The Words of the Ichijo Family

Testimony from Yoshi Ichijo, Erika's father

October 29, 2003

Part of human nature is that we always want the best in anything whether or not we deserve it. It is also true when it comes to matchings. We want to find the best and ideal spouses for our children, but according to whose standard? When we matched our son, Kenji to Sonya with the Down’s syndrome, a few of my in-laws did not seem to be able to take it, even though all of us involved, including those two, are very happy. Most of us forget or never think that we are some way crippled in the eyes of God, but He still loves us as His own children as if we were perfect.

As my wife mentioned, she and I looked everywhere to find this ideal spouse for our daughter, Erika. We talked to a few couples whose sons we thought might be great for her, but the talks did not come to fruition due to a lack of key ingredients. One of them is that all six people involved have to agree on the matching, especially the two to be matched. We thought that it was important to find a son who was willing to accept his parents’ choice. It is also an indication of faith in his parents who are representatives of True Parents.

None of the previous approaches materialized, no matter how it happened (or did not happen), simply because they were not God’s pick for Erika. Therefore, we never worried about any of those previous outcomes. I knew from our son’s matching as well that if the choice was right in God’s eyes, everything would go smoothly on both sides to make the final decision. Of course, each family’s approach to this matching process is different as we all experience God’s intervention differently. Some families spend a lot of time to make the final decision.

Since we have a handicapped son, this was understandably an issue to some of the families we approached. Anmar was willing to accept whomever his parents would pick for him. According to his parents, he did not even want to see a picture of Erika before both sets of the parents agreed on this matching.

A strong feeling came to me that God wanted to share His blessing with anybody who wanted to receive it. How hard did we have to work to bless people during our past campaigns? They do not know the value of the Blessing, but Anmar understood it. We were very grateful that his parents considered Erika as their son’s spouse and accepted her, even after they learned that we had our own situation.

In conclusion, we all know that the Blessing is conditional. No blessed families are perfect, but when two families come together through the matching process, they can be elevated closer to the ideal and it makes God happy as long as our hearts are in the right place when we seek out our children’s matches. Because we are not perfect yet, we need others we can serve and help them grow as they help us grow. Thus we become a family of God as a whole. Our responsibility to match our children is enormous but I am grateful for this opportunity to grow and become like True Parents through this responsibility. Thank you, True Parents!

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