Living Just for Self is Evil

How should we spend the rest of our lives?

We should follow this road of tribulation from now on indemnifying the sinful past.

The important issue when you manage your life is whether you live your life individualistically or for the public.

For whom do you eat, wear or buy and sell things in your daily life?  For just yourself or for God’s Will?

The issue is whether you live your life publicly or privately.

Pledge to go the public way. 

Anyone placed with the responsibility to indemnify or reverse history’s past mistakes must advance to the stage which everyone desires to go.

Therefore, throughout your daily life we must transcend the feelings that are very selfish and private and embody public feelings. This is the important issue which all people of faith must be concerned with.

What is sin?

Sin comes into existence when private matters exist.  Ruin appears within the sphere of private matters.  Evil act in the same way.

When we pursue private matters, they manifest as evil

There is a limit to private matters.

When it is in excess, then sin, evil and ruin result.

Then where is eternal good come, eternal prosperity and eternal fortune?

What position must we be in where we can prevent sin, evil and ruin?  The position where we are protected from such matters is when we pursue public matters.

When you work, work from a public standpoint.

When you speak, be able to digest any situation by using public words.

Then, through this way, live your life connected with matters which are public.

Such people who live a public life cannot go to hell even if they try.


Experience love

Do you live your lives only thinking that you are the only one?  Are you just limited to just yourself?

It is easy to think in this way, but if all the elements our parents and creation were removed, then we would disappear.

Then what is this being we call ‘self’?

We are in a position to represent our mother and father.

We inherit our mother and father’s blood and flesh through the period in the womb and they provide for us.

The terms Mother Earth and Mother Nature come into being because the earth is our mother who provides us with elements at different levels.

We breath through an umbilical cord while in our mother’s womb.  This hose links us to our mother’s body.

The moment of our first cry we are connected to this second world of air.

Our nostrils are the absolute supply line.

We will die if both or our nostrils are blocked.  Have you ever thought of this?
It is made with a dual structure.

When a baby comes out from the womb to connect to the world of air, the umbilical cord, the amniotic sac and the placenta that it depended on for its life in the womb are destroyed and die.

What appears at that same moment of death? The baby comes out into the universe, to Mother Earth, and comes to live by the supply of elements through its mouth.

After coming out of the womb, what must our body do? While we are breathing through the umbilical cord in the womb, we are also preparing the nostrils as the airway. Then, when we emerge from the womb, we switch the use of the organ and begin to breathe.

Just as this natural process of human development in the womb, we must love, inhaling the love while on earth from our mother and father.

We must undergo all processes of life by the supply of the air of love. 

Once we are born in a family, we go up and down the cycles of life along a sine curve.

We grow, we age and then we die and dissolve returning to the stage of being a baby.

What happens when we die?

We leave the second ‘womb’ and connect to the third breathing organ of love.

We leave parental love and fraternal love and enter the world of love that is harmonious with God of the great cosmos.

The spirit world is filled with the air of love.

We must prepare now so we can breathe in the air of love in the next world

We are only immortal when we become people who feel spiritual love and breathe the air of love.

When we kick away the womb of Mother Earth, we breathe with the respiratory organs of love.

We can gain eternal life only when we inherit the third love.

After we are connected with love, then we return to God and are linked to the respiratory organ of love.

Those who do not give love while on the earth have not developed their love organ and will be unable to breathe in the other world - this is hell.

Since the seed was initiated by the Original Being, it must bear fruit and return to Him.

We are on a traveler’s journey through this course of life.

Even though our life here is just a passing moment, we should experience love.

The Fall meant that we could not receive our Parent’s love.

We must form a family that is centered on true parental love, true fraternal love, true conjugal love and true filial love.

We also establish many families in the north, south, east and west. Then these families should form true families that are linked to the other families, tribe, people, nation and world. When this world is bound by love, this is called the Kingdom of Heaven, world peace will be established.


Return for Tomorrow's Post:

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong.

Be Like God and His Heart

We are modeled after God’s heart and heavenly character

Even the healthiest and richest person has to one day discard their physical body and move on to the spirit world.

Therefore, since death is inevitable, we must all prepare and be ready for it.  We should endure the hardships on earth in order to form a good character that will live in the eternal world.

While in the womb, we need good prenatal care in order to be born healthy.  In the same way, our life on earth is like the womb.

As we grow, we risk our lives to overcome obstacles that hinder us from becoming like God’s form, heart and character.

Do not sin

An electrical pole stands upright just as the mind is straight.  This is why people walk upright - to make your mind completely vertical.

The body forms a horizontal line. The perpendicular force and the force of rotation must be balanced. Accordingly, you must find yourself.

When you say that you are yourself, God should agree with you.  Then your relatives, your clan, and the nation must also agree that what you say is right.

The one who is accused by them is the problem.

In the future, continents will not be as segregated by borders as it is now, but divided between frigid zones and temperate zones.

The time will come when Heaven on Earth will become a reality. Those who want to continue to sin will be sent to the North Pole just like patients with contagious diseases are quarantined.


Live and die for the world

“I did not work hard for the sake of the Asian situation or the Korean people. Think about how to fulfill your responsibilities in the global field and be willing to die for this cause.”

Reverend Sun Myung Moon

We must live and die for the sake of the world and go beyond the individual and family level and stand on the global level.

What position should we leave the earth?  We should die while embracing our loving spouse, family, tribe and nation.

How will the founder of the Unification Church die?

“I will die for the sake of the world, while embracing its people and the Republic of Korea also. If the Korean people unite and die for the sake of the world, there will be a path for them to be able to live with the world. That is why I go forward seeking that path.”

Work hard

“If you need money, make it. If you need people, work hard without eating and sleeping to raise them on this path.

“Never ask anyone for help. Do not rely on the church headquarters for help; you should help them instead. Work more than three times harder than ordinary people.

“That is why, if I were to live for 70 years, my life content would actually be equivalent to 210 years. Likewise, don't think of living for I00 years; instead, think of working three times harder than others.

“If you were to live that way for 70 years, it would be worth 210 years. Think this way: if you worked ten times harder, you would live 700 years; if you worked twenty times harder, you would live 1400 years.

“You should work twenty-four hours a day throughout your entire life. Only when you live that way can you bear fruit and increase your ownership of love in the spirit world.

“Your fortune of love will grow. Your ownership will grow and your sphere of activities will expand.”
Work for the public good

All the laws of heaven promote public righteousness.

Private matters belong to Satan, and public matters belong to God. 

Go the way of public righteousness.
If everyone opposes you while you stand this course and you are not disturbed by the opposition and go the way of hardship with vitality, you will become a person whom heaven will welcome.
You can observe this principle yourself.  If you see a shopkeeper who is greedy, you will notice that the customers will not buy things from him.


No one likes a greedy person.


Everyone naturally knows how to manage one’s life when it comes to public and private matters.

If you do not make it to heaven, you cannot make the excuse that you did not know how to properly manage your life.

Why?

We already know the distinction between matter that are public and private without being taught.

Let’s say you had a delicious snack that was equally split between you and your sister.  You already ate your share, but your sister keeps her share.

You wake up late at night hungry and you secretly eat your sister’s cake which she had her heart set on to eat maybe with breakfast.

Just before you eat it, or while you are thinking about eating it, your own conscience will cry out, “You devil!”

You should be able to feel your conscience protest before you do an evil act.

Why? Because your conscience pursues public matters. If you follow private desires you will perish.

A mind that follows the laws of heaven is a mind that defends and protects a person from falling into destruction.

God originally had such a mind, human beings came to have the same mind from the start.

This law is not made by man.

Can you reason with your mind that you want to do an unlawful deed because that is the way you think or the way you are?  Would the mind surrender and follow your way?

We may not know directly where the conscience receives its instructions from, but we know it is not from us.

Our mind chooses public over private matters.

When people struggle at they come to the crossroads between good and evil, and public and private matters, they finally fall into a self-centered private life.

Those who fall into a selfish lifestyle will eventually perish no matter how successful they become.

Therefore, they should repent for their past, private lives and push themselves back into a public way of life.

People waver between going the way of a private life to a more other-centered lifestyle.

But after the Fall, people are more inclined to live a private life where they only concern with themselves and distance themselves from the public good.

This is how you have lived your life of faith until today, so therefore, you should repent for living a private life-style.

We all want good fortune and to live forever.

But in order to do so you must become public people.

Become people who don’t just love your children only as your own, but become people who love their children as an offering for the sake of the people in the world who are suffering.




When holding your babies to your breasts and nursing them, think of yourselves and your babies as representatives of the entire human race on earth.




Nurse your babies with such a heart.

Instead of just caring for your own children’s wellbeing, cherish other people’s children as if they were your children with a loving heart.

Babies who are raised by such mothers will certainly become great people.

Such a result may not come to the surface right away, but after the first and second generation of
descendants, great figures who can rule the world will be born in that family.

This is the formula.

Which lifestyle do you prefer to  live to indemnify the past: private or public?

Both have a purpose.

But those who stand up at the risk of their lives to devote themselves for the public good will become great people.

A new history will be created by a group of people like this.

Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Living Just for Self is Evil

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheong Seong Gyeong written by Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

The Path We All Must Take

The body is far from eternal life

The earth breathes and moves just as our bodies do.

Your cells breathe as well.

Would you rather live eternally on earth, or would you rather live eternally in a place where you are a full entity of love?

In our physical body, we cannot see God when He wants to reveal Himself.  This is why our spirit self is needed.

God is in the center of the spirit.

As God's counterparts, He wants to bequeath to us everything from the eternal realm.


How the majority of people live

We are all headed toward a destination whether we know it or not.

The nation, the world and even heaven and earth are headed there as well.  This is an undeniable fact.  You are driven by this destiny.

Where are you headed after this life ends?

Religions arose to deal with this issue.

Where are our minds and hearts trying to go?  Also, our wishes and hopes.  Where are they trying to go?

Even though humanity has not truly resolved these issues, we are still destined to go in any case.

On the day that this body is buried in the ground, will our mind, our heart and hopes be buried together along with the body?

We should look at this with solutions and a purposeful perspective.

Every saint and sage and founders of religions stopped on their normal paths of life to ask the questions of their minds and their hearts.

They wondered where they were headed and they struggled to resolve these issues.

Even though numerous saints gave their life to answer these questions, there still has not been anybody who could confidently claim that their body, their heart and mind went to such an ideal place.

Religious and conscientious people all desire for the end of this fallen world which originated from private desires.

Over a millennia, religions have awaited a public world -  a single, unified world of peace without borders or conflicts.

How should religious people live?

They should shorten the path to restore historical mistakes and link this path to the world and cosmos.

A family that lives walking this path is far more interesting.  This is a liberated family that becomes a true family.

“Walking the streets of Myungdong in Seoul, one sees young couples being affectionate. For whom are they doing that? They say they do that to enjoy their youth, which they have but once.

“That's fine, but who is the owner of enjoyment? This is a serious question. How long can you enjoy life? You do so from your twenties, but it will not last after you pass your sixties, seventies, and eighties.

“Yet the way of the Unification Church is different. For what purpose do we eat? For the sake of the world and to abolish this evil world. We see in order to clean up this evil world -- not to become a part of the evil side but to defeat it. How we hear, think, walk and act is different from the secular world.”

God created us as precious beings whom He cherishes eternally.

God derives joy from us as His object partners.  Since God is eternal, we must also be eternal beings.

Many people live centered on such thinking that they will live until they are eighty and think that when they die that is it.  Throughout history, the question of immortality has been pondered and people wonder if they can live for eternity on earth and never die.

Then they ask, what is the meaning of life?

They wonder what is the point in just being born and pass away.  They just conclude that life is just suffering and that we just come and go like the grass of the fields.

The more people held on to this ideal, the more they thought and asked themselves, "What's the meaning of life? Why are people born and then go away like travelers?" and

Death is inevitable

One day we will go to the spirit world.

Even if people visit Korea at Gimpo Airport, it does not mean they traveled in Korea.  Where do we go afterward?

We go to a county.  From there a township, then a village.  From there we must go to a neighborhood.  This is not an easy task.

If we cannot determine a dwelling place, then there is no value in having a successful social life.

“If God orders me to come, even tomorrow night, no matter how great I may be today, I have no choice but to go.

“However loudly I might protest, I would have to go. I will go while protesting loudly, but only after speaking the right words. I must present the way that the nation and the world must go. It will be my death if I fail to do so.”

God is the owner of life

“Who is the origin of life? Not I.”

The origin and purpose of life must transcend me.  Actually, our life did not originate from our parents, society or a nation, but from God.

Only when you link your origin to the cause, the purpose of life, and deny your fallen self, then you make a leap and transcend.

You must link your life to the transcendent motive; it does not begin with yourself.

It began with the absolute God.

If you link yourself in this way, then when you die, you will be within the transcendent process because of God's Will.

People do not live for a millennia or for centuries.  They die within a century or so.

Among the numerous ancestors who have died throughout history, if any of them live with a public mindedness that met the standards of the universe, they would have left a legacy that lasted a millennum.

Instead, our ancestors lived selfishly and perished.  They brought everything to ruin.

This kind of selfish lifestyle causes problems.

The bigger problem is how can we replace the way of looking at everything from an ego system with one that serves a higher purpose.

The question is how do we shift from emphasizing self-centeredness to benefiting the greater good.

We must reverse the way of living individualistic lives.

This requires action.

If you only had one pair of clothing, you would fight for your life to keep others from taking it off of your body.

If you had a change of clothing for every season, when it is spring and you see people dressed in winter clothes, you show them your spring clothing and tell them they wear winter clothes and take them off.  If it is summer and people wear spring clothing tell them to change according to the weather.

But those people do not see the need to change.  They were unaware that something of greater value existed.

The same goes for those who are living in a lifestyle centered only on their own self-interest.  Until someone shows them the truth, they may not see the value of living a life for others.

On the earth we have parents, teachers and relatives. We have ways to establish such relationships on the earth, but not in the spirit world.

Everyone practices God-centered public-spiritedness.

The position one holds is differentiated.  Those above cannot descend below, and those below do not easily ascend.

It was God's original idea that we would not pass on to the spirit world until we achieved perfection on earth.

Adam and Eve to were to perfect their love to God before the blessing of marriage, live, and die in perfect oneness with Him therefore, naturally going to Heaven after living on Heaven on Earth.

It is an absolute that we will each die.

This life course is short compared to eternity.

Even if a person lived a life span of eighty years, it is equivalent to less than eight hours in spirit world time.

When we look at our time here on earth, it is even less than that amount of time in eternity.

This means the power of true love is great.  The speed of true love is so great that is beyond our understanding.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Kind of Hope, Goes Beyond Death

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong, book Five, Chapter Two – Section 1

We Choose Heaven or Hell

Religious people who tell those who drink that they are going to hell have no peace of mind.

“I am weary of them. When I see them saying, ‘That goes against the Bible, Matthew chapter so-and-so. You're going to hell,’ really, those rascals. If killing someone could save a nation, then don't you think they would pass a law to free the person who had killed for the sake of saving the (whole) nation?”

You decide whether you go to heaven or hell.

“I do not decide. God does not decide. You are the one who decides. If you complain, it is hell. If you go with a grateful heart to places where you would have complained, it is heaven.”

God did not make hell out of jealousy or envy. Since false people appeared, God made hell as a warehouse in which to manage them.

For example, if you bought a cabbage to make coleslaw, but while making it you discovered the outer leaves had been eaten by worms, you would dump it into a rubbish bin.

This is the concept behind the creation of hell.

Since humanity committed the crime of the Fall, therefore, to remove sin from existence, someone who is qualified must emerge to reverse this problem.

Before the Second Coming, all people who were born on earth were destined to go to hell because there was no true condition for God to save them.

The highest level was paradise which was a waiting room for the creation of heaven.

Humanity has been born of a fallen lineage.  There has not been a moment when all of humankind has bowed down and attended God with all of its heart.

Adam and Eve grew according to the ideal of creation before they fell.

But they never attended God from a relationship of the heart.  How do we know this?  Because if Adam and

Eve truly could feel God’s heart and pain, they would have never crossed the boundaries of love which ultimately separated them from their Parent.

What is hell?

Hell is a place that has no relation to God or His love, life or lineage.

No matter how well you do while on the earth, the situation after the Fall is such that you cannot establish a relationship with Heaven or the realm of the Fall.

This is a bitter tragedy we find on earth.

It is a fact that human beings who were created by God fell from a good position where they can not relate to Him.

We were to lovingly attend Him, but He was left deserted by His children who followed His servant.  No one believed in Him or knew Him.

The bitter grief of heaven and earth is that no one attended and related with God in heart.

You have to hate your fallen, imperfect self.

You should hate your body.  Your enemy’s sinful blood pumps through your very veins.  You should understand that you cannot cut this line with a knife or burn it away.

You have become a waste factory that just consumes things of the creation and cannot receive God’s complete protection.

What determines the division between heaven and hell?

Just knowing or preaching the Bible is not enough.  It is decided through acting upon the original heart.

The boundary line between heaven and hell is determined by the heart.

When you cannot conform to the ideal of love, a reaction comes against you.

No one tells you to go to hell or sends you there.  This is why the Bible states “Love your enemy!” Genuine love gives its influence on the enemy.

If one sends love to his enemy once, twice, thrice and four times, the enemy disappears or is absorbed by this love for sure.  It is because love has such a great power that Jesus said to love the enemy.

How do you think God feels when He sees His children suffering in hell?  Would He sit joyfully on the throne happy with just a few praising His glorious name?

He is desperate trying to give them eternal life.

This is the only way that His responsibility as a parent will be fulfilled.

If after the Fall God eliminated every false thing then He could not stand in the position of a parent.

This is why God even has to eventually liberate hell no matter how hard the situation.

When a rebellious child sees his parents desperately trying to save him he will recognize how much they are doing for him and shout this out thousands of times for his sins.

A son will repent till his bones melt and his flesh falls away.  The parents’ heart is such as this.

Not even Satan can accuse God for His love in trying to save humanity.

No rule prevents forgiveness for a person who repents based on the love of his parents.

From this kind of heart, hell must also be liberated.  This is the way of a true devoted child.  Therefore, members believe that we must liberate even hell.

Why?

Because God has such a parental heart for His children, for us who have suffered from the Fall.

Once one is caught in hell, it is a place one can never escape.

Despite the fact that we feel that our mother, father and relatives are going to hell, you do not really feel the desperation to save them.  You think that it will somehow work out.

However, let’s think seriously about our beloved family members going to hell.

Human nature is such that if your parents were to go to prison, you would cry.  You would do all sorts of things to get them released.

Then, if you knew that your own sons and daughter, parents, and relatives, brothers and sisters were going to an eternal prison, would you just think casually about their fate?


Return for Tomorrow’s Post: Why Do We Exist?

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

The 'Self' is the Ticket to Hell

What is the greatest obstacle to entering heaven?

Yourself is your greatest enemy.

Hell and the satanic world were created when humanity became aware of ‘self’.  Lucifer took actions centered on himself.  He intensely thought of himself and gratifications only.

What is a traitor?

A person who puts himself before his nation is called a traitor to the nation.  Same with a family member before his family.

This path leads to hell and leads a person to ruin.

This foundation called the self, and centered on the self, leads to death.

Wanting to receive love is the path to hell and belongs to Satan's side. 

On the other hand, the path that wants to give love is the path to heaven and belongs to heaven’s side.
Parental love is on the side of heaven.  It continues to give even when the child refuses to receive.

Though all humankind is fallen, the true path still remains through parental love.

Because God is a parent, and we are His children, that kind of love still remains in fallen human beings.
Where are you headed?

“I will go to the spirit world and stay at the highest point of all kinds of love. Just as there is a North Pole and a South Pole, there is a Love Pole. No matter how hard you try searching at the half way point, or however much you go around, you will not find me.

“Since you cannot find me, you might say, "Rev. Moon went to hell." Would it be easy to stay at the highest point? "I will not freeze to death at the North Pole. I will be like a fireball of love!"

This is a great ideal and a great system of thought. So, everything will be fulfilled. Even God is inside me. The people of the world are inside me. Those who say that they will inherit love are of my tribe! You're not offended?”

If God was to visit hell, all of the satans there would bow their heads to Him.

Even Satan cannot oppose absolute love. 

All the gates of hell would open for God.

This is the basic rule for all relationships of all creation.  The mind has no boundaries.  God is like this; He does not have any boundaries in His mind.

If God wants to go to heaven, He can go there; if He wants to go to hell He can go there, too.  This means there are no walls in the mind of God.

A person who is on his way to his own execution would detest any clothes they wear no matter how elegant they are.

But if someone’s clothes were made by loving hands of his wife, no matter how ugly they might be, the clothes would shine extremely brightly.

We can conclude that anything done out of the essence of love will be welcomed by God wherever it goes. 

Even if something made out of love was to go to hell, God would go and be there with it.

People who go to prison for the person they love, they are not really in prison.

They are in a place that deepens the bond between them.  Therefore, true love can both control God at the highest of hell and at the lowest level.

This principle is the same throughout creation in the earth and in the world of plants and animals.  They all like the song of love.

When you wake up in the morning, would you like to hear the sound of birds singing love songs or the sound of them fighting one another?

Of course, you would like to hear their song of love.

In this universe there are no borders in places that have true love. 

Those who live with true love have what it takes to pass through any place.

They have the ingredients to control God and hell.  Love has the strength to break down barriers and go anywhere.

Love became the pillar that let this universe come into being. 

In the same way, love, false love became the pillar that supports hell.

How difficult it is to make this right after something like this went so wrong.  Even if you wash it with a powerful bleach, because love makes up its root, it becomes tainted again.

Only the strength of true love can make total unity. 

Words of love would even make Satan in hell and the entire world say “Mmmm”.

The power of love makes everything become one. Is there anyone who can deny this?

Our work of restoration is building a cable car from the human world that is in the depths of hell to the highest summit where God is.

What is that cable made of?

If we made this connection with just money, it would snap in an instant.  What about with just knowledge?  Even a cable made with authority will not be enough.

A cable made of love that transcends the top and the bottom should be used to hang the cable-car so it can run smoothly on the cable.

What is a clown’s major job?

It is to make people happy and dance around.  If you cannot dance, at least keep up with the time.

If God was to see church members dancing in such a place, He is not so stingy to say, “Oh, dear, you as the founder of the Unification Church are found keeping time with a clown, then you go to hell.”

God is amazing.  But we have limited Him to our simple thinking.

God’s mind is not small like the leg of an ant.  We haven’t really realized that He is such a great God that if He opens His mouth to inhale all the air in the universe, He still have room to spare.

When we look at God’s providence throughout history, do you think that He send people in the spirit world to hell and only works to restore those on earth?

Since God is love in the highest sense, wouldn’t He desire that His providence of salvation be completed even if it crosses the borderlines of hell? Or He would not recognize those in hell and not mind they suffer for eternity?

The human mind is not like crystal but like ice. 

The mind has all sorts of odds and ends frozen within it after the Fall.

We work to melt it to get rid of these odds and ends and make it into a lump of pure ice that God could suck.

You can only be restored into a lump of ice that belongs to heaven rather than hell once you think you will become pure ice that God likes.


Return for tomorrow’s  Post: We Choose to go to Heaven or Hell

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

Hell Has no Relationship w/God's Love

Truly, what was the Fall?

Humanity fell into the darkest of nights because of the Fall, transforming our ticket to heaven to a ticket to hell.

Hell is a place that has no relationship to God's love, life or lineage or even to God Himself.

Hell is a place where you are alone and you are shut of from everything.

You have a longing for what you cannot attain.  You will feel the happiness in the large realm of this universe, but you will not be able to move one inch.

“So what is it that I am doing? I am initiating a movement to love God, heaven and earth, based on a universal system of thought: the Principle.

“This is so that from now on, you have to prepare the way you will take when you go to the spirit world. You are doing great things by making such preparations.”

Do you know how vast the spirit world is?  Since it is such an infinite world, you must have a global and universal mind to keep up with the pace of that world.  Therefore, you are making that world the stage for your activities while you are here on earth.

This is impossible if you are individualistic and worry only about your own needs.

If you are not able to connect to the whole, what greater hell is there than that?  It would be the same as catching an eagle and locking him in a dark hole where he could not move or feed.

The eagle symbolizes America.  Wouldn’t it be miserable to live just to eat and satisfy the stomach?  Is that happiness or unhappiness?

To commit suicide is the worst sin of all sins. It is an atrocity that destroys the universe. 

A person who commit’s the crime of killing themselves will go to the lowest of hells.

What if one of your nostrils was plugged and you could only breathe just a little bit through your other nostril?  That would be hell.

Hell is where you are unable to receive when you want.  It is also when you cannot give when you want to.

How long can you endure holding your breath?  How long can you go without exhaling or inhale when you need to?  That is hell.

You cannot eat without God's love in the spirit world. 

Without God’s love in the spirit world, you do not have the right to eat.

Hell is a place where you watch others eat, but cannot eat.  Only those who have experienced the life of heaven on earth with their mind and body united can take ownership in the Kingdom of Heaven.

What do you do when you are in spirit world?  Do you still eat?

You eat food based on love.  Therefore, a person who doesn’t have love will not be able to open his mouth no matter how much he wants to eat.  The food will jump from his face.  This is his punishment.

The world on earth is in chaos.  What about spirit world?  Since humans go to the spirit world in confusion, then the spirit world ends up in chaos as well.

Stealing something becomes a habit.  Once a person who steals a lot on earth goes to spirit world, he naturally wants to get something for nothing on the other side.  Since it is difficult to deal with an unprincipled person such as this, hell was created to separate them.

God did not create hell.  It is a storage place for waste and has nothing to do with God’s love.  All of humanity who begins from false love inevitably go to hell.

God also does not send people to hell, people go to hell on their own accord.

If a person who lived an evil, selfish life on earth was to go to heaven, they would not be able to breathe because the air there is God’s love.

Since they were not able to exercise their love lung while on earth, they will have to go to the lower parts of spirit world where they are comfortable.

Therefore, the person who goes to heaven lives with God eternally.

Since God’s mind and body are united, if a man and woman and their family can do the same and live together in front of God, and become His object partners, they will naturally go to the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world after leaving the earth.

Those who lived a life with God while on earth could not live in hell.  They would not be able to breathe and the smell and taste would be repulsive.

If you reach heaven, you would be able to freely come and go from there even visit hell.  Would you rather be a person who is limited to a space in hell or a liberated person who is free?

You have to think of difficult people as the gate keeper and think that you are going to touch and melt their heart so they will guide you when you reach those gates.

Hell is a place without a future. 

Heaven has a future.

The Fall began in the place where there is no future in the public sense.  The self became the center and living for humanity’s own sake forsaking god is the way to hell.

Living for others is the way to heaven. That is the concept of heaven and hell. 

A flattened balloon slowly rises when it is filled with hydrogen.  It seems that the balloon can rise to any height, but it has limits.

A balloon stops at the place where it finds a balance with its own weight and remains at the same level of atmospheric pressure.

This is the same case in the spirit world.

Those who are greedy go down. They are heavy. 

For that reason, hell is where heavy things gather and collide with one another.

What if a racist white person went to the spirit world and the gate keeper to heaven was black?

If a person was blocked from entering heaven and made to go back, he might cling to the gatekeeper at that time and cry out for them to have mercy on them.

He would experience a living hell that is hundreds and thousands of times greater than any suffering they caused the black people in his lifetime.

“If I were God, I would also put such keepers by the gates. “

Everyone lives under the rule of the universal law.  No one can free themselves from this law.  This affects the order of love and morality from the family level to universal and then God.

One who has violated heavenly law is not free to go anywhere in the universe.

There is nowhere to run or go where you wish.

To attain a life that is supported by all the laws including the laws of nature, the true path is the one giving love and living for the sake of others.

You should realize that hell does exist. Hell is a place one goes who does not follow the way of carrying the banner of love.

“I hope that you can stand in court and be victorious.”

When you do not have the discipline to practice love, when you go to spirit world a reaction comes against you from everyone there, nobody will tell you or send you to hell.


Public or Private

Being public means living for the greater good, doesn't it? Being private means putting yourself first. Living for your own sake leads to hell. Public-mindedness leads to heaven.

Unification Church members are not without value.

We may look simple, but we are not a simple group that believes that we go to heaven by just going to church on Sunday or through just holding a Bible under our arm or giving tithing every now and then.

As a people, once we believe in something, we do it till the end.

Even if our spouse grabs us from following this path we are intense and follow the path of faith even at the risk of divorce.

The reason you suffer now is for the sake of finding the freedom of heaven. 

Even if you go to hell, after living such a courageous life on earth, no one in hell can hold you there after they have judged your life.

Going down to a lower position is something that would never happen in a society of brothers, but is only possible within the realm of the parental heart.

God can go to the bottom of hell where His children suffer; this is the example of a parent - a true parent.


Return for Tomorrow’s Post: The Self is Ticket to Hell

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

Second Facet of Marriage Preparation

Character and Enriching Relationships

The skills and knowledge that is needed to prepare one for abstinence and marriage require for one to develop a certain quality of heart and character.

When one knows about mature love and how to have effective communication within a healthy relationship require unselfishness, patience, courage and kindness.

To mold a young person to have do the inner work in order to meet the demands of a lifelong love involves character training which requires developing the heart, conscience and a mature character.

Instructions from faith-based resources stress the difference between right and wrong and focusing on a higher purpose than themselves.

Character development would note how important relationships in the family, friends also teach lessons on the need to love.

Enriching Relationships

1. Parents and other elders

2. Siblings and friends of both sexes

Personal Character

“In the future, would you like to have a wife with a beautiful face or a beautiful mind?” Reverend Moon has asked youth. “You should have a beautiful and giving mind, and live your life centered on the mind and not on your appearance.”

Most people focus on the way a person looks or just the personality of the opposite sex when it comes to dating. Therefore, these are the same quality traits one will focus on in themselves to attract love.

After having many unsuccessful relationships, a single person can see in the end that being caring, generous and kind are the best traits to look for in a potential partner.

Also, young people should know it is unfair to expect their partner to have qualities that they do not have themselves.

A good subject partner attracts a good object partner and vice versa.

It takes a good person to appreciate another good person.

Reverend Moon has said, “No matter how good your partner is, you will not be able to see his or her value without you yourself being the best.”

Therefore, young people should concentrate on perfecting their own character before choosing an ideal partner. To find a good husband or wife is to become one yourself.

Ovid said, “To be loved, be lovable.”

When one invests daily to cultivate their own heart and character in order to be a good mate for someone else, they will attract a good person.

Such an attitude creates the habit of looking at oneself instead of the spouse when conflict arises.

When one has a good character looking for compatibility in a partner, it is wise to look for a mate that also has a quality character.

Sexual attraction and having the same interests will cause an immediate connection, but these can change. On the other hand, sharing values and having mutual respect adds for a more enduring basis for a promising marriage.

For one to maintain their chastity and have a successful marriage, requires moral strengths more than any other fact of life.

The following are key characteristics

Personal Character

1. Self-control
2. Faith in God and sense of higher purpose
3. Sense of personal worth

1. Self-control

Self-control means to delay gratification and discipline any ungodly desires.

This ability forms the basis for the mind and body to unite and to give true love. To keep one's purity, self-control is the central virtue while self-discipline is an underlining virtue to have the capacity to follow through to have a committed marriage.

One must practice obedience to one's parents and be submissive to their demands until one's own conscience's voice becomes strong enough to guide the body this is self-control.

Will power is the engine of self-control, which in turn is powered by motivation, the fruit of understanding and emotion.

To strengthen one's will involves feeding the intellect with knowledge and feed the heart with inspiration.

In order to be successful in life requires ones to focus and have determination for the goal. These two qualities also serves one who is remaining chaste in preparation for marriage.

It takes self-discipline to apply oneself to studying, to learn a new skill, to avoid drugs and alcohol when they are lonely or sad and to make good choices in love.

Now, many teenagers make a purity pledge before God, family and friends and members of their community to bolster self-control. 

Wearing a purity ring serves as a visible reminder of one's promise to not have sex until they are married. 

They can look forward the to the day that this ring is replaced with a wedding ring. It is essential for a single person to can be around others who share their same struggles and celebrate their successes and hold them accountable for all of their decisions. Their support systems can help serve as their external conscience.

“Two of my friends and I, we made a pact,” one college senior confides, “so when I feel my resolve fading, I think about my friends and I can’t let them down. We call each other up a lot and we check on each other.”

The mind is the most neglected area of self-control when it comes to purity.

The mind is the most prominent sexual organ.

Sexual expression is affected by the imagination and through learning. If one wants to remain chaste, they must avoid inflaming his or her sexual desire for anyone outside their present or future spouse.

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire,” the Bible warns. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.” James 1.14-15

There is a reason that Jesus declared, “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5.28

A Taoist text likewise says, “when you meet a beautiful woman in another man’s home and cannot banish her from your thoughts, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.” Treatise on Response and

Retribution.

A impulsive thought is hard to control, but the following fantasy is under one's control.

Keeping the mind free and pure not only helps the maintenance of purity but it is also promotes the greatest intimacy and sexual joy in marriage.

2. Faith in God and a Sense of Higher Purpose

One who is trying to maintain their purity and prepare oneself to cultivate the spouse's realm of heart is to have faith in God.

Such faith has two dimensions: one is giving Him priority in life; love Him first.

The other dimension is that faith demonstrates love through trust and obedience. Having a relationship as the central part of one's life when the first ancestor's were to have focus on the Heavenly Father to be their primary love.

If Adam and Eve were to obey God's warning even though they couldn't understand their Father's heart, they would have not been affected to the power of selfish and illicit love when they were tempted.

This same trust in God would is needed as an anchor for their marriage and family life.

People can find power through trusting in God's truth and the promises He makes, plus trust their parent's guidance and other figures who represent Him.

Having trust that our Heavenly Parent can sustain a person through the rough times when people at home, work or school does not inspire. When they feel empty inside, God can console the 'restless heart' which Augustine referred to.

Only God fully understands one's pain and struggle.

Youth pastor Rick Stedman was tempted during the years before his marriage at age 30 to have sex.

First, he thanked God for having sexual desire which will be necessary in marriage. Then, he would pray for his friends, family members one by one who gave him love that helped him through his loneliness.

Sexual desire then becomes moments of strengthening the pastor's connection to God and to his loved ones.

Having such a strong faith means one loves God more than one's own partner and all He signifies

“Therefore, after [we] love God, love the world and love the nation,” Reverend Moon teaches, we may invest

our love in our spouse.

Paradoxically, when one places God's love as central, this ensures that one's love is true because true love is unchanging goodness and truth. Seeing through God's eyes ensures that they will have love for their future spouse that is lasting.

Having trust in God and following His ways protects one's future marriage in every way. The strongest unions are God-centered.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Family is Road to World Peace

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook "Educating for World Peace"

How Bad Relationships Affect Children

There are consequences to the disorder that our culture and families have encountered.

Children are majorly affected by the downward spiral in morals and relationships.   Let’s review seven of these consequences.

Consequences for Children

1. Impaired development and lowered well-being
2. Depression
3. Ambivalence about family and love
4. Moral and spiritual difficulties
5. Violence and crime
6. Miseducation about sexuality
7. Abuse and exploitation

1. Impaired Development and Lowered Well-Being

Children are raised in a single-parent home have less of an advantage than those in a no abusive, two-parent home.

They are affected spiritually, financially, psychologically, more likely to drop out of high school, become delinquents, and become single parents themselves.

A high percentage of adolescent patients at substance abuse centers came from a single parent home.

Children from such homes tend to have less self-confidence or self-discipline, have more difficultly to be dependable and have a hard time setting and keeping goals.

Many adult children of divorce commonly say “when my parents broke up, my childhood died.”

The absence of a father in the home makes the children become the ‘junior partner’ to their mother’s emotional needs and help take care of the family in place of their father.

This stops the child’s normal development and places a heavy burden on his or her shoulders.


2. Depression

Divorce is the greatest cause of depression in a young person.

A study of 34 countries showed that suicide rates were associated with the increased divorce rates.  This was especially true for the boys.

Yet, children from a secured home that succumbed to constant conflict and destructive arguments between the parents were angry and depressed.

In addition, the parent’s disunity caused their children to bear the brunt as one parent takes their anger against the other out on the children.

For instance, an angry mother may tell a child in her disappointment, “You’re lazy, just like your father.


3. Ambivalence about Family and Love

Brothers and sisters may mimic the serious tension between their parents and act more aggressive towards one another or their peers.

When parents reduce their involvement in their children after a divorce whether financially, emotionally or in disciplining them, the children may feel less love from their parents.

Sons and daughters of divorce frequently report feeling less affection for their parents.

Many children of divorce may see the emotional closeness they have with their parents as a burden.

Divorce can also place a pall over the brothers and sister’s relationship.  When adults experience the break up of their family, they may view their childhood with negativity and report a less fond memory for it and their siblings.

A child of divorce or a single parent can lose the sweet image of having an intact family of their own.

Divorce can leave the children believing that stable relationships are not possible.

A bad relationship between parents will cause the children to have a bad image of their own gender or the other that haunts them throughout their lives.

These feelings intensifies when they reach the marrying age.

Dr. Judith Wallerstein says that they may experience anxiety about relationships which may become part of their personalities.

Children who do not have good role models, especially children of divorce, are afraid of confrontations, loss, loneliness and abandonment.

A child who over bonded with one particular parent which was broken up after the divorce may have a fear of closeness later in life due to the prospect they may lose them.

This anxiety over commitment issues will immobilize many, especially men even though they have a natural desire to have a secure marriage.


4. Moral and Spiritual Difficulties

Parents who separate can also divide their children in other ways.

In a strong family, parents work hard to create one consistent moral code and create a home culture where the child can feel comfortable and comforted.

This is not the case for children who come from a divorced home.

Because a child will go from one house to the next, he or she may live between two worlds or more if there are stepparents.  When the child is too much like one parent, this may seem like disloyalty to the other parent or offend and hurt them.

This is related to a child losing family traditions, neighbors, and friends due to having to relocate or others not being able to relate the same way to the now fractured family.

A parent’s absence after divorce can be a stumbling block to a child understanding God’s nature and His love and truth as our Heavenly Father.

God is viewed as a loving and faithful Father by Christians in the parable the Prodigal Son which rest on the premise of having a positive experience through a parents’ constant presence and their unity.

“I’ve made progress,” reports a young man in his mid-30s whose parents split up when he was small and who barely knew his father. “At first I just got angry and cynical when I heard about ‘God the Father’ in church. Then I gave up the anger and just went blank, especially when it was time to pray.

“Now I am starting to understand who Heavenly Father is through my experiences with my own baby boy.”


5. Violence and Crime

Abel killing his brother Cain in the Biblical account foreshadows the family breakdown we experience today and the rise in crime.

Children from single-parent homes are more likely to have anti-social behavior.

Children of divorce are more likely to exhibit destructive behavior such as crimes, drug use which motivate the crimes and become prison inmates.


6. Miseducation about Sexuality

Our society with loose sexually licentious standards harms the youth and society at large.

Many societies are concerned about unwed teenagers because the young are less equipped to cope with the fallout of physical relations with the opposite sex than adults are.

Three out of four adults disapprove of teenagers engaging in sex before marriage, but they may have a standard for adults.

Majority believe that it is acceptable for adults to engage in such behavior before marriage themselves.  This contradictory standard of adults accepting sex outside marriage makes it hard to enforce a different standard for teenagers.

Is it better to set a guideline for sex outside of marriage according to age if waiting for marriage a holy union is not strong enough?

Age being the only reason to make a teenager wait for sex leaves negative ramifications that happen for older sexually active adults is no different, such as heart break, teenagers will surpass this standard when tempted.

Of course, children do not follow rules so much as they follow the example of those older than they are.

Younger children will pick up the teenagers’ seductive moves when they watch their elders’ favorite rap artist or actress.

Young boys may mimic the older brothers’ exploitation of women and sexually harass their classmates without a second thought.

When children see the celebration of adults having sex outside of marriage or the beautification of it, this diverts the youth from choosing to marry and receive the benefits of waiting for their spouse.

When young people no longer view sex as a part of a marital relationship, then the whole institution of marriage loses its uniqueness and value.

Many have heard their aunts or grandmothers protest, “Why buy the cow when the milk is free?”

When sex is easily available, it may partly explain why most hate the idea of marriage in a sexually permissive society.

When sex is easily available without the responsibilities a relationship or marriage brings, it is easy to see why people would want to go the easier route.

When a society no longer honors marriage and chastity, it does not have any basis to guide children to wait for a lasting, successful love and protect them from the hurt of no marital sexual relationships.

There is a natural urge for physical union to be part of a marital companionship which is a need that can be fulfilled only in a marriage.

Despite this, we have become a society that has forgotten this principle when it is easy to come by.


7. Abuse and Exploitation

A permissive sexual attitude and the combination of single parent homes can spell disaster for children.

When children are raised by mothers who have live-in boyfriends or stepfathers not related to them, they are twenty times more likely to be physically or sexually abused than those who are raised by their fathers within an intact marriage.

During the launch of the sexual revolution, child abuse skyrocketed.

This all began when Lucifer exploited his position as Eve’s teacher and protector.

It is wrongly believed that allowing men to have free access to sex to release any sexual frustrations does not have any evidence in the present world.

One factor is that teenage pregnancy and sexual disease as the fruit of encounters not between boys and girls, but girls and older men.

The majority of pregnant girls in the United States began their sexual activity as a result of being raped or seduced by men 27 years old on average.

Even worse, when it is acceptable for people to satisfy their sexual appetites freely even in educated levels through the world becoming one community through social media and transportation, child pornography and child prostitution has exploded.

This is the darkest part of the satanic underside of “sexual freedom” outside of God.

Over a half million impoverished pre-teen and teen girls in Brazil alone have been victims of wealthy adult clients.

Virgins are chosen by adult men to protect themselves from sexually transmitted disease and are then discarded once they become infected.

Thousands of social media feed these perverse appetites.

The most innocent and vulnerable are cast into the mouths of their elders who are the very ones who are to cherish and protect them.


Return for Tomorrow's Post:  Facets of Marriage Education


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

New Sexual Revolution, but For God

Primeval act of adultery is at the root of all the myriad distortions of sexual love that have plagued humanity
from the beginning: prostitution, infidelity, rape, incest, fetishes, pornography and sexual addictions.

Even though sex is an intimate act between two adults, it greatly affects culture and the family.

Woodstock was the first liberation for Americans to break away from their parent's traditions such as man and woman marriages, sex only within marriage, one partner for life.

These were all confronted and challenged in order to free one's sexually which they believed religion and marriage placed rules upon.

If one is to look in history, they will see that this event had a negative effect not only on the family, but on the whole nation.  A nation that was built upon the Puritan faith and laws written based upon the Bible by men who proclaimed God as their Creator.

We are slowly declining as a powerful nation, not by outside forces, but by forces within the four walls of individual homes.

The loosening of morals did not bring our country freedom, but brought on enslavement to selfish desires, far from America's unselfish religious beliefs.


Self-Destructive World

Humanity developed corrupt ways of loving through the first family which passed it on to the tribe, society and world levels.

Therefore, civilizations have not correctly learned or understand true love is the dominant way of life.

In the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, the two brothers try to subjugate one another.  Instead of gaining power, prestige or property naturally with love, these therefore became prizes to be conquered by those who sacrificed others for themselves.

Self-centered love spawned a self-destructive world. This is the essence of hell.

Our world went from God's ideal of Heaven on Earth to one of anguish and suffering.

The misuse of love in the first family is the basis for all sexual abuse: prostitution, infidelity, rape, incest, fetishes, porn and sexual addictions.

Great nations have been brought down by the illusive power of romantic love and lust and is the basis for the tensions that break families apart.  This spreads to the community level and relentlessly works against any harmony in society.

Promiscuous sex leaves one lonely, disconnected, depletes their spirit and afflicts the heart and mind.



Establishing a New Tradition

The misuse of sexual love at the origin of human civilization has disconnected the true relationship between the mind and body, man and woman and God and humanity.

God brought about religion in order to teach His children to stop this destructive behavior through the power of His divine Wor; through teaching about sexual morality.

God's commandment to not eat the fruit was given to the first man.  This original word has been given time and again over history through diverse religions.




When men and women uphold and preserve chastity, they are safeguarding the universe.”


Rev. Sun Myung Moon

These toxic patterns of love today must be turned around.

To redeem sexuality and true love as an object of purity, God must reside with joy in each family and marriage bed.

This is the core reason Rev. Moon focuses on the blessing of marriage as a way to bring society back to true love and the lineage of God.

Some elements to practice to reverse the Fall, human nature one must dedicate their union to their Heavenly Parent, practice chastity, promise to live for family and humanity.

In the case of young people, they should consult their godly parents when selecting a mate.

The mythical story of Pandora related the last entity to come out of Pandora's box was Hope, which represented the womb.

This implies that through love between spouses it would bring the ultimate answer.

Christianity has a similar message of a promise of a Redeemer to be born from a pure, faithful woman who is the reverse of the first mother who misused her womb.

To restore God's original way of entering into marriage, we can educate the next generation with the matters of love, sex and how to prepare for marriage.

Even in this modern day of technology, God's eternal Word is still relevant to save His children who make up this world.



Purity and Preparation for Marriage

Traditionally, parents on the whole guided their children along a clear, defined path to meet a mate and get married.

Centuries ago in the West, parents arranged marriages while their children were still teenagers.

Not long ago people started dating in order to select their own mate for marriage.  In either case, singles were expected to wait for sex until after they married.  These traditions have been lost by the modern world.

People no longer date in order to find a mate to marry, but simply to have fun and find temporary companionship in a lonely world.

There are no clear-cut correct guidelines or rules that help steer couples directly to the altar.

Sex has become a casual expression that is no longer connected to marriage.  Adolescents indulge in sex at an earlier and earlier age.

Parenthood is no longer tied to marriage and the widespread use of birth control and abortions have severed sex from the ideal of parenthood as well.

The West has become a 'divorce culture' where young people are less confident to marry.  Adults now advocate that they have to get through their first marriage and anticipate a second one from the onset.

There is no longer a stigma attached to having sex outside of marriage.  Couples live together in place of marriage.

There are many powerful forces that conspire against young people preserving their virginity.  Media, societal pressures to date and live together make it hard for young people to believe that they can give their bodies and souls to one person for life.

No matter how humanity tries to change the dynamics of marriage, one person for life is imprinted in the heart and conscience by the Creator.

People may rationalize that they need to have sex freely with many people, not just one partner for life.

Still, those with a sexual past will feel the pangs of guilt or heartbreak after each encounter, or they numb these innate feelings with excess in alcohol or other activities.

Reverend Moon asked an audience what is the purpose of marriage? “It is in order to realize the purpose of (human) creation.”

In the modern, fast-paced world, people think that marriage is just a piece of paper or unnecessary because the divorce rate is so high.

Nothing in the world will satisfy one's yearning to live with honor and significance, to be loved unconditionally and give their children a secure union with their spouse even if they try to live otherwise.

Even the most liberal person still may find they are hurt when their teenage daughter comes home pregnant, or their child who can't overcome the heartbreak of their parent's divorce and so on.  Because God made society to be a certain way, we suffer when we go far from His original ideal world.


Desirable and Attainable?

To return to God's Will, youth and single people need to believe again in the value of purity and marriage.

They need to be sold on the beauty of reserving sex for marriage and why it is necessary.  They also need to see that they are capable of being successful in each enterprise and that they can follow the strict practices against the social norms.

One young woman sums up her sense of this when she writes, “It is sexuality dedicated to hope, to the future, to marital love, to children, and to God.”

When a young person can view matrimony as desirable, then saving sex for only marriage has meaning.

They must see it as an attainable goal that they can reach even in  society of second and third marriages are celebrated.

 Many adults do not leave a good impression of marriage to the next generation: “I want to be married, but most people I know have divorced or given up on it. I don’t know how I could do better.”

Therefore, they give up their virginity and dreams of a lasting marriage in exchange for a live-in lover as the closest commitment they think they can achieve for a long time.

Young and single people need to be taught how to be responsible regarding their strong sexual desires and how achieve the life purpose of marriage.

Lessons can be gleaned from family relationships to consider when and how to meet a godly mate, basic relationship insights and skills to inner qualities.


Education for Character, Abstinence and Marriage Preparation

When young people are ignorant about the realities of love and marriage, they are more susceptible to believe the myths about chastity and their capability to have a successful marriage.

Also, when one lacks social skills, it makes lasting love that much more an unattainable goal and makes sexual temptation that more difficult to resist.

Parents, teachers and pastors need to learn the right techniques to pass on to the single people they care for and also to enhance their own marriages and relationships.

To guide young people toward marriage and teach to guard their chastity is a multi-faceted endeavor which needs contributions from the family and community.

Young people do not have any help where traditional values in developed countries left them feeling a profound void in the love department. There has been a rise in education for character, sexual abstinence and recently  marriage and relationship education.

Character education has been a rising trend in many societies.

Elementary schools and universities, religious and non-religious settings alike, focus on moral growth of students and nurture emotional and social skills.

Some methods include ethics in the classroom teaching, creating a more caring school community, learning projects and using cooperative learning techniques.

Many see character education as a influence on society which promotes better relationships, including between the sexes.

Formal education about sexuality has been a growing trend worldwide.

The focus is moreso on the physical consequences of sexual relations; the primary purpose is not in support of purity.

Abstinence education has emerged to respond to the need to promote traditional values.  The emphasis is on reserving physical intimacy for marriage only.

Over the last 40 years, science learned what makes marriages succeed and fail.

These have evolved into programs which impart knowledge and skills that are complementary to the guidance which is offered in faith and family settings.

There are judges and clergy in certain cities that will only marry a couple who have received premarital education and counseling.

In the United States, several states and cities have mandated marriage education for all high school students.

Such courses concern personal enrichment are increasingly common on campuses as well.  Better communication skills and training one how to deal with conflict is the hallmark of such programs.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: How Bad Relationships Affect Children


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