Qualities of True Love in Marriage

True love is virtues-based and virtues-driven and a reflection of God’s love.

True love is not selfish, but centered on others.  It is principled, serving, sacrificial and without conditions.

It is unchanging, unique, faithful, obedient and forgiving.

True love is the fuel of all good relationships.  This is even more true in marriage because it is intimate and within close quarters.

1. Other-Centered

Reverend Moon defines true love as living for the sake of others.

Living for the sake of the spouse is the overarching principle of love in marriage.

Dr. Larry Crabbe, author and marriage counselor, concluded that virtually all marital problems boil down to one being self-centered.

Dr. Scott M. Stanley, a prominent marriage researcher explains, “Love is that which will require you at some point to put aside self-interest in favor of the good of the other and the relationship.”

True love is to act for the sake of another. 

Dr. Judith Wallerstein found through her study that couples who were happy “were not envious of what they gave to the other.

They did not dole out kindness with the expectation of immediate reimbursement. They did not weigh their gifts or keep records.


“Supporting and encouraging the other was a given. They accepted this major task not only as fair but as necessary to make the marriage succeed.”


Former First Lady Nancy Reagan revealed to how she had a successful fifty years with Ronald Regan in a BBC interview with Katie Couric.

She mentioned that he was never self-centered, not egotistical and didn’t bring up himself or his stardom, or accomplishments.

Instead, it was each of their selflessness that made their marriage a joy year in and year out.

2. Serving and Sacrificial

Of course it is easy to love when the other loves you back, but it still requires maturity and strength in character to deal with the times when one the emotions are not returned.

This is called sacrifice.

It is a valuable goal when one can love when the personal benefit is not immediately felt.  Such a person hones the art of loving for the sake of the partnership.  This quality is absolutely necessary for growing in love.

Researcher Stanley said, “Love is not remotely possible without sacrifice.”

Mrs. Reagan noted in her interview that giving based on 50-50 or a ’give and take’ relationship is not a realistic option. She said that there are times when one has to give more to the other in order to carry the marriage.

This kind of sacrificial giving in a marriage is needed to develop the spirit and the realtionship through the practice of virtues

Giving to the other should not negate the self or bring about a loss of autonomy.

Nor should giving cause you to become someone’s doormat.

When one can give of themselves it means that one has a self from which to give.

A true love relationship does not exhibit dependency upon the other or codependency.  Rather it is a relationship between two people who are already developed and developing their relationship with God.

Therefore, such people are capable of sacrificing for the other without losing their identity or dignity in the process.

Through this right kind of giving, people become bigger, better and more whole.

Further, they serve and sacrifice to bring down God’s abundance of love.

Reverend Moon says, “God is creator and the originator of the two basic principles of service and sacrifice.”

When a person can sacrifice and give up themselves, he or she attracts the love and energy of God to anything, including marriage, he or she engaged in.

3. Forgiving

Forgiveness is an important part of love.



It is necessary for us to forgive as God forgives because all people fall short of one another’s needs and expectations.

It is inevitable that a spouse will hurt and neglect the other at one point in the marriage, be unable to answer the other’s needs or desires, or fail to live up to the other’s expectations.

If one is not able to forgive, the marriage becomes one full of hurts, grievances and accusations.

Forgiveness is based on the other person’s situation and difficulties and placing oneself “in the other’s shoes.”

Having the sense to forgive arises from empathy.

It may be easier for a spouse to forgive if they can see the reasons behind the other’s less-than-perfect behavior.

One who is humble about their own faults and failings which need to be forgiven as well makes spouses more prone to forgive their erring partners.

4. Unchanging

Even the most stable marriages will enter into turbulent times.  A marriage that is based solely on changeable romantic love feelings alone will not be able to have the foundation to weather the up and downs of marriage.

Every marriage experiences times when the partners need to persevere through the challenges that arise.

Only couples who have a steadfast commitment will be able to persevere when they no longer ‘feel’ like going on, when the disillusionment of marriage sets in - when conflicts are hard to resolve.




Unchanging love is the determination to remain truly loving no matter what, taking responsibility for what one puts into the marriage, good or bad, and seeking to enrich the love within the marriage by following God’s ways.








When one deserts their spouse for selfish reasons, in essence, they also desert God and the blessing and grace that becomes available through such a sacrament.

The major religions of the world condemn those who break their marital covenant.

“I hate divorce . . . do not break faith,” declares the Creator through the prophet Malachi (2.16).



Muhammad said about divorce as “the lawful thing that God hates most” (Hadith of Abu Dawud).

Jesus also said that God allowed those to divorce because their hearts were hardened but it was not part of His original plan from the beginning. Matthew 19.8

Genesis 2.24 states that, “for this reason a man will leave father and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Then he added, “What God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19.5-6).


It may be necessary for a couple to separate or divorce, but some couples plainly just give up for far simpler matter than desertion or adultery.

The vast majority of marriages can and should be saved.

Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that unsatisfactory marriages do not poorly affect children.  The only cases where children are harshly affected was in high-conflict marriages.

Children thrive best when both their parents’ mutual presence are in their lives regardless of how dissatisfied the parents feel.

Children that were raised in high-conflict homes closely resembled children who came from broken homes.

This does not mean that such a couple should divorce for the sake of their children.  On the other hand, they should work to amicably solve their conflicts and possibly seek professional help if needed.

Couples at risk, should arrange times to discuss their problems when the children are not around or in hearing distance.

Gallagher and Waite have shown in their research that many marriages which started out unhappy later their marriages had changed after five years of sticking it out.

Some marriages that started out in conflict were much happier through their commitment.  They were rewarded with satisfactory marriages worth waiting for.

In order to have a committed marriage, it requires each individual to give to the marriage, the partner.

In today’s fast-paced society, there are many ways to find an escape in the marriage such as through the Internet, television, having a preoccupation with work or children or through other hobbies.

These are ways for people to avoid facing the difficult emotions or to avoid intimacy itself which is threatening to many people.  Finding an escape from the hard times of being married may bring only temporary joy, but will not bring long-lasting marital satisfaction.

Sometimes, a couple may not invest in the marriage out of sheer inertia.

For a couple to stay faithful, it requires for them to invest in their relationship, including sexually and save energy in order to face one another on a constant basis.

A relationship thrives when it is built on an unchanging, steadfast love that will provide an emotional safety net.

Commitment soothes relational fears and opens the way for intimacy. 

When the other partner makes a true commitment, it will soothe any fears of abandonment other partner may have.

Such a relationship will gradually make one feel secure and the partner will thrive within the marital bond.

Commitment allows for freedom—the freedom to let go and explore new horizons because the home base is secure.

In order for the couple to grow together, they need to have an unchanging devotion to one another.

Marital therapist Harville Hendrix says, “I want couples to know that, in order to obtain maximum psychological and spiritual growth, they need to stay together not for three months or three years or even three decades, but for all of their remaining years.”

Commitment is the ground that marital love needs in order to blossom.

5. Faithful

Sex is unique to the marital relationship.

Out of all the relationships one has, sex is added to the picture in marital relationships.  Therefore, faithfulness takes on a new dimension of meaning and significance.

To attain oneness, men and women need to be sexually faithful to one another. 

The sexual act causes two to become ‘one flesh’.

This establishes a bond between a man and a woman, therefore, one cannot become one with one person, then one with another, then one with another without physically tearing themselves apart psychically.

Catherine Wallace, author of For Fidelity, maintains that a deep psychological and emotional union is physically enacted in sexual intercourse.

Not only the body is involved. “We cannot split ourselves into parts,” she says. “Body and heart or soul are one.”

A person’s deep emotions and psychological being simply cannot be revealed to anyone other than the spouse.

A person’s sexuality should only be revealed to a person’s spouse because it symbolizes and embodies the intimacy of marriage.


“With my body I thee worship,” say the Anglican wedding vows, putting sexuality in marriage within a framework of worship and holiness. Indeed, Reverend Moon sees the sexual organs of husband and wife as representing the Holy of Holies in the Jewish tradition (Hebrews 9.3).

One’s marital partner is the only “high priest” or “priestess” who is qualified to come  worship in the temple of one’s body.

The sexual act is such a bonding between two people that has no place outside of holy matrimony.

Theologian Derrick Sherwin Bailey calls sexual intercourse “the psychophysical seal” of marriage.

He maintains that when sex is not under the guise of marriage, the seal is irrevocably made.  Even though the two may not have any intentions of fulfilling the other portions that require one to become one, sex bonds two people.

This ‘false’ bond with the wrong person will interfere down the road with their ability to truly become one with the person they eventually choose to share their life with.

God has stringent laws for sexual intercourse because when it is entered with anyone besides one’s lawfully wedded spouse, either before or after marriage, it results in entanglements of soul and psyche and possible interferes with having a clear, godly lineage.

Only if the marriage bed is inviolate can two vulnerable beings meet and become one. 

People long for intimacy with another and oneness, but it is only available on the foundation of deep and abiding trust.

Trust is built upon the virtues inherent in true love, other-centeredness, service, sacrifice, being able to forgive and an unchanging commitment to one another despite any circumstances.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Redemption Through Marriage


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

Love is Boundless Giving

Love requires one hundred percent devotion.

God invested 100 percent of Himself when He was creating the universe through His love.

God created the world for humanity, so this is why true love begins with living for the sake of others.

Many atheists believe that God is a ruler that demands to be loved.  God is not a dictator.  God gave His all for human beings, His children.

God stays close to us because He wants to live for us.  This is also why we want to follow Him eternally.

The natural law is to live for the sake of others.  If we are to maintain our existence in the world, we must live in this way.

Only when we live our life for others sake can the connection be made between East and West and between past and present.

When you are able to give and then give again for the sake of others, this places you in the same position as God Himself at the time of creation.

By putting everything you have into something, you create a second self.

This is the same as God investing all of Himself during the time of creation.

God has invested Himself in the process of restoring mankind back to their original position.  The course of restoration through indemnity is the process for each of us to recreate ourselves into children before the Fall.

So, only when we invest everything you have can recreation take place.

The idea of eternal life operates solely when one invests again and again.  You will never come to ruin if you live for the sake of others.  From giving small things, you move on to giving bigger things.

Where does this finally lead?

It comes back to you.  

We still are not satisfied after we have given love.  Instead after you give, you want to give more.  Then you feel ashamed when you are unable to.

Those who feel ashamed even after giving truly are the owners of love.

Within the realm of love, the more you give, the more we receive in return.

The more we do this, the more the power of what we gave is exceeded by the power of what comes back.  In this way, you will never perish; rather you prosper.

There is no way to be prosperous without love.

Also, love can never be exhausted.

When it is set in motion, the greater it gets.  In the laws of mechanics, anything that is in constant motion becomes exhausted in time.

But in the case of true love, the more it is in motion,  rather than being used up, the greater it becomes.

This is the essence of love: when you live for the sake of others, your love becomes greater.  But when you want people to live for you, your love diminishes little by little.

So, what is true love?

It is giving, and then forgetting about what you have given.

True love is giving and giving and then giving some more.  This is a characteristic of God.

Even if you give and give and give, the world of love lasts forever.  The word 'love' is truly mighty.

There is a Korean saying, "One well-spoken word can clear away a large debt."  What that means is that with just one word of love, you can indemnify something even if you have a debt of billions of dollars.

The only power that has the authority to govern the universe of infinite magnitude is none other than the house of love.

Love comes from living for the sake of others.  Even God, the great almighty Creator, has to bow His head to  love.

Although God is almighty, He cannot fulfill love alone.  It can only be attained through a relationship with another.

So, where does love begin?

It does not begin from oneself; it grows and develops through a relationship with a partner.

Where is the root of true love kept?

Even the all-powerful God does not keep the root of love within Himself.  Even though He is the central figure of true love, He does not want to keep love within Himself.  He wants love to take root in the person who is the object of His love.

The more love you give, the more love you have.

You will have the reserve to give more love on a larger scale.  It never ends.

Everything else has an end: money, knowledge and authority all come to an end.  Everything that is connected to human circumstances and sentiment in the world comes to an end.

On the other hand, original true love never comes to an end, no matter how much you continue to give.

Love has such an amazing quality that it continues into eternity.  You cannot fulfill love centered on yourself.  Love does not begin from oneself.  Love begins and is fulfilled through one's partner in love.  Therefore, love cannot be fulfilled without a counterpart.

Even the greatest or wealthiest person in the world cannot attain love if he is alone.  Love is only formed in the relationship between a subject partner and an object partner.

Even the omniscient all-knowing God is unable to feel any stimulation if He attempts to achieve love  just for His own sake.  This is why we need a partner, this was the purpose of creation.

Human beings are the core of the universe.

The core of human beings is life.  The root of life is love.  The root of love is God.  But this love cannot be realized by someone all alone.

God is the origin of love. 

The only beings qualified to be partners in that love with God are human beings.

The word 'love, and the word 'hope' cannot be used in reference to someone who is alone.  Even life only comes through the bond of a relationship.

Life cannot come from being on one's own.

Life and love are the two things that lasts for eternity.  Which comes first?  Life or love.  For God, love did not exist before He did.  Love came to exist after God existed.

For God, love did not exist before He did.  Love came into existence after God existed.

For God, life comes first and love comes second.  But for human beings, love comes first and life comes second.

We were created to be the object partners to God's love and to have His absolute and unique value.

He created man and woman to enter with Him into a partnership of love.  Thereby we are given the greater value than that of even the whole universe.

We are born from love, raised in love and live in love until we die in love.

It is not as if they disappear.  Since the subject of love is an eternal being, unchanging and unique, when we stand before God as the object partner, we have to have the same eternal qualities of life.

God's purpose in creating Adam and Eve was to feel joy. 

This was not the kind of joy of just looking at them or touching or speaking with them.  This joy was based on love.  He created it for the attainment of joy.

Even though God is the Absolute Being, He needs another being to be His partner in love.  God of course had the authority and power to create beings that automatically loved and obeyed Him, but God gave the power to humanity to share with Him in the creation through giving them equal value as His partner in love.

Once human beings are perfected in love as His partner in love, then He becomes the God of happiness.  He is the God who has found His ideal of joy.

God's only dream was to realize the ideal of love.  However, God does not accomplish His dream alone.  Love, happiness or joy cannot be achieved by one entity.  These cannot be realized without a partnership.

Love only manifests from your partner.

When you think your partner is ugly, you dislike him or her and want to withdraw from them.  If the partner is beautiful and good, the dynamics of love are set off that much quicker.

In other words, the workings of love are determined by the qualities of those in partnership, such as their words, beauty, fragrance, and flavor.

Since love comes from the partner, we should bow down and live for that person.  This is why the law of nature instructs us to, "Live for the sake of others."

Since this precious and valuable gift comes to us, when we receive it we should practice the philosophy of living for the sake of others.

This means we must revere, value and live for our partner and spouse.

It is not without meaning that I am vibrant and active in many fields; I do so because I have a purpose. That purpose is none other than to realize the world of love. Human beings exist with the aim of realizing and attaining love. 


Since the purpose of life is to realize true love, our value of existence is also decided by this true love.

Everyone hopes that their partner will have thousands times value or infinitely more value than they have.  In the same way, God wishes for human beings, His partners in love to have infinite value.

Once someone reaches perfection, they achieve a divine nature.

Therefore, he becomes a flawless being as the Heavenly Father and attains the same value.  This was God's original ideal for His world of creation.

What is true love?

It is a love that moves you to want to stay with your partner for a thousand years.  That makes you want to love that person forever.  With such a love like this, there is no hell.  Satan will not be able to touch you or dominate you.

Who would God place as His absolute partner in love?  None other than human beings.

One who has become one with the eternal love of the Creator must also live forever.

This is an important issue for religion.

Religions must establish a logical understanding of eternal life based on a relationship of love.  Eternal life does not lie in a man or a woman.

It does not lie in God.  You must clearly understand that eternal life is in the love of God.

If there is no subject partner in love, you feel empty and lonely.  Isn't this true?

If there is a subject partner of love, then everything feels full and you feel infinite joy.

Only when something is filled to the brim with love can everything else be filled up as well.

You can then give out love infinitely and truly.

You give love with others in order to achieve an ideal and to multiply that ideal.  The world of love transcends distance.  Love is so fast that even light is unable to follow it.  It is the fastest thing in the world.  It is also the brightest and the most perfect.

Love is the only thing that fills things up completely.  Who is closer to the center:  one who is willing to sacrifice love to sustain life, or someone who is willing to sacrifice life for the sake of love?

Which person is closer to the truth?

The one who sacrifices his life in order to attain love is the one closer to the center.  He is what is true.

The one willing to sacrifice love for life is self-centered.  Whereas the one willing to sacrifice life for love is not.

As I wandered through the five oceans and the six continents, I preached earnestly about the path of love. I have sought to shine the light of love on all people, who, living without love, are like a desert. 

If we are ultimately headed toward that other world of love, the most important thing for humanity must be the "love beacon".  That beacon of love can lead humanity to the original homeland.

Once you become one with God, a circular motion manifests in all kind of forms and figures.  This is why the older sibling in the family must love the younger following the example of their parents in loving them.

In such a family that is united into loving oneness, the love within the family will blossom.

Then that love expands to  become the love within a society, and then the love within a nation.  This love becomes the love of the whole world.

Lost within the rapture of love, God created man to live forever.  People are born from love, live in love, and finally they are harvested as the fruit of love.

When you die, you are harvested as a fruit of love. 

We have lived receiving the love of our parents and our children.

After experiencing the love of a couple, we have loved our children as their parents.  Therefore, the love of God and everything we have sown in the inner world of love is to be brought to fruition over the course of our lives.

It is said that when you die, you do not take anything with you, but this is not completely true.

When we pass onto the next world, we will reap the fruits of the kind of life we lived on earth and take them with us.

God maintains life on the foundation of true love.

His omniscience and omnipotence should be based on true love.

Only then can He stand as the ideal subject partner for humankind.  He is the subject partner that transcended all history.

If He wants to be the subject partner with only the power of life, then all things of creation will not want to unite together with Him.

Even microscopic animals and plants wish for a master of love to tend to them and take care of them.  They would like to feel the touch of loving hands.

You should not say, "I'm stronger than anyone else, so you have to listen to me."

Only when love is involved is life set in motion.  The root of life begins in love. The basis for God's continued existence is not life, but love.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: World Peace is Our Responsibility 

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong Book, True Love Chapter 1 section 2

True Love Breaks Barriers

If you use true love as the key, every door can be opened. 

Since Heaven and earth were originally supposed to be united, wouldn't love be able to penetrate through the barriers in spirit world as well?

After the human fall occurred, God's heart was sealed shut.

If this was to remain forever and true love did not exist, there would be no way to unite God and mankind for eternity.

What else could melt the heart of God after humanity caused Him so much pain?  Would offering Him money, sweet words or beautiful jewelry be able to open His heart?

Even if you were to find the largest diamond, He would point to the mountain made of diamonds which He already owns.  Would your knowledge or power on earth be able to open the door to God's heart?

Everything you present, God would say that, "That's all you know and have?  I made it all."

When you have the greatest worldly power, you can command a country, but you would not be able to break through the barriers to God's heart.

What does God yearn to have?

Not money, knowledge or power, but only true love. 

Why does love have this power?  God created love with an almighty, uniting quality which can govern and can be governed.

It has the power to be absolutely flexible.  Love has the ability to digest both extremes of happy and painful things.  So, even if you are being pinched because He truly loves you, you would want Him to pinch you harder.

The one thing that can dominate the entire universe of creation is true love.  Isn't this true?

You are able to communicate love without communication.

Nature has the same ability.  Your little puppy knows whether you love him or not.  Also, a bird can feel love, as well as the trees, grass and a deadly, poisonous snake can feel your love.

Love is communicated even without language.

A puppy knows whether you love him or not. Likewise, a bird can feel love; even the trees and grass can feel love. If you love a deadly poisonous snake, it too can feel your love.

Love is supreme.

If you possessed just a little chunk of love, would you keep it only close to your heart, or would you be excited to sprinkle it around the world so, that it would multiply?

This kind of heart would make you a millionaire of love.

Maybe to have this standard of love, you would have to lay a foundation of gallons of sweat, blood and tears.  Would this still be worth doing?

The only way you can reach God is through love, because He is the center of the universe.  So, whoever can possess Him would be the richest person.

Then, no matter how much sacrifice is needed to obtain Him, you would be able to do it.  True love is this valuable.

God is like the largest fish in the pond and you can use love as your bait.  But, without sacrificial love, you would not be able to make God your prisoner.

God loves love so much that He will swallow as much bait as you offer Him.

When you sow true love, you will harvest love and God is bound to be close by.

Members of the Unification Church are fishing for God by sprinkling our love bait everywhere.

God is like us in that He enjoys and prefers certain tastes.

God is the gourmet of love, so He knows its exact taste, whether it is sour, sweet or flat.

Even though God knows that there is a large hook hidden inside that love, He would confidently digest that hook.

God loves love permeating from the one who has tasty love that is not centered on self; selfish love tastes bitter.  But when your love wants to save the world and serve others, God would savor that kind of love.

Even though God is gigantic and beyond words, once He taste sweetness of true love, He melts and becomes like a child.  With this He will want to go wherever the one who carries this kind of love goes.

Why were you born?  Why are some humans born as men and others born as women?

There are popular phrases such as 'born to shop'.  Such lowly statements as "I live to sleep" "live to eat" is the narrow way of life.  Some people think that they were born to study.

It is beautiful, eternal and good that we were in fact born to say, "we are born to love".

Have you ever once thought that every part of creation of life that is on earth today is the fruit of love?

You participated in the love of your parents, grandparents and so forth.  You were born at the place of love and the motivation for life was love.

Then, after you were born, you received the love of your parents.

Why do parents love their children?   Why do animals love and take care of their offspring?

It is because children are the witnesses to their parents' love.

Both cause and effect spring from love.  

Because of this truth, parents must love their children.

This is not only true in the human world, but you have also seen this in the animal world.  Children who live in the love of the parents are very happy children.

We experience a generation gap here in America, where parents and children both think they will live their own separate lives instead of unifying.  When this happens, this family loses the home base of love and they have nothing to return to.

God designed the family unit to expand the pure love that pours from within it out into society, spreading one cord of love all over the country.  Then this love spills over into the entire world.

Imagine if the President was to exhibit this kind of love of his family out into the nation how that would spread like wildfire all over the world?

Children who are born and live in love at home can thus become patriots in their nation and even in the world.  Just as water in New York is the same color as water that comes from Norway, the whole human make up is the same.

Once your family is able to fulfill the criteria of love in the home, then you can expand this same criteria of love in the nation and the world.

People should be born in love, grow and mature in love, and then die in love. 

We continue to live eternally in that love with God as the center in spirit world.

Many people believe that this world is the final destination and build their life to only focus on what is here on earth.

We should see this world as a training center where you can learn the stages of how to love the world.

One who is able to love a difficult sister or grandparent, would know how to love any woman or elderly person in the world they meet.

When you graduate from this school, then you enter spirit world.  There you can experience love for all eternity.

Perfected love can be compared to a perfectly round bowling ball that knocks down all the pins.

On the other hand, those who 'fail' in the workshop of love is likened to a square-shaped or lumpy ball that does not roll properly.  True love is perfectly round and goes anywhere and finds it way through any difficult situation.

If this ball was to travel in an erratic pattern, it would still find its final target.

If Father has the knowledge to teach us this Principle, wouldn't God have thought about this even more?

Love is round, shining, beautiful and tender. The more you touch it, the more you like it. 

Therefore, love is good.

Naturally, you want to receive love directly from your parents.  Also, you must receive the same amount of love from your society, nation and world.  Would you want your love to be only confined to your parents or expand to the whole world?

What if you told or demanded people to love you, would you receive it from them?

God is the origin of love who is always taking the initiative to give love to the fallen world.  You as God's child are also to take the initiative to give out love.

In order to make your love truly good, you have to have the power to encompass the difficult and bitter things along with the good.

You should be able to embrace both extremes, loving not just America or your own family, but also the enemies of America.  What do you lose by giving this kind of love?

By practicing this kind of love, you come to resemble God.  It is even easy for evil people to like the people who also like them, and if humans had become perfected, that would be all we would need to do.

But because we have fallen from the original position God desired for humanity, this kind of love is not good enough.  Now we must be able to have the power to even embrace the people who even hate us.

What is the difference between Satan and God?

Satan can only move in one direction, but God can move in all four directions and embrace everything.  Thus, we must obtain the ability to love all people; we should love evil people as well as the good ones.

This was the main philosophy of Jesus' teachings.

A person who is healthy, does not have to worry as much what he eats because he could digest anything, even dried corn.  If your stomach is weak and certain kinds of foods make your stomach ache, then you don't have enough digestive power.

We should have the capacity to digest everything.

In order to develop such a capacity, you should look for things and people whom you hate and who you hate the most, then learn to embrace them.  Once you are able to digest the worst, then everything else is no problem.

This is the obvious conclusion.

When there are jobs that no one else wants to volunteer for, you should willingly take up those jobs and concerns and come to enjoy them.

You would become the champion of loving difficult tasks.  When God observes you doing this He would say that you have been doing that work for too long and tell you to come up to Him raising you up higher and higher.

If you are to love the world, would you take lots of vacations having loads of fun and then love the world at your leisure, or would you dash forward to the mission?

What if a woman who was beautiful enough to be Miss America decided to forget her beauty and own selfish desires and work all the time for the sake of the world?

She would even reject many marriage proposals from many distinguished men, saying she does not have time for all that.

So, which is the best route: going the way of love centered on your own thoughts and philosophy or unselfish love that is public minded?

If you are able to practice unselfish love for others for ten years, you are guaranteed that people will think you are truly the spitting image of God.  You would have the key after such a foundation of love to solve any problem people have.

This way of life sounds very colorful and dramatic,  but when you try to put it into practice you will see it is very difficult to do.  Anything is easier than loving an impossible person in this world.

One who pursues this way of life through persecution and criticism has the goal of love that will penetrate the entire universe, and you know that this is not easy to win.  This kind of love shatters the bonds of the earth and goes straight to the throne of God.

When that kind of love hits God would He just smile or would He be knocked out by it?

When God gets hit by this pure love, He will tumble over and over, nothing could compare with this expression of His joy.

Is this the right route to go; the route headed toward true love?

If you have gone this way since your youth, would that have been a wasted youth?  Foregoing heavy partying, drugs, drinking, promiscuous sex and going to the movies to do the public work of restoring the world?

By following this standard, you are engrafted to the Messiah at the Second Coming, then you are protected from going wrong.

You must produce your own buds which will blossom.

Don't just depend on the work of the Messiah and say that is good enough.  You must do the work as well to reach perfection as branches and produce your own blossoms yourselves.

Once you create many blossoms, you are able to draw energy to that area and you will send out new branches.


 If some branches are exceptionally energetic, the tree will grow in their direction, but when everyone works with equal power the branches will be balanced and the tree will grow straight. This is why I want each of you to do equally well. Thus you can't shirk your responsibility when everyone else is fulfilling theirs. If one main branch dies and falls off, the tree starts to lean to the other side where there is still activity in the healthy branches. 


In the human body, healthy blood is accepted wherever it circulates, on the other hand, when blood is unclean it becomes a burden to the body.  The best thing for a tree is to chop off the dead branches and graft on healthy little branches.

If one branch was American and the other was Japanese, and another is German and so forth, observe which branch is more energetic and powerful.  When one branch is not doing well, that healthier branch will graft another little branch there to strengthen it.

Would cultured people or primitive people be more adapt to endure hardship?

People who are the most cultured have almost zero endurance, while primitive people have 100 percent endurance but no culture.

God is fair in not distributing culture and endurance together!

When I came to lead the American movement, I had a tough time because the Americans had their own yardsticks to evaluate me with.  I brought many Japanese and Germans to this country to show Americans how to endure; people in those nations suffered much during and after World War II.Cultured people think the night is for sleeping, for instance, so they thought my way wasn't right for them.  Some people insisted they needed eight hours of sleep and three meals a day on time. But these criteria become obstacles when we are fighting the revolution of true love.


When Father told members to compete with the American members, the Americans thought it wouldn't work because these people didn't know the American nature.

But when the result came in, the Japanese and Germans were the winners and the Americans realized they had to change their outlook.

When you are in the midst of war or battle you cannot expect fine china and grand food.  Once you are able to finally gain true love, you see that it is the most cultured thing ever.



Return for Tomorrow's post: You Are God's Miracle

This post was rewritten and derived from the speech Heaven and Us

Invest Your All

This is how God is: God invests everything into a being, and then that being experiences love. Then that explosive love will be returned back to the original Being who made all that investment. God created everything according to this principle.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon

During the process of creation, God gave His everything to man.  On the same accord, a man should want to give everything to a woman. In return, the woman will want to give everything back to the man, and then the man will give everything back to God.  

This is how everything is created.

When a husband and wife give and take in this lively way, then the two will come into complete unity and never separate.  This is the center of God's love.  That is the most ideal place the nucleus.  When a couple are truly in love and live in love, then God is living there, too.

This is the secret to being a true spouse the way God intended: Pour your love into your spouse and live for your spouse doing things for his/her sake day in and day out.  When he gets overly saturated in this love he may ask why you invest so much love into him and want to get away.

But if you continue to love him in this way despite his protests, he will turn around and return your love.  Love grows in this way.  This is the Principle of Creation.

What would be the true definition of a saint?

A saint is the one who goes ahead of other people in realizing, practicing and teaching this principle.  They have laid a foundation and expanded this realm of living for the sake of others.  This is all part of the law of creation.  

We must follow this course and we must love. We must emulate God's image and put all of our love into our families, into other people and into the nation.  

There is only one way for us to go: I, as an individual, must love my spouse and then bring all of society into oneness and later meet God. Then I will fall in love with God and jump into that love and live happily day by day.

When I really live for the sake of other people, the society, and the nation, love always comes back to me.  If we live in this way, this principle will go around and around and expand throughout the universe.

Anyone who is looking for love goes against the process of the law of creation.  You cannot find love.  You first invest yourself and pour your love into others.  Have you loved your spouse?  Love comes back to you as much as you have invested into the other.  When that happens, love starts coming back.

When Ownership Begins

This tradition of living for others and investing love first is being laid on earth for the first time.  The Messiah lives for this sake to leave this kind of tradition behind and lives consistently with the will of God.  He invests everything and spares nothing; he searches for ways to give out even more.  This is where true ownership begins.  After living in this manner, all things follow such a person.

Couples everyday tell each other that they love each other.

But that husband and wife may think they love each other, but once they disagree and the other gets offended, they start quarreling.  This is obviously not the true way and is not an example of love.

Love is when you want to put your whole life into the relationship until there is nothing left to put in.  Through this investment of self, love starts coming back.

The more we love, the more love and ownership will come to us. 

If spouses invested themselves for one another, is it possible for them to quarrel?

When this kind of life is practiced, we are guaranteed to be on the right path.  Even if we do not know where we are going, we are surely headed in the right direction.

How do you decide who is going to be the center of such a large family with many brothers, sisters, in-laws, uncles and aunts?  Just because one is the eldest, does this make them the center of that family?  What if they were truly mean to others and never practiced true love? 

The person who invests day in and day out the most into that family by giving everything he's got for the sake of the other family members without expecting anything in return is the center of the family.  This is how you predict who is going to be the center of the household and the true owner of everything.  

We naturally know that we are supposed to love the world, but this sentiment is too vague.  We must truly put our life into what we are doing just as God did for us.  This way, all things belong to us.  If you want to own everything with love then give, give all you have. This is our credo.

Don't say, "Where is love?".  Don't say, "My husband must love me", or "I expect love from my wife". If you do, peace and love can never be realized within your family. 

There is no love until we put our love in. 

Put in everything you have, then your investment will return as love towards you. How wonderful that is!

This is an amazing truth that can transform today's loveless society.  We should love in this way from the individual level all the way to the national level and we will see change.  Those searching for love, should put in everything they have and then they will see their investment returned as love.

If you want to be a true mother or father, you have to honestly ask yourself, how much have you loved your children in the righteous, heavenly way.

When a child is absolutely loved by their parents, they will never want to leave even if they are being scolded.

When you give out your love and everything comes back to you and wants to be owned by you, then you can truly live happily.  This is the ideal way of life.

God loves us, but we have to love God too. 

Since all things belong to God, if we love Him, wouldn't all things also belong to us? The only way to own anything in the universe is only through loving God.  This is when we become the true owner of things.

Your Own Mind Knows

Humanity should go this way.  How will we know that we have invested everything?  Your own mind will tell you before anything else whether you have given 100 percent or not.  Here on earth, people can cover their actions and intentions behind every deed, but in the spirit world you cannot pretend.  

Everything is in the open and will be revealed.  The ideal way to live is to daily live for the sake of others.  There is no other way to reach the ideal.  The amazing reality is that God even tries to love even Satan.

Do we have such a standard of living?

"Everyday I am so excited that I hate it when one day ends; I can't wait until the next day dawns. That kind of excitement is the ideal way. Unless and until we put everything we have into what we are doing, we cannot realize true joy. Just put in more and more every day without thinking what will be returned, then you will always have more and more -- never less. I have always followed this formula.

At the last moment you may feel you have done enough. Then insist on putting in one more bit of effort. That one step makes all the difference.

When love owns you, you can't oppose it.  You have to belong to somebody. 

How can you object to belonging to someone who truly loves you? Do you think I'm a happy person? Why do you think so? Because I know that in the future, even Satan, even the communists, will not be able to oppose me. How can they oppose me when I love them?"

Reverend Sun Myung Moon

What is the will of God? It is to fulfill the ideal of creation, which is to form a four-position foundation of the husband/wife/children centered on God and live for the sake of others. Then all the love ownership comes back to God.

The person who has done this will have lived the will of God. Such a couple will be an ideal family and live happily ever after. This is the nucleus through which the whole world can be connected. The world is an extension of such a family.
  

What is the ideal life?

The ideal life is putting everything you have into the ideal.  If we live this way, we can go anywhere and be welcomed and no country will oppose this way of life.  This is the will of God.  If we each live this ideal way of life, wouldn't the world turn into the ideal world?

The secular world has an opposing philosophy: I want to be loved.  

I will take whatever I can get.  This type of philosophy does not allow a world of unity and peace. God's formula is to live for other's sake.  If we live in this way, the world automatically comes into unity.
'

We can say the world will automatically come into unity because God lives that way.  When we live in this way, our unity becomes broader and broader.  There is no other way for a unified world, no other secret besides this.

Now, we see the ideal world is at hand.

Do you think that the ideal world will come if you just sit back and wait for it to come thinking, "I'd like to sit in that kind of world and go to heaven when I die?".  This type of thinking is the same thinking of a thief.  A thief doesn't work and takes everything he has.

Because of the foundation of the Messiah you are able to participate in Gods heavenly world on earth.

Faith without works is dead.  Just sitting and believing that God will work is not enough.  He gave us 5% of 100% to fulfill our portion of responsibility.  It is our choice to do His will or not.  If we do not do enough before God, our conscience will not permit us to stand before God.

We should not be in the position to be ashamed of ourselves before God.  We should live always conscious of the fact that I should not live a life that I would be ashamed of.

The real situation is that every human needs salvation.

We are saved by dignity, not by shame. This way of life, we may not be able to eat what we like, say what we like, do the things we like so there is a possibility that we will not be ashamed of our actions.

How can we be complacent as our brothers and sisters at this very moment are losing their lives at the hands of Satan?  His ultimate goal is to destroy humanity and pull them as far away from God as possible.

You should not be just members or followers of the truth just borrowing the true way of thinking or life.  You must make it as your own and be proud of the concept and actually live this true way of life and become true descendants.  These are not just words, it is actions.

Do you understand clearly? Now we know how we will achieve salvation; how we can be saved with
dignity, without shame. 

We are all individual messiahs of love.   Plant love and you will never perish.

You may suffer in giving out your love, but you will never perish in this way of life and will never be ashamed.  By practicing true love, true love will come back to you with ownership.  This is a reality.  

Do you understand? Those who say, "Father, I understand deeply now and I will live the way of love," raise your hands as a pledge to do your best to fulfill this.".


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Adam and Eve Were the Seed


This post was taken and rewritten from a speech given by the Dr. Rev. Sun Myung Moon based on the Divine Principle teachings which are centered on the history of the Bible.

Don't Look For Love, Give It

God is our Parent. Then why did He create us? God’s creation of humankind started from the place participating  in love. Humans started from God’s mind, growing up in God’s bosom of love, becoming mature in
God’s bosom, and making the family which can connect with the love of the world. Through that, they come to return to God’s bosom.

—Sun Myung Moon


You don't have to look for love ever, there is already an abundance all around you.  God has given us love directly on the physical plane where no human should ever be alone, ever.  If you were to look at nature itself, you should never be without love even glancing at a tree or a leaf for it itself is looking for love from humans. 

This is how God created all of creation, for the love of humans.  Then to look at the people all around you that you encounter everyday, you may not like any of them, but there is an wealth of love in even the most evil person waiting to be awakened.

Have your ever thought that a baby is not born knowing automatically how to love others?  Just like a baby has to learn to walk, True Love must also be learned.  Each person must cultivate his or her capacity to love truly.

How?  What environment lets love grow and flourish?  How does one practice the true way of love while on the earth.  Is it performed through just being nice or acts of kindness?  Is there a blueprint we can all follow that helps us lead a true life of love in which all men seek

There is one easy step for all of us to learn how to love.

In order to get love, we must give it, time and time again and forget that we had even given...then give again.  This is the 'secret' which all the saints, great leaders and those who sacrificed throughout the centuries used to help change the world one footstep at a time.

Jesus was the ultimate person who exhibited true love and sacrificed his life for those in his time and generations thereafter even though those in his time did not know the quality of the person they were persecuting.

Fortunately, many sources suggest that the cultivation of true love over a lifetime may be broken down into three essential pursuits:

1. Attain individual maturity
2. Through experiencing family and close relationships
3   Contribute to the world

These three pursuits are the fertile ground to cultivate true love.  They serve as direction, give purpose and are a framework for a life lived for the sake of others -  a life rich in true love.  One's life does not diminish when they sacrifice to love and live for others, rather they obtain a unique higher quality and gain more while giving of themselves.


God's Three Great Blessings

The Three Great Blessings  are gifts granted by the Creator for the fulfillment of human life.

Reverend Moon notes their Biblical derivation from the three orders given to Adam at the beginning of the world and again to Noah, when God had hopes of beginning the world anew: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1.28 KJV).

Just like the earth, the Blessings Adam and Eve were to receive once they had establish unity with God are to be founded forever.  Billions of generations later were to acquire these gifts.  These Blessings are the universal and enduring pattern for human life and are the means by which we all become true humans who can relate directly to God.

These Blessings is what separates man from the animal and other kingdoms.  They endow us with the potential for a lordship of love.

The Three Great Blessings may be summarized in the following way: The first, “Be fruitful,” may be interpreted as the exhortation to achieve mature character, to become a well-integrated, Godly person capable of loving others. Just as an immature tree cannot bear fruit, so an immature person cannot bear the “fruits” of a loving spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5.22-23).

When God gave the second blessing to multiply, it meant to create a warm united marriage and family and to multiply His Godly lineage.  The third blessing was to "replenish and subdue" the earth and to "have dominion over it".

This does not mean to destroy the earth as a master, but to care for the creation God labored to invested for His children.  This last blessing gives you and me the responsibility to create a prosperous world where all humanity and the creation do not suffer, but flourish in a reciprocal relationship.

First Blessing: Mature Character

True love requires a good and mature character as its foundation. 

Although love is often thought of merely as a warm, pleasurable, sweet feeling that arises spontaneously, it is easily seen that various loves depend upon character. Well-developed character enables love; poorly developed character disables it.

For instance, for one to be a patriot with a love for country, one is required to have the virtue of self-sacrifice when their nation calls.  Love of  a friend requires one to be selfless and have consideration of others.

Love of a child requires one to devote themselves and be consistent over a long period of time.  Love of a brother or sister requires one to be caring, supportive, dependable and have honesty as their basic quality.  These love all call for the virtues of a good character.

Romantic love is one of the most confusing loves of all.  It would be rare if a woman thought her man loved her if he was always sitting on the couch watching television or playing video games.  If he refused to pick her up from the train station and told her to get a cab instead, she think he did not love her.

It would be hard for an elderly couple to have stayed together for 50 years without some admiration or appreciation for each other's internal qualities. Especially to have patience and understanding of the other's fault and still love.  In this day in age when beauty, youth and sexual attraction are highly rated for a couple, when these qualities fade with time, character continues to shine.

"Love flounders without the underpinnings of character strengths or virtues."

Author Don DeMarco said:

Love would be impotent if it were not for the various virtues that withstand attendant difficulties and deliver their message of love where love is needed .

"What would the world be like with a soldier who did not possess courage, a doctor without care, a teacher without patience, a parent without prudence, a spouse without fidelity, a priest without faith, a leader without determination, a magistrate without integrity and a friend without loyalty are all partners to futility, not because they lack love, but because they lack the virtue to express it."

Love and a person's character are connected.  A relationship benefits more with people of mature character supplemented with a moral identity and who contribute to the world than those who are immature, selfish and are conflicted within.

The person who lacks a mature character spends many hours of dissatisfaction\ and inner struggle. The person’s relationship with him- or herself is a disharmonious and uncomfortable one, often leading to strife in relationships with others.

An immature person is mostly dissatisfied in every situation and is always in conflict with relationships with others and with themselves.  They live a disharmonious life and are always uncomfortable and make other's life just as uneasy to live.

"Mature character is a prerequisite for joy and peace. Only those of mature and virtuous characters are able to enjoy and share fully the fruits of true love."

Reverend Moon said, “It is when the divine soul or mind becomes the master of the human body that a person’s love can become God-centered. It is as if God’s mind were coming to dwell within that person.”

Reverend Moon calls this state of character maturity “mind and body unity.” Such integrity is the ultimate requirement for true love to flow.

Second Blessing: Multiply Love

The second blessing to multiply sometimes is only noted to have more children.

There is more than just extending the lineage through marriage and children.  It means to embody one's love and on an internal level multiply to others the love that one has cultivated in their life.  To one's horizon of love unselfishly.  A world based on the culture of heart is heaven on earth.

The way to spread one's mature love is through marriage.  Marriage provides one to have a primary person in which to share the fruits of their love, one who is different emotionally, physically and spiritually yet can be their counterpart in love.

Reverend Moon claims that love cannot be complete without a member of the opposite sex. He says:

"You men here are wonderful, proud people, yet . . . in reality your love cannot be seen or proven until you meet a woman. A woman is the one who will awaken your love.  You can insist that you have love and try to prove it, but no one will see that love until the day it is sparked by a woman."

When a couple decides to marry, this pure love will inspire the couple to have children and care for them expanding their parameters of love to embrace yet more 'others'.  When one establishes loving relationships between their family members, they are growing closer to God through living for the sake of others beginning with their family.

As Jack Kornfield, a student and teacher of Buddhism said:

“The sacrifices of a family are like those of any demanding monastery, offering exactly the same training in renunciation, patience, steadiness, and generosity.”

A good family life is the first place where one cultivates the capacity for warmth, care and commitment.  Every human thrives on the joy which is inherent in loving relationships of every kind. The warm concern of a mother's love, the friendship of siblings and the sexual intimacy shared between a couple in marriage.

To learn how to love others in a true way, they must first learn through the loving interaction of family members first.

This is labeled the four realms of heart within the four aspects of the family: child's realm of heart for the parents, sibling's realm, spouses realm and the parents' realm of heart for the children.

These four realms of heart is the basis which affect a person's future relationships with others outside the context of the family. This is how one multiplies the level of the first love found in within the family to the others in society.


The Third Blessing: Prosperous World 

The desires to make a contribution to society and to appreciate and care for the natural world are outgrowths of humankind’s endowment of the Third Great Blessing to make a prosperous world.

Using Biblical language, the third blessing is to have dominion and authority over another.  In the true sense, this blessing is to exercise a caring leadership over the creation which is yet another way to give love to others.

Nature is the 'other' to be loved in this blessing so that future generations will benefit from the earth's precious resources.

The author of the Divine Principle and speeches which this blog is based upon, urges people to think of future generations in their everyday use of water, disposables, and money. Conservation, he says, is a way of loving others who are not yet born

In return of humanity nurturing the earth, it nurtures us.

"Martin Luther King once said that due to the inventions, innovations, sacrifices, and genius of people the world over, we are indebted to many:

Whether we realize it or not, each of us is eternally ‘in the red.  We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women . . . When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific islander.

We reach for soap that is created for us by a Frenchman. The towel is provided by a Turk. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese, or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are beholden to more than half the world.

Feeling grateful and responsible to the world makes us consider the best use of precious resources, ways to more equally distribute wealth, food, and health care, and ways in which to bring our unique gifts to bear on the world’s problems.

These are God’s concerns, for, as Jesus said, when we do not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, we are ignoring him.

The third key purpose brings us closer to a kingdom that includes all that lives and which returns the gifts and talents human beings have been endowed with to benefit the world as a whole."


Return for Tomorrow's Post: What is True Love?

This text was rewritten and derived from the Textbook: True Love, Chapter "Love and Life's Purposes".

How to Witness to Others About God's Love

"Therefore, please live in love, serve in love, and set the tradition of love. Then you will leave behind the fruit of love and become the ancestor of love. Once you have planted this tradition and disseminated this love throughout the world, when you are lifted up to the spirit world, you will encounter no barriers and will be welcomed everywhere."

This section of the speech will have little meaning if one does not first understand that we are not living in the original world which God planned. Secondly, when one lives in spirit world, they may find they can not move around barriers based upon how we lived life on earth.  For instance, even though a person holds a high position in society or certain wealth, if their conscience was corrupted, once they enter the spirit world, the person themselves decides where they reside in spirit world. 

A corrupted being may find themselves in heaven, but will feel immense discomfort from their sins constantly being revealed.  Here on earth, wrongdoings can be covered and explained, but once we pass over, nothing is hidden - not even thought.  A corrupted mind will reside in a lower realm where there are entities similar to their sins.  So in that case, the tale of Dante's Inferno is quite accurate.  Therefore, it is not God who judges our spirit, but each person who places barriers around themselves and reside where their spirit is most comfortable.

Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon gave a speech to a roomful of his congregation at the estate in New York:


Lawful, Public Love

"We should be people of deep longings; we should enjoy every minute we spend with someone. When we care about others, we have no dull moments. Meeting others is the proper job for people of God. That should be what our life is about, we should become experts at meeting others.

Someone who comes to meet me at East Garden for the first time may plan to stay only half an hour, but he discovers it isn't so easy to leave. I never tell anyone not to go, but people just don't want to get up and leave. This is a result of the power of love that draws people to me.

People are supposed to long for and miss one another. If love depended on appearances, an ugly person would have a burdensome life. Therefore, God, who is the king of wisdom and justice, designed us to be lovers. When you are in love, nothing matters; ugliness is no concern; you can accept everything.

However, there is one important principle in matters of love. It should be a lawful, public love; that means unselfish love. True love is definitely public love. Through true love you can gain everything, even the spirit world. Since you cannot go alone to the spirit world, you need to go with your beloved. Therefore, a truly loving person can open up the spirit world.

Those of you who are engaged, raise your hands. Your engagement is unique. Many of you were engaged to a stranger. But even so, when you first looked at that stranger, you didn't hate him or her, did you? After looking at the stranger, you didn't want to go anywhere else. That is the spirit I live by at East Garden. I cherish everyone who comes to sit with me, considering each as my beloved."


The Secret of Home Church

When you meet people who you witness in your town which is called your home church, cherish them, too. Then no one will have to tell you to go and do home church. In the morning you will jump out of bed like a bullet and run to your home church because your beloved awaits you.

Perhaps you are supposed to go to the dining room in the morning, but your feet take you to your home church instead. When your beloved is waiting, you forget eating, sleeping, and everything else. Don't you like it when your feet head in the direction of your beloved? That is the way your original mind directs you.

Rev. Moon continues:

"This morning I am giving you another secret: how to do home church. When you consider the people in your home church as your beloved, cherishing them above your own fiancee, spouse, or children, you cannot help going there. And while you are with them, the spirit world will open up and communicate with you. This is the secret of doing home church.

You women, when you are married and your husband rises in the morning and says he must go to home church, will you complain and say, "You don't love me anymore! Why do you go away so early in the morning?"

This morning Mother couldn't join us because she is recuperating (from the birth of Jeung Jin Nim). I know that she definitely needs a time of rest and some special care. But in my true heart, I still wanted her to be here. So I told her that even though she was not capable of being here physically this morning, she would be here in heart, spiritually. The husband should try to charm his wife and win her heart, so that she will go everywhere with him and not want to be separated even momentarily. This is such a great feeling. There is nothing more valuable.

Dr. Durst is here today. As the national leader, he should long for and miss all the state leaders. He should meet with them, help them, and truly love them even if he collapses in the process. If such a love relationship is created between any national leader and the state leaders, the church in that land will boom and all of spirit world will open up.

When I came to pioneer the work in the United States in 1973, 1 knew no day or night. Every moment of the day was so precious to me. I always wanted to see one more person, visit one more center. I drove from one place to another, one meeting to the next. If you follow the same principle, your results will be greatly multiplied."

The Power of Love

"Everything is deeply interesting to me. I am a lover of the ocean because it is another of God's creations. That is why I go out to sea. When various national leaders, world leaders, Korean elders and itinerant workers come to East Garden, I keep waiting for them to ask me to take them out to sea. But so far none of them have done so!

Here is a photo of me standing beside a giant tuna I caught recently. This tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds. How could I become a champion tuna fisherman so quickly? I know how to attract tuna: I do it by love. Every minute of the day when I am on the ocean I stay alert; I never nap. When people go fishing they usually become tired.

Even the pilot of the boat sometimes sleeps, but I never lie down even for a minute on a boat. My eyes stay wide open because my interest is so intense. Even if a hundred boats are fishing for tuna, I know that no one loves the tuna more intensely than I do. Therefore, I know that the tuna will come. In Gloucester people say that I even brainwash tuna! Actually, it is not brainwashing, but love washing -- or maybe Moon washing.

During the matching (arranged marriage) the other night, 250 Japanese sisters came to the United States after a long plane ride. When they arrived at the World Mission Center, they set their bags down and came to see me with tears streaming down their faces. When I matched them, they accepted without question. All 250 were matched very quickly. The amazing thing is that, although 90 percent of them had never met me before, as soon as they saw me, tears of longing and joy burst from them. You saw it, didn't you?

Does that mean I am some kind of a magician or hypnotist? No. Something else was behind it; there is a definite reason why I affect so many people and move their hearts. It is the very thing I always talk about. The secret is to become a dynamo of love, become a lover. I look at people and even the whole world as my beloved. From the material point of view there is nothing special about me; but I am the richest person under the sun because I have that power to attract people. The secret is nothing other than love."

When we love people, we lay an important foundation.  We hear often that love hurts, or is fleeting.  This is not true, love never destroys and once enough has been built up, the blossom opens up, it only builds.

When each of you creates your own love foundation, bearing such a blossom of love, then God will become one with you. Flowers attract butterflies, and the butterflies drawn to your flower of love are none other than God and His angels. It may sound like something incredible and miraculous, but it can happen.

To make a long story short, you won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love people, miss them and yearn for them. We must learn to love the unlovable. 

Reverend Moon continues:

"Before I came to America, my major study was how to love American people. I had many plans, I did much homework, and I have precisely fulfilled all my pledges. There are many things you do not know, but one thing is for sure: after you met me, you became new men and women. You have changed. What power made that happen? The power of love."

  Fund Raising Through Love

As a Unification member, we learn quickly the value of training through seemingly normal activity.  The main two are witnessing the Divine Principle and fundraising.  Fundraising has been replaced with members owning businesses , but to have those experiences are invaluable to becoming humble to the word of God, following Him in faith and learning how to love anybody.

My fundraising experiences for a duration of two years would take up many books to explain.  I went from a spoiled upper middle class rich girl to a girl in unknown cities asking people in streets and inside stores for money for the cause.  Become the position of a beggar and then you will be able to save such a person.


It was quite humbling to first of take 10 hours of my time for no outward return for my efforts, living for other people's sake.   Through these experiences, I learned to love people I used to avoid or ignore and pray for those who cursed me...eventually. 

As Americans we do not really know how selfish of a country we have become until we begin to look outside ourselves and into the eyes of our less fortunate brothers and sisters beside us.  It was through these very humbling poor situations of fundraising that I learned the to trust God more to direct my life and to love just about anyone.  I am not there yet, but compared to the person I was seven years ago before I joined, I have turned from the path of hate and death in which I was walking to life living fully being led by God.

"When you go out and work hard, you do it out of love for me. When you fund raise, for example, you think, "I really want to do my utmost for Father." That is your motivation. Then whoever gives you a donation receives the benefit of that love.

I have met some Koreans here in the United States who are well known in their community. One of them said, "Many Unification Church members have stopped me on the street or knocked at my door asking me to donate for some fund raising item, and I always do. I never refuse them." I wondered how much they were contributing, but I didn't ask. They reported their donation to me as though they had done something very important and were some kind of hero. Love is at work when people feel such an urge to help your fundraising.

"Wherever a perfect plus is found, a perfect minus appears. If you are a perfect plus, you can sit in the middle of a village doing nothing, and the villagers will come to you automatically."

I want you to understand that you are in a position to disseminate this pure love. This love will affect other people and benefit them. When you get donations, every penny is spent for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of God. How wonderful that is! Both you and the people who give will benefit. When your position is one of true love, you want to keep giving until the very end.

I would like to borrow as much money as possible in order to be able to give. For the sake of love, I want to be the most indebted person under the sun. When I live by such a philosophy, even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles can somehow be completely overcome. As I meet each large obstacle, I can jump over it.

When I make plans, the difficulties ahead seem to be overwhelming but solutions come from totally unexpected places. Spirit world moves in entirely new ways. If money is needed, money comes; if people are needed, people come; the more money we commit to a certain project, the more resources come our way. When I act, spirit world mobilizes masses of people.

Therefore, fund raising is a sacred responsibility. When you fundraise, you are giving love both ways: love for True Parents (Rev. Moon consider he and his wife as representatives of restored Adam and Eve, restored original parents without the fall) and love for people. You knock on people's doors not to gain money from them but because you love each person.

In a way, God, too, is a fundraiser. When you knock on doors, you are rejected 90 percent of the time. Likewise, when God tries to pour out His love to you, you reject Him 99 percent of the time. So when you experience rejection while fundraising, you can be in a position to comfort God. When you have tearful experiences, you move God's heart and comfort Him. Then universal love begins to blossom in your heart. The blossom of love is the most sacred and noble kind of flower.

Without question, I am a superb fundraiser. I never do things just for myself; when I see a need and set the goal for meeting that need, I fundraise very boldly. You must be bold for the sake of the nation and the world. I can tell people, 'You don't have to give me anything. Just loan me the money. You can trust me because you know my motivation is correct. Therefore, I ask that you please lend me a large amount of money, not just a small amount.'

I had one experience when I was studying in Tokyo during my younger days that illustrates this. I needed to return to Seoul, Korea, which involved a long trip by train and boat and was rather expensive. I didn't have a wallet or any money that day, but at the Tokyo train station I met a very noble-looking woman, a total stranger, and began telling her who I was, where I was going, and how much money I needed, which was quite a bit.

Then I asked if she would have enough faith in me to lend me the money. I was so sincere that the noble woman trusted me enough to lend me the money without asking for a receipt. After I completed the trip, I sent her back twice the amount of money she lent me. She was flabbergasted. She paid me a visit to return the money, saying, 'You are such a good, honest man. I do not want this much money from you. Please take it back.' 

People can sense a person of genuine character; purity and genuineness are always communicated. That is the beauty of life. Fundraising is the best way to understand this kind of realm.


Fundraising Teaches How to Love People

When I was a university student in Tokyo, I would ride the electric tram car on rainy days. When I boarded, I looked for the elderly people and stood next to them. Normally, young people wouldn't like to stand close to shabby-looking old people, but I would. I wanted to stand near them in case they needed any help. I would look at some bedraggled old man and think, 'Suppose this gentleman was my father. What would I do if my father was this wet? Could I run away and abandon him?'

It is normal to feel repelled by smelly old women or men, but when I thought of myself as their son, everything about them became attractive, and I felt very affectionate toward them. Old people have a loving heart for their children, and on such occasions I wanted to reciprocate that love. So I would talk very warmly to an old woman, even though she was a total stranger. What beauty there is in such an intimate conversation!

Sometimes I would wear dirty, ragged working clothes and a smelly jacket on the tram car. I would try to sit next to the most attractive woman on board, someone wearing eye makeup, lipstick and manicured nails.

Ten times out of ten, such women would move away. I was hoping to find someone who would ask herself, "What if this were my husband and he was working so hard for me? If he was suffering for my sake, what would I do?" Then, while these thoughts were going through her mind, we could have started speaking and she could have become the first person to hear the Principle and the first person to join the Unification Church."

Return for Tomorrow's Post: How To Gain Spiritual Help


This text came from Textbook: Restoration of True Love, Chapter 10 Before and After the Blessing