Book 5:
True Family

Chapter 3: Principles and Order in the Family

§3: Ideal Parent-Child and Sibling Relationships

1 What are children? Through our children, God educates us and lets us feel how much He loves us. Through our children, we can also understand the joy God felt when He created Adam and Eve. When our children are born, we feel love and joy, and we come to know how God felt when He created our human ancestors. Because we need to learn how to love children the way God does, we need to have children. (142-119, 1986.03.06)

Why we should try to have children

2 We should strive to raise our sons and daughters as princes and princesses. Likewise, we should attend our father and mother as king and queen. That is a family principle in the heavenly world. In such a family, there can be no fighting. With one command, anything can be quickly achieved. The fundamental principle in such a family is to live for the sake of others. Otherwise, there will be no peace. (218-263, 1991.08.19)

3 Originally, Adam and Eve should have been a prince and princess. God’s sorrow is that He could not teach His prince and princess how to lead their lives. We need to resolve God’s sorrow, which originated from this lost opportunity to teach them. Adam and Eve were a prince and princess. Originally, the boy was a prince and the girl was a princess. Those who can enter the kingdom of heaven are those who have experienced the heart of a prince or princess. Without that, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. God could not teach Adam and Eve, as His son and daughter, to become a prince and princess. They were never taught to be brother and sister. If they had been properly taught, the whole world could have been united based on the bonds between brothers and sisters. Originally, human beings would have experienced the hearts of a prince and princess and the realm of the royal family in the heavenly palace. Consequently, they could have entered the kingdom of heaven. (226-130, 1992.02.02)

4 Children are meant to inherit the kingship of the future. You should have the attitude that you are raising the king’s descendants to be dispatched themselves as kings and queens of great nations. You should educate your children because you want them to rise in the world. When children are born, every parent and nation hopes they will become true parents, true teachers and true owners. Children are the kings and queens of the future. (221-025, 1991.10.20)

5 Sons and daughters are the third manifestation of God. The first manifestation of God is your grandfather and grandmother, the second is your parents and the third is your sons and daughters. We must love our sons and daughters as we love God. Even worldly parents do that. Parents want their children to love each other, without fighting, more than they love their parents. While receiving parental love, children should love each other with even more love. We should match our father and mother’s standard in our own lives, and think we will live even more admirable lives than they have. We should try to lead happier lives than our ancestors did. This is the standard. Those who lead their lives in this way can go to the kingdom of heaven. In the Garden of Eden, there were no means of instruction. However, we now have the original texts by which to teach the heavenly way. Unless we become the royal family of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot enter that original kingdom of heaven. The family is the living environment and platform upon which we can teach the contents of the original textbook. (236-150, 1992.11.04)

6 We learn to love the world by giving birth to sons and daughters and caring for them. Our children link us to the world and to the future. Without children, we cannot connect to the future. Children are given to us so that we can learn how to connect to the future. Our ancestors and grandparents are a source of education about the spirit world. Through them we learn about the spirit world. (135-121, 1985.10.04)

7 When I return home from traveling, I kiss my children. That is my custom. When my children greet me, they always kiss me too. Before they go out, they come and tell me where they are going. When they have good news, they come and tell me. We have to raise our children with this kind of etiquette. God will then look down at us with joy. We must raise our children for God and for the world. Your children should go this way. We have children because of God. We should raise our children for the sake of the world. (47-170, 1971.08.28)

8 In the Bible, there are many stories about love. The more parents love their children, the happier both parents and children become. The more you live for the sake of love, the more love you can capture. This is the universal principle. That is why if you devote yourself to God, you will drink in God’s love. (33-331, 1970.08.23)

9 Those who have many children may work harder than others, but they also experience joy that is not felt by those who do not have their own children. Those who have children understand what I am saying. Let us compare those who have raised children with those who have not. Those with children have to endure a lot of noise and complicated situations, but they feel that their lives are worthwhile. Those without children cannot feel the same way. Through their children, people feel the value of their life. The environment of such parents is complicated, but this does not mean that they are unhappy. Their hope for tomorrow is engrafted there. The more children they have, the more hope they have, because their children develop uniquely in all four directions. Such parents can overcome all those circumstances. (35-283, 1970.10.25)

10 Having many children is a blessing. How is this so? How is it that raising many children can bring more blessings? Your realm of heart grows that much bigger, bringing you higher and closer to the standard of the heavenly kingdom. Having many children will mean you have more descendants and family lines. Each of them has the right to inherit all of God’s blessings, and God surely will bless them. When God says, “I give you my blessing,” they will receive blessings. Such is the authority they command. (171-021, 1987.12.05)

11 If a couple has no children, everything is over in one generation. Since they do not have ideal relationships of above and below, front and back, and left and right, everything ends with them. Thus, when those without sons and daughters go to the spirit world, they feel out of place. God is at the central point, but they have no foundation to relate with it. Those who raise many children are insulated from sin. They cannot hate anyone. If you raise twelve children, you will be living with people of all twelve types of personalities, and you will understand the motivation behind all that they do. (400-313, 2003.01.11)

12 Why is it that people are not satisfied with just the intimate marital relationship, but also want to have children? Which is better, having more children or fewer? The more you think you are a good, noble and valuable person, the more descendants you want to have with the same qualities. That is our original human nature. (064-167, 1972.11.01)

Ideal relationships between brothers and sisters

13 A family includes parents and the children growing up under their care. Each child has his or her own unique character. Since the children share a common root in their parents’ love, each of them can express a unique perspective. Even the youngest child can assert an opinion and not be ignored by the older brothers and sisters. Why can’t they ignore the younger one? It is because their assertion is based on their parents’ love. Since even the youngest child is united in love with his or her parents, the elder siblings need to acknowledge his or her opinion. They should support that child so that his or her opinion is welcomed. This is family life. (170-064, 1987.11.08)

14 In a family, though the opinions of the elder brother and elder sister may differ, they should honor their parents’ will. The will of both the brother and sister should be connected to their parents’ will. This connection gives them each the authority to express their unique will when they discuss their different opinions. When an older brother asserts his will, if it is recognized by his parents, he receives the authority to represent them. He can then assert his opinion from that position. The sister gains such authority in the same way. Even the younger brother, if he asserts his opinion while united in love with his parents, has the right to participate in a position equal to that of his parents. (170-064, 1987.11.08)

15 Once you are united with God, things begin to turn, and they produce all sorts of forms and shapes. For example, the love of elder children for their younger siblings will follow the model of their parents’ love for them. When a family is united in love in that way, love within the family blossoms. That love then becomes love within the society, and it expands to become love within the nation. In this manner, it later becomes the love of the whole world. (28-170, 1970.01.11)

16 What is the reason you receive parental love? It is because you are the reason your mother and father love and support each other as a couple. Their motivation is for you. When the love between siblings operates with the same motivation, the love between them will never change. When you extend that love to your neighbors, regarding them as one body, and to society, a sound social environment will unfold. Based on the family as the formation stage, the society represents the growth stage, and the nation is the completion stage. (26-153, 1969.10.25)

17 Centering on parental love, the tradition and order of love for the person in the position of the elder brother is to sacrifice himself for and love his younger siblings, as his parents’ representative. The eldest brother’s position comes with the responsibility to suffer more than any of his siblings, for the sake of his parents and siblings. That is the eldest brother’s situation. The parents suffer for the sake of their children more than the children do. They do so because of their love. The parents will not give up, even when they are drenched in tears. They will continue along that path of tears. (113-117, 1981.05.01)