Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Education

Chapter 4 - The Family and the Education of Children [Part 2/2]

4.5 Important matters in the education of blessed children

When educating your children, think of how to educate them to become the people who will do their best for God's Will. Bear that in mind even when nursing your babies. (012-134, 1963.01.25)


Blessed families should make rules in the home with the standard of educating their children. Act in a way so as not to be judged by your children. (021-087, 1968.11.03)


If you have children, no matter what it takes, you should educate them to go the correct way of the Unification Church. You yourselves must go that way, living exemplary lives and thereby teaching your children. You can only effectively teach your children by first practicing what you preach. To do otherwise contradicts heavenly principles. (023-321, 1969.06.08)


You have spiritual children, children born before the blessing, and those after; they represent the formation, growth and completion stages.

Educating them is a very complex problem. If you fail to find the best solution, it will adversely affect children of previously married blessed couples. Please fulfill the weighty responsibility of educating your children by sincerely following God's Will. (031-266, 1970.06.04)


You should not only guide your children in the correct way, but also have them receive the blessing as soon as possible. If you have three generations blessed, your family will be firmly linked to the blessed lineage. Achieve this before you go to the spirit world. (031-282, 1970.06.04)


As you now have your own families, please invest yourselves as sacrificial offerings in the providence on a higher dimension. Ask yourselves whether or not you are contributing more to God's providence since establishing your families. If your wife tells you, "Don't worry about God's Will. Just love me," you must chastise her and educate her sternly in accordance with the Principle. Explain passionately that you and she met because of God's Will. You lose your authority as a husband by being hen-pecked and tongue-tied. Husbands must educate their wives and thereby find better ways to work for God's providence. In that regard, I would like to enhance family programs and activities. (033-162, 1970.08.11)


My retrospective sorrow lies in not having established the foundation of loyalty before God by comprising three generations together with my parents and grandparents. Think about how wonderful it would be to have three generations united in one heart and discussing what they should do for God's Will. Henceforth, educate your children on being able to create such a familial environment. (036-079, 1970.11.15)


In the past, noble families trained their children not to speak carelessly, and to speak only when spoken to. Such manners are also required in our life of faith. (040-072, 1971.01.24)


The woman you meet is the person whom you have been waiting and longing for, for six thousand years, and whom God looks over and parents have introduced. Isn't love reached through God and parents? That is why the path of salvation that Unification Thought is teaching is not individual salvation. If the family is not saved, then nothing can be saved. It is the salvation of couples and children. If we are not able to save our children, then we must wait in the spirit world. Thus, in the spirit world the educational law is established. Everyone must go to the spirit world in a single line. Do you understand? In the spirit world there is an educational system, and all the things that could not be accomplished on the earth are taught and everyone must go through it together.

Do you teach your children: "True Father became as he is because he received love from God. He receives love from God and he is your grandfather. I received more love from this grandfather than anyone else and I am one with the grandfather. That is why I am the world's best father. So I am the best in the world when it comes to loving you"? Are you the best in loving your children? You must instill such thoughts in them. If this lineage is not polluted and prevails over the coming centuries and millennia, then your ancestors in the spirit world and your descendants on the earth will receive blessings ten thousand times over. (047-219. 1971.08.28)


The main issue is how blessed families with children and grandchildren, comprising three generations, can follow me in one accord. Have you considered being remembered in history as the most loyal three generations in the heavenly world? Please inculcate these values in your children through making good conditions. (051-269, 1971.11.28)


Surpass all other members of the Unification Church in bringing up children of excellence. Make God remember you to the extent that I can decide to marry the True Children with your children without having to give it a second thought. Make such a family foundation by investing your utmost, day and night. Create unity as a couple and with your children. Have any families lived with such determination thus far? None. (051-274, 1971.11.28)


Had there been no Fall, man and woman, as God's children, would have received His love, centered upon which they would have created perfect unity, existing not only for their own sake but for their children as well, thereby establishing the four position foundation. (053-068, 1972.02.09)


Blessed children must learn the importance of their families. I am sometimes hard on even Mother in terms of providing education, at times being very stern. On such occasions, she might wonder who in the world I am. When she is in the wrong, I must point it out, even if it greatly distresses her. Yet I promised her that our children would not be privy to such moments. They never see their mother in tearful conversation.

Once they appear, we quickly change the subject. Make your children believe that you and your spouse never fight. Think of them as formidable teachers. Show them only good things, not bad, and also do not do bad things. (056-053, 1972.05.10)


Teach your children to live more for the world than their nation. I teach people to become saints for the world rather than just to be patriots for the nation, and that the way of sainthood includes principles of good governance. Thus, people learn how to become the princes and princesses of a heavenly nation. (148-124, 1986.10.05)


Your dying words to your children should be: "Though I die, our relay must continue. Take over the baton from me. I endured a life of suffering in order to save the world. Only in this way can we build the ideal world. This is the hope of God, True Parents and your mother and father, and no doubt yours as well. It is the unchanging hope of eternity for which cause I have walked this path." Be true mothers and fathers in bequeathing such education as your last will and testament. (148-129, 1986.10.05)


When addressing our second generation, I told them to completely forget all the habits they picked up while living in Korea. The Unification Church should be their starting point, from which they should inherit tradition and make it their own, building it up centering not on their parents but on God. (148-212, 1986.10.09)


However disloyal your family may be, remember that you are the daughter or son sent by God to revolutionize it. Treat your family members with a heart that can embrace up and down, front and back, and left and right.

Serve your parents and win the hearts of your brothers and sisters. Earn their trust totally. Be a Unification Church member, demonstrating your integrity whether as daughter or son, husband or wife, father or mother-in-law, son or daughter-in-law. Only then will the true family appear and only in true families can individuals find true happiness. (169-085, 1987.10.25)


Educate your blessed children with the Principle. Don't just enjoy your time together privately, but share your happiness with God. Expand your horizons to include the vertical dimension as well as all four directions. (196-289, 1990.01.02)


Korean parents tend to be overzealous about their children's education, going completely overboard in not wanting to be outdone by others. To afford their children the best possible education, they gladly sell off their assets and property, sacrificing both body and soul. Such a heart can link them to heavenly principles. It is there that I see hope for the Korean people. (245-214, 1993.03.07)


Serving God and True Parents, I will make my family a representative and central family of the whole world, thereby becoming filial children, patriots, saints and holy children. Educate your children in filial piety; educate your fellow citizens to be patriotic; educate humankind in sainthood, ultimately becoming holy children who can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven. That's Pledge No. 2. (260-189, 1994.05.08)


Educate your children through their participation in the morning pledge service. If they give their daily report to God, they will soon feel they must have something better to report each new day and that today's report should be better than yesterday's. Let them thus develop absolute faith and commitment daily and grow up to achieve greatness and ultimately guide the destiny of their nation. There is no other formula for guaranteeing such success. (305-089, 1998.03.29)


4.6 Parents are to set the example

Children should learn and inherit the tradition of loving each other from their parents. However, there were no parents who could teach their children the true way of how to love each other as brothers and sisters.

Teach your children the way of filial piety centering on True Parents.

In the Unification Church, your children should learn about the relationship between my family and your families, between you and me, and know your heart towards me. Children naturally learn the heart of parents.

Your children must be in a position to say, "Our parents have the ability to work for God's Will under any circumstances. They can overcome time constraints, the environment and poverty." Your children ought to be able to trust you. Establish the tradition in your family that your children will do whatever you ask them. They will say it is the way set by their parents and the way they will go. Please set the standard of educating your descendants. (030-087,1970.03.17)


When teaching about God, first be exemplary as filial children in following God's law, thereby setting the heavenly tradition of filial piety. Teach your children loyalty to God's Will in realizing the heavenly nation. If they cry for Korea, tell them that Korea is not their true homeland, that they are actually stateless and that they must find their own true homeland someday. Teach the truth with tears, thus expanding the scope of parental education. (030-112, 1970.03.17)


Make your children people who live for the sake of their nation rather than just for the sake of their church. True parents raise their children by the power of their own living example. Teach your children on the basis of love. If you live such a life, God can never leave you and you will exude an uncanny mystique that will naturally draw people to you. (034-031, 1970.08.29)


You may not be perfect in everything but at least you can be correct in your basic attitude. This attitude of love is what you will leave to your children when you die. This tradition will be passed down within your family from one generation to the next. You can tell your children that this message is the most precious thing you could give them. Show them that they too are to embody this tradition and bequeath it in turn to their children. When you practice this truth, the entire universe will open up for you. God and the whole spirit world will rejoice with you. When you live this truth, you will have nothing to be ashamed of before the greatest men and women in history; you can love God and humankind more intensely than anyone ever has. (125-106, 1983.03.13)


Husbands: do not be dishonorable before your wives. They are God's emissaries. So too are your children. They were sent to watch and guide you as closely as possible to the right path. Fathers: do not be dishonorable before your children. Do not feed God's emissaries with stolen money. Can you serve God by cheating others? Can you serve your own ancestors that way? If you live dishonorably, your ancestors in the other world will judge you as soon as you go there. God will not judge you. Your ancestors will judge you and haul you before the worldwide court of justice. If they do not, then they are no good. It is terribly serious when we contemplate having to build the future foundation of hope conforming to heavenly law within our lifetime. (163-033, 1987.04.18)


What should parents do? What should they be teaching their children?

True teachers are those who teach love above academic knowledge. Parents are, of course, related to their children by blood; yet they should be able to teach them, based on love, how to behave as brothers and sisters, as husband and wife and as relatives, making peace in every way. Raise them lovingly to become the owners of love, thus fulfilling your parental responsibility. (198-063, 1990.01.21)


Exemplify conjugal love. Children will say among themselves, "Dad and Mom are so happy together. I want to get married soon and live like them too." They will see it with their own eyes and catch on. Mothers and fathers have to educate their children; it's really up to the parents. (260-296, 1994.05.19)


Teach your children about me. Tell them of the historic suffering course I underwent, and also let them know that showers of blessing will pour over your family when you support my work. (283-077, 1997.04.08)


Parents share their life with their children. Children, having received from their parents, must somehow reciprocate their love. Once parents and children attain oneness, no distinction exists between them. With complete unity, everything is perfected. There is no need to discuss sainthood and the like before God. Create perfect unity founded on love. (301-119, 1999.04.25)


4.7 Never quarrel in front of your children

When husband and wife are not united, there is no peace or freedom. If you want peace, you must unite your mind and body. That is my foremost precept. Saints have believed themselves to be so holy, in contrast to the rest of the world being evil. That is not the case. Everything went wrong from the very start. When mother and father, husband and wife are disunited, heaven and earth will reject them. Conversely, when first, second and third generations become one, the blessings of heaven and earth will shower upon you. (243-169, 1993.01.03)


When you are together with your children, you and your spouse should never fight. Pledge to each other that you will never show animosity in front of them. My wife and I made that promise. As a result, our children are sure that their parents never quarrel and that they love each other more than any other couples in the world. Educate your children to become the hope of the world surpassing any king or queen.

Your sons should want to live like their father, and your daughters should want to live like their mother. That is true education. (090-123, 1976.10.21)


Your children should be able to testify that they've never seen their parents bickering. All sorts of situations can crop up, don't you agree?

Sometimes you are irritable and get into an argument with your spouse.

Though your matrimonial relationship may not be working out the way you wanted, do not be unduly dejected or try to force the issue. Even if you feel a strong desire to air your opinions, you must stop yourself the moment your children enter the room. You must stop right there. However vexed you may be, do not face your child with an angry countenance. That is my philosophy. Our children believe that their parents are always at peace with each other. They consider us to be the best mother and father in the world. Their mother and father are their second God. Children, who, when asked, "Do you want God or your parents?" answer that they prefer their parents, actually please God with such a reply. Such filial love is immeasurably precious. That is the most precious education people could receive.

Children's emotions revolve around their parents. Educate your children in such a way that your sons will desire to have wives taking after their mother, and your daughters will wish for husbands in their father's mold. Even if they should fail to find such spouses, they will be all the more determined to raise the ones they do find to that level.

Such are the fruits of true education. The education of heart begins in the family. Quarrelsome couples drive God out of their homes. Eventually they drive away their spouses, their parents and even their children. The whole family just falls apart. (165-094, 1987.05.20)


Love your children. It is neither easy being somebody's mother or father, nor is it a trifling matter giving birth to children. You need to know that children are born to fulfill their cosmic destiny. Anchor your children to the love existing between you and your spouse, which is firmly embedded in the law of God's eternal true love, with the vertical love of heaven and the horizontal love of earth fused into oneness. If you did not conceive your children under those auspices, you must repent. If your children go astray, you should first repent before you think of punishing them. Follow this method in educating your children.

Being a parent is an arduous task. Don't live thoughtlessly. Don't you think I had moments when I got really angry with True Mother?

Do you think there were occasions on which I might have lost my temper and spoken harshly to her? Were I centered on myself I might have done that. Nonetheless, it is in such moments that I think of God, of how True Parents would act and how the True Father should conduct himself in such circumstance. If she is at fault, however, I may remonstrate with her even to the point of shedding bitter tears. Husbands are responsible for correcting their wives. However, never call her names. Basing all your dealings with your wife on the bedrock of God's love, you must renounce the use of all satanic elements and mediums of marital communication that contradict the laws of heaven and earth. Please understand this. (168-217, 1987.09.20)


4.8 Not everyone can educate the young

Why are teenagers so problematic today? This is because they left the bosom of their parents' love. Beginning in the family, even from the mother's womb, everything went topsy-turvy. Who will straighten out juvenile delinquency today? The Unification Church must do it. How much money would you need to spend if you adopted a financial strategy to solve this problem? A university education requires substantial funding.

If people had to invest the same amount in getting the Unification Church to educate adolescents as they paid for their college tuition, the Church would very quickly become affluent. Knowing that Christians and Buddhists alike could never have the luxury of the teachings that Unification Church members have freely received, you should reciprocate the grace that was bestowed upon you. A recipient in waiting would have an exquisite wrapping prepared to hold the precious gift. Would a bride wear rags to her wedding? Who on earth would be dressed up like a scarecrow when lining up to inherit the pearl of great price? That would be such an affront. (024-273, 1969.08.24)


God's biggest headache in the world today is communism, followed by religious schisms, for which cause I founded the Unification Church.

Then there is also teenage promiscuity. Let us pull these unfortunates out of the cesspool, wash off the ordure with which they were covered, and replace their clothes reeking with the putrid stench of excrement with white garments. Let us edify them that they may become the sons and daughters of purity who may enter the palace of the heavenly nation. (127-033, 1983.05.01)


Do the American youth have a nation? Do they own the world? They live by the motto "Just me first" and are doomed to failure. Even the intelligentsia and the military leadership see no ray of hope on the horizon. This is the reality. That is why I educate people; otherwise everything is just going to go downhill. Whichever direction you look, there are no solutions to any of the problems. People are saying, "Rev. Moon is our only hope." Doesn't that sum it all up?

How can we check the degradation of our youth? How shall we end substance abuse and all other similar problems? We need to work starting at the top. The president, the CIA and all members of Congress should work together to reform the education system and pass laws that will facilitate the process of cleansing American society. Who can launch such a prodigious initiative? Can the Congress or the president do it?

Who?

This is the situation of not only America but also the world. The problem is: with what kind of people is Rev. Moon working? I can't do it alone. Do we have competent people in America, or in Japan, or in Korea?

When people outside our movement see how ordinary our members are, they get quite disappointed. On the other hand, I cannot work solely with people outside the Unification Church because they are the very ones who have allowed society's situation to worsen. I would have to educate them over several decades in order for us to be able to work together. It is therefore with the utmost gravity and urgency that I am working to put an end to all this misery. (146-066, 1986.06.06)


You can reap only what you have sown. The world is swirling in chaos, whereby it is reaping the fruits of immorality, which is exactly to be expected after having sown the seeds of immorality. Why do teenagers shamelessly do the very things that will lead them to hell? Can anyone fix this problem with some form of moral education, or by means of military or economic power? Who shall surmount these limitations? (195-098, 1989.11.05)


America is a very complex country. The seeds sown through the Fall of Adam and Eve have borne fruit in American society in the form of widespread juvenile promiscuity and teenage pregnancies. On top of that, it finds itself ill-equipped in facing this crisis. The military, political and educational establishment have failed to come up with an effective remedy. Prospects are exceedingly bleak. People give in to their physical desires, bringing about a world of death, a hell on earth, in which Satan delights. America is bereft of ways to save itself. Only the Unification Church has the solution. (207-321, 1990.11.11)


We have to provide quality education to our youth, particularly taking into account that Adam and Eve fell while in their teens. Let us nurture them in developing moral conviction, the ability to meet life's daily challenges, and a sense of responsibility for the betterment of society as a whole. Let us educate them to become people of integrity. (209-325, 1990.11.30)


Both the communist and the democratic world need me to unite. They are not capable of unifying the world owing to immorality and corruption.

The American youth became morally degenerate, falling into the clutches of Satan. Now, the younger generation is entering my sphere of redemption. While the communist world opposed me, the youth of the Soviet Union sided with me. They can change in the flash of an instant.

I have already started gathering young people for the purpose of educating them. By this July, we will have run seminars for 3,000 youths and 300 professors from the top 80 universities. Deans and university presidents are tripping over themselves to sign up for membership and this has caused quite a stir. My fame in the democratic world cannot be compared to that in the Soviet Union. (215-124, 1991.02.06)


Humankind is divided into men and women. Children grow up either as boys or girls in their families, subsequently evolving their individual sense of humanity. This is the basic mode of education: if you treat others as members of your extended family, thinking of them and loving them as though they were your own flesh and blood, you are qualified to enter the original heaven and earth. However, I never had such an environment, and I cannot die until the day I have obtained it.

What is free sex? It augurs death, total destruction and the end of all hope for God's ideal of creation. It is Satan's tool in seeking to maintain his stranglehold over the earth, as you well know. Rev. Moon came to America and summoned you out of that hell of bondage in order to educate you so that you will become useful to God and useless to Satan. Arm yourselves well and fight with the words of truth. (216-107, 1991.03.09)


As Adam and Eve fell when they were sixteen, God takes responsibility for those who enter their twenties. Adam and Eve did not fulfill their responsibilities. How can we take responsibility for the wayward youth of the world? The time must come when God takes charge of purifying them en masse. Just as Adam and Eve shamefully covered their lower parts with the leaves of a fig tree, nowadays teenagers are fornicating under the trees. We can only reap what our ancestors have sown. Who can clean up this mess? Nobody but Rev. Moon. We can realize the idea of the heavenly kingdom on earth and in heaven in the name of True Parents by centering on the will of true mother and the education of true children, true families, true clans, true tribes, true nations, a true world, a true cosmos and the True God. (232-206, 1992.07.06)


The family is most crucial. No power on earth, whether national, economic, cultural, educational or religious, can counter the scourge of family breakdown and juvenile promiscuity. That prerogative belongs to True Parents. Neither God can intervene, nor can Satan reverse the debilitating effects of his own perverse acts. Just as God could not intervene in the garden of Eden, He cannot intervene in this world. Who can intervene? Only True Parents can intervene. Who can indemnify all the ills, destruction and repair the ruined paths of love wrought by false parents? Only True Parents vested with full powers to transcend all things, to pervade all things and to perform all things can do this. No one else. (283-229, 1997.04.13)


I must solve the problems of the youth and of the family. Despite our hi-tech age, no agency, whether governmental, economic, educational or even artistic can dispel the worldwide phenomena of juvenile promiscuity and family breakdown. I reserve that prerogative. The world is exactly the way I have described to you.

Think about it seriously: you have no idea of our privileged status in the cosmos. We are in the position to judge this world, yet we would rather educate it with love from the position of representing the parents. Please ponder deeply the position of the Unification Church. (292-301, 1998.04.27)


Educate high school students, teaching them the Principle. Start planning it right away. To go this way for the rest of your life, teach your ideas not only to your descendants but also to your friends, viewed from God's providential perspective and based on heavenly law and on how people should conduct themselves accordingly. Knowing education to be paramount, we must promptly implement our existing programs in the schools.

Teach selectively the sections explaining the Principle of Creation and the Fall of Man, as well as the Second Coming in light of the parallel providential periods in history, concluding with the meaning of the blessing centering on True Parents. Restrict yourself to lecturing for no more than six hours. Thereafter hand out copies of the book for them to read. Extend some volumes to the teachers as well for their perusal.

If you furnish each school with twelve copies, these will help educate people.

Blessed wives and youth members will cooperate in educating high school students, representing their mothers and elder siblings, or Eve and Cain respectively. To indemnify the mistakes of Eve and Cain, the Blessed Wives' Association and the Youth Federation must undertake this responsibility. (295-072, 1998.08.17)


We have been educating people about pure love, but now they need to know its deeper meaning. Pure love education, while teaching people to maintain their purity on earth, does not cover the question of eternity.

To connect with eternal life through the blessing, they must understand the essence of the Principle. We must educate elementary and high school students, undergraduates and even their parents so that they can eventually be blessed. After that, we will no longer need to educate them, because the essence of the Principle will form part of their curriculum, starting from elementary school going all the way up to the Ph.D. programs. (295-074, 1998.08.17)


I have directed you to activate the Pure Love Movement. Realize your historic responsibility worldwide. Please know that we have embarked upon the highway of the heavenly tradition of kingdom building by straightening out your relatives and your nation. (295-103, 1998.08.17)


I exercise patent rights over the education of the youth. Nobody else is competent to do that. People simply have no notion of redeeming fallen families. It would be unlawful to violate my patent rights. What kind of patent rights do I possess? The patent rights of love, the patent rights of True Parents centering on true love, the patent rights of True Family and of true lineage. I can confer upon you the lineage of pure love that will prevail for millennia and longer. Such are the patent rights I enjoy. On that basis, you will enjoy unlimited freedom when bearing my seal of approval. (299-233, 1999.02.17)


How will you halt sexual immorality and divorce? By guiding people to learn and follow my teachings. Many politicians, educators, religious leaders and even the Mafia know that they should learn from me. That's our copyright. It's awesome; our truth is more potent than the atomic bomb. (307-119, 1998.11.7)

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