Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 228. Parents must show the example
12 Brothers and sisters need to follow the example of their parents loving each other. Daughters represent the mother and sons represent the father, and they need to learn the tradition of love with which the parents love each other. However, since there have been no true parents from whom to learn such love in Satan’s world, we now have to teach our children to follow the example of the True Parents through the way of filial piety. In the Unification Church, in view of our relationship, and the relationship between my family and your family, your children will take after the heart that you have toward me. Children learn heart from their parents. You have to be people about whom your children can say, “My parents carry on, no matter what difficulties they face. Their way of life transcends time, the environment and their standard of living.” At the same time, you have to set the tradition in your family that your children will listen to your directions and follow you in any circumstances. Your children should be able to say, “This is the way our parents went, so we have to go this way too. Considering all the circumstances, isn’t this what we should do?” You should have your children follow your example by serving your own parents as a couple. By doing so, you set the standard by which to educate your descendants. (30-087, 1970.03.17)
13 Parents should educate their children about Heaven. In teaching your children, the first step is for you to set the example. Before instructing your children about filial piety, you should be a child of filial piety. If you first become a devoted son or daughter, according to Heaven’s law, you will establish Heavens tradition of filial piety. On this foundation, you then teach your sons and daughters the way of loyal patriots in the heavenly nation. If your children cry for the Republic of Korea, teach them, holding their hands and with tears in your eyes, “You are people who actually have no nation. This nation is not your true nation. There is another country that, in a real sense, we have to serve.” You should feel God’s concern as closely as you feel your baby’s breathing when you hold him or her to your bosom. You should teach your children while shedding tears and feeling God’s concern. Only then can you expand the depth and breadth of your children’s education. (30-113, 1970.03.17)
14 You need to have the mindset that whatever you own belongs to the Father. Sons and daughters should offer everything to the Father. For this, you should inspire your children to emulate Jesus in their loyalty to Heaven. In every possible way, you parents need to encourage your children to follow the right path of the Unification Church. This is what you need to do. To achieve this objective, it is you who first has to follow this path, for only then can you teach and educate your children to do the same. It violates the heavenly principles if parents try to educate their children to do something they have not done themselves. I teach you only that which I have established as a foundation, by bringing victory through my own practice. (23-322, 1969.06.08)
15 Personal fortune should support family fortune; family fortune should support that of society; the fortune of society should support that of the nation; the nation’s fortune should support that of the world; the world’s fortune should support the fortune of heaven and earth, and that in turn should support God’s fortune. If you live with the heart that your daily life is connected with the world’s fortune and God’s fortune, your life represents the realm of life on the world level. No one under Heaven can stop such a person. Do not become a husband who brings shame to his wife. Your wife is God’s envoy. Your children are God’s envoys. Their role as envoys is to serve as your closest aides, monitor you and educate you to follow the right path. You must not be a father who feels shame before his children. Do not feed these envoys from Heaven with stolen goods. You cannot attend Heaven or your ancestors after committing fraud. (163-034, 1987.04.18)
16 When you educate your children, I hope you can say, “I went this way for the sake of God’s Will, so I want you to go this way too.” When a husband, wife or parents die, they should be able to say the following words as their last will and testament: “In my conscience I have not one iota of shame. Please follow the same way I have gone. This is the best gift in the whole universe I can give you.” This is the will of all wills. You can add, “If you do as I bid you, the world will be yours; God and the universe will belong to you.” (125-106, 1983.03.13)
17 As a couple, we should be able to show our sons and daughters an example of how a husband and wife should live. Our children should be inspired to say, “Our father and mother have such a good relationship. I want to marry as soon as possible and live the way they do.” It is the father and mother who should be able to teach the children how to lead their lives. Everything depends on the father and mother. (260-297, 1994.05.19)
18 The family is the headquarters of education. When I married my wife, we promised to each other that we would not show our tears in front of our children. What sin do children have? No matter how angry, bitter or sorrowful we are, no matter how much we have been crying, when we hear their voices as they come to greet us in the morning, we need to show our children the same face we showed them yesterday. A mother should hold her children lovingly and let them kiss her and then kiss their father. (251-098, 1993.10.17)
19 Where there is no unity between husband and wife, there is neither freedom nor peace. If you really want peace through the unity of husband and wife, first you have to unite your mind and body absolutely. This is the first article of my education. To this day, many religious leaders have thought that they themselves were good, while the world was bad. Yet that is not the case, because they have not achieved the first article. If a mother and father, as a husband and wife, do not live in unity, heaven and earth will ignore them. On the other hand, when a couple is united and three generations of a family are united, the whole world will come to you. (243-170, 1993.01.03)
20 You have to be filial sons and daughters and loyal patriots. Until now, from God’s viewpoint, there have been no real devoted children, loyal patriots or saints. You have to pray for your brothers and sisters as you would for the world. When you do so, along with the Parents, you can be recognized as a holy son or daughter, and stand before God. This is the formula. You have to educate your children by showing them how you attend me in your home. Teach them, “This man went through a path of suffering that changed history. By him the world is blessed. Let us attend him in our family. It will be a great blessing for our family to do so.” (283-080, 1997.04.08)
21 As fathers and mothers, please do not let your children see you quarrel. You should never allow this to happen. You should promise this between husband and wife. This applies to my family too. To this day, my children say, “Our mother and father never fight. They are the best mother and father in the world.” We have to teach our children to think that their parents are better than any king, that they are the hero and heroine of hope, greater than anyone else. If you have a son he should be able to say, “I want to be like my dad.” Your daughter should be able to say, “I want to be a woman like my mom.” You have to raise your children like this. This is true education. (90-123, 1976.12.21)
22 Your children should be able to testify that they never in their life saw their mother and father fight. I know there are all sorts of situations that can arise in life, but even so, you should not point fingers, push and shove, or drag each other down. No matter how upset the father is, he should not look at his son with an angry face. This is my philosophy. That is why my children think their father and mother are always experiencing peace and love as a couple. They think their mother is the best of all mothers and their father is the best of all fathers. The mother and father are each a second God. When you ask your children, “Do you want God or do you want your mother and father?” they should answer, “I want my mother and father.” Even God likes that answer. That is something precious. The education that leads to this has the highest value of all. (165-094, 1987.05.20) |