perception will be keen and you can prepare for the future. You should know that you are like two people in one. Your inner man (spirit) is like a mirror, clean and bright.

When the inner and external men are not synchronized you feel anguish, but when they are perfectly aligned you feel joy and power. This is happening every day within you. When you see a person for the first time, your inner man can tell you what kind of person he is, and if you hear a person's report, a sixth sense will tell you how truthful it is.

When someone walks into a room, I can see whether he is bringing good news or bad. Don't neglect this inner man but consult him all the time. When you are higher spiritually you are always there, always speaking with this inner man. You have a spirit man and he wants to talk to your physical man.

You may not have any intention of saying anything yet suddenly you find your mouth moving. That is not you but your inner partner speaking. Even the rats of a ship can sense when a ship is in trouble and run away, but how much more should man, the supreme creation of God, know when life or death is coming?

Shouldn't you be alerted when a certain destiny is forthcoming? For your inner and outer man to become one you need the power of prayer. I have a family but I seldom pray for them. My prayer is anguish for the nation and world and cosmos. God will concern Himself with my well-being because I am concerned with God's. If I only paid attention to my family instead of to the world and God, my family would get sick.

I don't concern myself with my family's well-being; I concern myself with the Church and God's work and I know God will take care of them in the meantime. This is the principle of give and take. Those who want to do more for others will receive more; those who want to go down will be lifted up. Don't pray empty prayers. Now you know the power of prayer. Everyone needs to experience these things spiritually.

You must know whether the things you do will succeed or fail. You know that certain things will succeed because you feel pulled in that direction and are eager to go ahead. Your body is like the receiver of a radio. Free yourself from self-centered thinking, and then mighty things will happen to you. You must open that valve.

You are entitled to ask for God's power, but only for the sake of His righteousness and Kingdom. Then He will come down. Pray and act; you will feel different from yesterday and you will know the power of prayer is in action. Today is just the beginning; pray to tell God that you are just beginning and need His help. Make a showdown with God every day. It shall become second nature, and without being conscious of it you can live that life all the time.

Let's do it then. Let us pray.