Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Education

Chapter 4 - The Family and the Education of Children [Part 1/2]

4.1 The family is the best place to learn true love

The family is an educational "textbook" for building relationships with the heavenly kingdom. When applied to a nation, patriots will rise. When applied to the world, saints will come forth. Centering on heaven and earth, we become saints as well as God's sons and daughters. All humanity has that desire. (137-077, 1985.12.18)


Our parents at home and our teachers at educational institutions ought to be at the center of society. Parents breast-feed and rear us, that is, both physiologically and emotionally the guide our development.

Similarly, schools train us with an as preparation for our social lives and futures. If the family is the training ground for our aesthetic sentiments, the school is the training ground for experiments in society.

The family is the place for training our hearts. Therefore, we have to love and live together with our brothers and sisters in schools and in the nation. Education from parents is education for the school, society and nation. Parents have to bequeath all emotional aspects to their children and successors. They have to lay the emotional foundation for their offspring by demonstrating how they should live in the family, in the society, and for the nation, just as how the parents have been living. (180-130, 1988.08.22)


Parents who do not sleep out of love for their children are near heaven.

Establishing an absolute foundation for the family, they declare that their family is a production base for manufacturing a heavenly family.

You have to protect and educate your children in such a way that they too go on to manufacture such a happy family. (194-130, 1989.10.17)


A model foothold for building the earthly Kingdom of Heaven is the family. The fact that God could not make a textbook for teaching humanity to become His true sons and daughters has always been His deep sorrow because man fell. When could He teach humankind to be His true children? You have to understand this has remained as an unrealized hope. Next, the fact that He could not write a manual for teaching mankind to erect a world of love is also a cause of bitterness. The guidebook on how siblings should live was not produced. Born as His children, Adam and Eve should have grown up as brother and sister, and made a textbook for their siblings. Subsequently when they became man and wife, they should have made another textbook for married couples.

After they became father and mother, they should have made yet one further book on traditions for parents. They failed to do that, so there are no such handbooks at present. There should be a total of four textbooks. (224-268, 1991.12.15)


The family is a place for both education and training through true love.

Children must be grounded in the fundamental teachings. Then the siblings, couples and parents must also receive the appropriate education. These are the Four Great Principles. (225-158, 1992.01.12)


What is the system of an ideal world? Its basic unit is the family. The family is the base of heavenly kingdom, and the cornerstone for building the heavenly kingdom. No matter how large the population of citizens is, a person who confronts his nation with a love that extends beyond the family can travel freely in the heavenly kingdom. You must have a mind like such a person, to receive education at home as in the textbook. The grandparents, parents, couple and children live in the family. If these are extended to the world, there will be people in the same age groups as the grandparents, parents, couple and children. Hence, a person who has experienced love in his family, as in the textbook, faces no hindrances anywhere in the world. He is qualified since he has lived according to the book. Such a man has no need to worry about food or lodging in any house. Such a time will come if only this kind of education is carried out.

I seem to be speaking of the remotest possibility. Try it, and see whether I am just telling you a fairy tale. I am teaching you to adapt yourselves to that world. The family is therefore the elementary textbook. If you live as taught in the family, there won't be international borders or any other types of obstacles blocking you. With that heart, even closed doors or blocked walls will heartily welcome you with outstretched arms by opening themselves up. Grassland will respond to you in the same way. I sound crazy, don't I? It is the same for God.

If He tries to teach His children, saying, "Since the ideal of love is so great, you must love everyone and everything more than your own lives!" They will reply, "How about you, God?" Then God must be able to say, "You have to do that, just as I have." The reason is that He cannot teach us something that He cannot fulfill Himself. When He says, "I myself have endeavored to be absolutely obedient to love, so your couple must be submissive to love even at the cost of your lives, and walk a path of helping and living for others!" If they answer in the positive, contradictory logic on the front, back, left, right, up and down will be utterly resolved. Thus, God is also unconditionally submissive to love....

The restoration of the elder son's right, the parents' right, and kingship is first. After having restored the elder son's right, you become the citizen of a new nation. Centering on the family, you have to experience, with your heart, the educational content of the four great textbooks. Next, based on the system of the ideal world, if a person applies the living environment of the family to the nation, the living environment of the nation to the world, the living environment of the world to the cosmos, and the living environment of the cosmos to God, nothing will ever block him. He will receive a red-carpet reception in the physical and spiritual worlds. (247-311, 1993.06.01)


The family is a place for training us to be a perfectly qualified candidate in the afterlife. Who is the owner of the family? He is the one who loves his family members most. Likewise, who is the owner of today's world? Taking heaven as a large family, he must be the one who loves all humanity living on this earth most. Don't the white people think they alone are the superior race? That is not right. If only the West exists without the East, it is tantamount to saying there is no West. The East and the West are relative and complementary to each other. (247-311, 1993.06.01)


You have to be cognizant of the fact that the family is the main training ground. When my wife and I got married, we promised each other not to cry in front of our children. Children are innocent. No matter how indignant or mortified we may be, when our kids come to greet us the next morning, we have to wipe off the tears from our eyes as soon as we open the door, and put on a smile on our faces like the previous day.

The children's mother must hug and make them kiss her, and then ask them to kiss their father. Are there women who can do that? Children come first to their mother's bosom. She must not hesitate to embrace them like yesterday and make them kiss her, and then tell them to kiss their father. Or both the parents may kiss their children while hugging them.

That kind of education is necessary in the family. Do Unification Church members do that or not? Unless you can hardly see your children in a lifetime, you must not shed tears before them, and leave behind an indelible trace or a heartrending countenance in their impressionable mind. If there is such a likelihood, everything will return to nothingness. (251-098, 1993.10.17)


What are earthly families? They function as factories to re-create men for the heavenly kingdom. Children will pick up things and know God naturally. Due to the human Fall, humanity became ignorant of the fundamental truth and has to be taught about God and His existence. (254-246, 1994.02.13)


The smallest unit of the fruition of God's love is the family. It therefore becomes man's expectation of happiness, ideal and life. This is also the reason why I have been speaking about family values and holding international marriage blessing ceremonies for the sake of ideal families throughout my life. (271-074, 1995.08.22)


The family is the most significant school of love. Through education in love and heart that parents can give their children within the sphere of the family, their hearts grow in depth and breadth. The family is the foundation stone for building the character of our children, and the school for teaching them love and virtue. Receiving education on the intellectual, physical and technical aspects on the foundation of emotional and normative education is the heavenly way. (271-080, 1995.08.22)


Our family has to be located in the root holy ground. As it is situated at the world's central position as well as the root holy ground, we can shout, "The owner of the root holy ground is my family! The owner of the original holy ground and the holy ground of victory is also my family!" This is possible owing to God and our succeeding to the vertical and horizontal victorious foundation restored through True Parents' indemnity and toil. Based on all relationships and the family education for the tribe, nation and world, the time to start organizing the world's tribes and the time of hope for the world has come at last! (303-140, 1990.08.08)


4.2 What are children?

Who are your children? They are the ones who teach you how much God loves mankind and let you have that experience. Through them, you come to feel God's tremendous joy when Adam and Eve were born in the Garden of Eden. Loving them is experiencing the immense joy of God when He created our human ancestors. As you have to love your children in the same position as God, you have to give birth to your own sons and daughters. The first person in history to teach about that so that humankind can go the proper way is none other than Rev. Moon himself.

You cannot receive God's love by or for yourself. A man and woman have to be completely one with a love that is of greater value than their own lives. Love precedes life. God's love will descend to the place where they can unite with a love that is greater than their lives. (142-118, 1986.03.06)


You have to treat your children like princes and princesses, and your parents like the king and queen. This is the family law of heaven. Can there be fighting in the family? ... The underlying philosophy of the family is to exist for the sake of others. If not, peace will not come about. All nations have to follow my teachings as the eternal truth. You have been living and doing things for your own selves. I can completely reverse this situation with education from the fundamentals, the root. (218-261, 1991.08.19)


The future kingship will be handed over to your descendants. You must have the heart of bringing up your grandson to be the king of a big nation before your future tribes. Do you want to give birth to, educate and raise your children to be successful in the world? Isn't the desire of all parents and nations to have their children be in the position of true parents, true teachers and true owners the moment they come to the world? Your children are future emperors and empresses. (221-023, 1991.10.20)


Adam and Eve were originally a prince and princess. God's bitterness is that He was unable to teach them how to live as a prince and princess.

This has to be resolved. As God's children, they did not receive such education directly from God Himself. They had also not been taught to live as brother and sister. If they had, the whole world would have been unified, based on the brotherhood and sisterhood of all nations....

Based on the eldest grandson with the elder son's right, brothers spread horizontally when they form tribes and nations and expand to the world.

Similarly, original mankind, who has experienced the heart of the royal family and lived in the heavenly palace, is destined to enter the heavenly kingdom. Not everybody can go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Why could Jesus Christ not make it to Heaven, remaining instead in Paradise?

Jesus, who was in the position to represent perfected Adam, could not establish the proper relationships between brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents and children on this earth with the education of prince and princess. Since he had breathed his last on the cross before he could indemnify all these things, the heavenly gate cannot open if he does not reappear. This task has been prolonged to the age of the Second Coming. In Jesus' stead, Rev. Moon establishes and teaches the duty of a prince and princess. Do you now know what you have to do? As God's children, you have to experience the heart of princes and princesses. (226-130, 1992.02.02)


Your grandfather is your first God; your parent is your second God; and your sons and daughters are your third God. That is why I ask you to love your children as you do God. There was no way to teach this in the garden of Eden. You, however, can get hold of the original textbook that guides you about this. Anyone who reads this book with half an eye open can understand it as clear as day. Without becoming the royal tribe of heaven, you can never make it to the original heavenly kingdom. The platform for the living environment that can teach this like the original textbook is your family. (236-149, 1992.11.04)


The family is the root. The nation is not the root. The worldwide issue today is the family. The problem of the nation overlaps with the problem of the family. If the family problem is settled, the national problem can then be cleared up. The family refers to the grandparents, parents, husband and wife, and children. As the pattern for the nation, the family can be called the base of hope that has to be acknowledged by the world. Why is the family a base? That is where love settles. (240-281, 1992.12.13)


4.3 The importance of the family and children's education

What kind of life should those of you seeking the original Eden live in the future? Modeling your lives after Jesus and searching for the elements of cosmic and heavenly happiness, you have to be a substantial body of glory before God; a true man and true woman who can introduce God's happiness, love and glory wherever you are; and at the same time be able to teach others to feel grateful to God. (002-251, 1957.06.09)


Everybody desires to have a wonderful son. To bring him up to be somebody great, how should you educate him? Some say they may nurture him in an area where there are many schools, from the kindergarten to university level. Education is required throughout a lifetime, though.

You have to set up prayer conditions to raise him well. When you appoint your son to take charge of the family or clan as your successor, it is the usual custom to train him to acquire the same level of heart as yours and to follow your example. (024-256, 1969.08.24)


As parents, when you educate your own children, you should not teach them to love you only. You must tell them, "I'm a loyal citizen and patriot who deeply loves this nation. I wish to be a parent to patriots and loyal citizens." (026-295, 1969.11.10)


To accomplish His Will, you have to serve and attend God in your heart.

A responsible parent must not haphazardly, but concretely, teach his children to walk the right path. Who will restore the lost original family? Every individual has to. You yourself have to be in unison with God and with your children. Finding and teaching your spiritual children, you have to raise them to be children of faith who can walk this path in your place. Only then will a perfect foundation for the Sabbath be established. If this standard is set in your generation, you can stand in a position greater than Jesus'. (028-084, 1970.01.04)


If parents teach their children that they cannot live apart from them, that family will perish. However, a family that teaches its children not to separate themselves from their society and nation will flourish.

"Since I'm a butcher, I expect you to be one too when you grow up." "I'm a merchant, so you'd better be good at trading." A family dispensing such education will go to the dogs. Every parent has to teach his child to be somebody great in his or her country. The world today is approaching us. The period of teaching your children to be famous in the nation has already passed. Now you have to teach them to be world figures. Live in this world! (028-192, 1970.01.11)


How do parents traditionally inculcate their growing children with their ideals and philosophies? That is the question. Toiling six thousand years for the providence of restoration, how does God pull His children out of the satanic world? Similarly, how do you teach your offspring in the fallen world? You have to deal with these two crosses. (029-271, 1970.03.11)


The highest level of public life is to labor for the heavenly cosmos.

Our Unification Church is all about cheonju (cosmos)-ism, not cheonji (heaven and earth)-ism. Ju in cheonju connotes "house." The owner is not a person, but a house or family. The origin of the formation of a nation is not a person but a family. The world cannot be formed without families. Should families err, the nation will wane. Family education therefore controls the fate of a nation, which can receive blessings from now on. The more families abide by the righteous legal principles of a country, the more prosperous that nation will be. In contrast, the more families live by individual standards, the more detrimental it will be. (031-242, 1970.06.04)


The search for one nation has to begin from the individual. How much we do have to cherish him! When he establishes a family, and it takes the place of the nation and world, we have to dearly love his family and attach great importance to it. Centering on your beloved children, you have to establish a new tribe separated from Satan. In a parental position, you have to establish a family that makes an all-out effort to elevate its fortune in relationships. With all your heart and might, you have to live a life of loving and teaching. From the educational aspect, I live to show my son and daughter the way they have to go, to build a foundation of happiness for them and a foundation of welfare for the nation. Living for that higher purpose is something solemn and noble, and that becomes the origin of a new world. Our responsibility as God's children will commence only if we can regard that as more valuable than anything else in the cosmos. What a wonderful life it is! (034-061, 1970.08.29)


You must have your own educational materials for teaching your children this way, saying, "My beloved sons and daughters! Don't be indebted to your parents, brothers and sisters, and your neighbors. I have made so much effort not to owe anybody anything in my lifetime that my hands are crooked and the skin of my hands has become horsehide." Your son would be punished if he were to say, "Dad, your hands have become like this because you live for the sake of the neighbors and for others. I don't want to see them!" (085-134, 1976.03.02)


What must parents do? In addition to teaching their children to love their parents and siblings, you must also tell them, "I love my country as much as I love you, so you also have to love your country this much." They will understand it straight away. No other education is necessary.

"Yes! As my father, my family and I live this way, all American families, American citizens and the American president live this way, too. My patriotic family lays the nationwide and worldwide foundation for our nation." When the president says, "Our people now stand united. Let's beat up this enemy," you should be able to abandon anything if Americans have achieved oneness. You have to tell your children, "The president's words are higher than my command. In order to pledge our loyalty to our nation, you and I have to walk the path of death together if it encounters any difficulty." (095-049, 1977.10.23)


Since you have raised children before, you can love with the experience of being able to love all people regardless of age or sex through that family. Isn't this a world closer to a more rewarding ideal world instead of a world of relations where men and women can momentarily love each other? So the family is a training ground for introducing an ideal world. (109-287, 1980.11.02)


You give birth to and live for your children so as to learn to embrace and love the whole world. They are connected to the world and the future. Without them, there is no way to link to the future. You have to realize that God gives us children as a method of teaching that can link us to the future world. Next, your ancestors and grandparents are for teaching you about the spirit world. That system is established in the incorporeal world to educate you about the afterlife. No matter how violent the waves are, you have to erect a dike that cannot collapse. No matter how strong the gale blows, you have to build a high mountain that cannot collapse. You have to lead the world with such educational materials, otherwise the world cannot survive. Rev. Moon thus founded worldwide organizations such as the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) and has strong ties with the world's leading scholars.

What kind of person is God? Becoming a loving servant, He descends to earth to embrace humanity. As humanity does not know this, God is teaching mankind. Satan frequently tries to destroy fallen men.

Implementing a new educational system, God Himself is directly teaching men about His love. (135-120, 1985.10.04)


Prior to social or national education, there should be family education. Prior to family education, personal education is necessary. The primary personal education is not knowledge; neither is it authority or money.

What is something great that can move history and the world, but that cannot be bought with money? True love. You have to be a prince and princess who can become the absolute, indispensable part of true love.

In front of true love, the more you become a servant or a slave, the more excited you will be. (175-117, 1988.04.10)


What is the privilege of your children? Who is higher, the father, mother, son or daughter? Of course the father is. Between the mother and son, who is higher? This problem will be a historic problem for the world in future family education. In the Eastern tradition, a woman has to excuse her presence when her husband and son are discussing national or world affairs. When told to leave the room, how annoyed she must feel. This is Oriental philosophy. Why does she not stage a demonstration? The man is the seed and the woman is the field. The father, and not the mother, is connected to the seed. Therefore, when the seeds meet to discuss important matters, it is not a right of the field to lend a helping hand. (177-324, 1988.05.22)


All parents like to treat their children equally. It is a greater sin to hate your brothers than to hate your mother. Are American families like that? Is this the first time you have heard this? This is Article 1 of family education. (184-060, 1988.11.13)


The origin of the heavenly kingdom is the family. You have to turn the family the other way round, based on true love. Even in the family, the second generation has to get into action. Young people are being destroyed by the day. They have been cornered in a hotbed of drugs. Shot by the devil's arrows, they indulge themselves with abandon in premarital sex. Gathering from every village, young people will band together to assist the police in the elimination of evil gangs in the community. If scoundrels appear in the village, the time has come for the second generation to shoulder the responsibility to drive them away and to educate the villagers, together with their parents. Your family now becomes one of hope. Those preparing to meet the coming of an ideological world where the foundation of peace can be expanded from your own family to the world are sagacious citizens who can receive abundant blessings in the future. (208-299, 1990.11.20)


The universe is the expansion of the grandparents, parents, couple and children to the North, South, East and West. The family is an ideal paradigm that unifies all love, so it is like a textbook. You have to enlarge all concepts of love to the world that apply to the family. To the world's elders, who are about the same age as your grandparents, you have to show respect as you would your real grandparents, regardless of race. To people who are about the same age as your parents, you must extend your love as you would to your own parents at home. That type of person can possess and inherit the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. Just as a couple mutually loves each other; you must equalize the heart of loving all men and women, and equalize the love for your children worldwide. The person who can appropriately apply the educational method through which his or her family is as a textbook to the entire world becomes a prince or princess of the love of God, the center of the world. (209-232, 1990.11.29)


Thanks to Rev. Moon, you have become heavenly citizens. In the same way, in order that your sons and daughters can become the citizens of Heaven, you have to educate them to be people whom you can take along to heaven and live together with, even at the cost of your lives. They are your assets. Systematizing that, you have to teach your children. Only then will they go to the same place as you. (215-182, 1991.02.17)


The way to heaven for a person who has the heart of attendance, such as serving his grandparents in his family, is not blocked. The textbook is necessary for the unified educational foundation and behavioral unification of all nations. It teaches us to think of the aged as our own grandfathers and grandmothers. When you see an old man coming into an eating house at lunch who looks as if he has no money on him, you should be kind and treat him as well as your own grandparent. That grandparent has lived longer than you. If he owes you a debt, he will surely repay you. Therefore, if you live for others, you will be blessed, for there is no loss in investing, based on love. (215-109, 1991.02.06)


Looking from the vertical standard, your grandfather stands in God's position, Adam and Eve stand in the father's position and you represent the future prince. You have to serve your grandfather who appears horizontally in the family in place of God. This is the principle of family education. (221-214, 1991.10.24)


The family has to be strict. Parents have to be responsible for taking care of and educating their children so that they are not influenced by the satanic world in any matter. Free sex, homosexuality and lesbianism are rampant in America. They are Satan's plots and snares. You have to expose Satan's territory in the final showdown. You have to turn the tide by going in the exact opposite direction, for that is the heavenly way. It is natural for a person like me to face the world's antagonism. (248-078, 1993.07.01)


What set a man apart from women are his genitals. God and True Father have the same thing too. Do not use them blindly. Your sexual organs have to recognize who their rightful owner is. It goes the same for a woman. She possesses a set of reproductive organs which God and True Mother have. From this day onward, it becomes a tradition to teach about this. Other forms of education can be supplemented subsequently, but this has to be explained prior to marriage. You can see how important family education is. (263-125, 1994.08.21)


Parents' teaching that their children are the sons and daughters of God, not just a filial son and daughter, a loyalist or a saint, is the highest form of education. You should say, "In the ideal nation where we can all live, you have to fulfill the son's obligation to keep the traditional court etiquette, based on the people of that nation." This is the supreme way one can go in heaven and on earth. (267-193, 1995.01.08)


In the earthly and heavenly kingdoms, your grandfather is an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary; your parents are the king and queen; and you are the prince. Your grandfather loves his grandchildren more dearly than he loves his children. As I have become a grandfather myself, I find it so very true. Establishing my own educational foundation, I have to send my grandchildren to my own school. If I fail to do that, I cannot fulfill my entire mission as a grandfather, and my grandchildren will call me to task on every matter twofold or threefold.

They have to be parents who begin the recreation of the earthly and heavenly Kingdom of Heaven. Thus, I have to be a grandfather and an ancestor who fulfills all my missions so that they can stand in that position. (295-243, 1998.08.28)


4.4 The responsibility and attitude of a blessed couple

When a husband does something wrong, his wife should straighten him out. When a wife does something wrong, her husband should correct her. Only then could God bless that family. Being chastised can become an educational tool for future generations. If your life would have taken a totally wrong turn because of not being chastised, and if being chastised to the point of overflowing tears had resulted in shocking you into making a decisive change in your life for the better, then your life story would serve as a textbook to educate future generations.

People who can bequeath such a legacy should be proud of themselves. (028-035, 1970.01.01)


I will educate you to be able to live together with the world. What has history looked forward to? It has looked forward to the day when the world can live together in harmony. You must also go and work, strive, teach and die for that day to come. If you die for the cause, you will live again in spite of dying physically. (028-207, 1970.01.11)


Parents must set the right example in their daily lives. They must demonstrate a life of prayer and service. You must not be found lacking in your life of faith when compared to Christians. You should teach your children the importance of being on time for the pledge service, which should not be just for reciting the family pledge, but a time to educate your children.

In order to teach your children, you as parents must put into practice whatever you teach them. Parents must set the example of loyalty to God's Will. You must educate your children to the standard that they will not contradict you. You should naturally win their respect; otherwise, they will never obey you.

On Sundays, before the church worship service, you should begin making special conditions at dawn to completely devote the day to God. Instead you do whatever you like ...You claim to live a life of faith, but you don't pray, you don't make conditions, you don't study the Principle, and you don't go out witnessing. You don't do anything. If the service is scheduled to commence at 10:30, you should arrive early. Instead you sneak in as a habitual latecomer. If you carry on like that, you'll be judged later on. Then, however, hard you try to teach your children, they will not listen to you.

You must become an integral part of the neighborhood in which you live.

How much you live for its sake matters deeply to your children's education. You should really distinguish yourself through your life of faith, through the exemplary lifestyle and the exemplary relations you create with others. Your own children will judge all these things.

Therefore, you should really practice what you teach with a public mind. (032-268, 1970.06.04)


From the children's point of view, their parents had not changed one bit, and so these parents could not educate their children. Hence, your life should change from what it used to be in the past. Your manner of conducting yourself at home and in relating to your neighbors is of great importance in educating your children. They have their own view of how a religious person should be and observe you through their own filters. (031-270, 1970.06.04)


You should be parents who can influence your own children. That is your primary mission. You should lead your church life and public life with utmost sincerity and be exemplary in your private life. This is absolutely necessary for your children to follow the way of God's Will. (031-276, 1970.06.04)


Fathers should teach their children with tears in their eyes, "Your mother has worked for the sole existing holy mission in the world. I must follow her course and you must follow ours. Your mother endures suffering for the sake of our nation and the world. She may be sleeping in an unheated room on this cold winter night. We should feel ashamed of being able to sleep without needing warm blankets in our bedroom. The reason your mother is doing what she does is to care for our well being and to pave the way for us. She is working for you and for me so that we can have a better life. She is irreplaceable. I must go the same way.

You will follow that course when you grow up." You should speak such words to your children. Centering on the mothers, fathers and children must forge tearful bonds. That is the only way in which the family can inherit their mother's course. (038-292, 1971.01.08)


Now is the time when you must give this new ideology of the family to the people. You should not be thinking of anything else day and night. You must not shed tears because of missing your husband and children.

Your tears should solely be shed for God and the world. God's sorrow was that men and women could not become the true fathers and mothers who could truly love the world. That is the sorrow caused by the Fall. If your husbands tell you that they love you, then you should tell them that they must love the country, the world and God first, and only after that are they allowed to love you. You should not demand of your husband that he should love you and not care about God or the nation. Men should never love such wives. Aren't there many such wives thus far? They may say, "Why must you care so much about God's Will? My will is the only one you should care about!" Men must never love such women. You men, do you understand? That is my belief. That is the very thing I have been teaching Mother. (038-293, 1971.01.08)


Women should guide their husbands in the correct way. Eve did not properly educate her husband, which is why they both perished. Eve sold away the foundation of love, which is the basis for creating a good life and good relationships, to Satan. Today, you must set the path of righteousness for your husbands. Women are responsible for that. Then you should create the educational materials of righteousness for teaching your children. You should live your lives in such a way that your husband will hold your baby and sing the lullaby, "Sweet baby, your mother is the most wonderful in the world, more than even the angels in heaven, more than the First Lady of our country, more than the First Lady of the United States, more than the Queen of England, and she is God's most beloved princess!" That's the kind of song your husband should be singing of you.

Your husbands should be telling your children, "Your mother lives for the sake of the nation and for heaven and earth as a sacrificial offering. As I pray for your mother every morning and evening, you should love and respect what your mother is trying to achieve." You should teach all this with tears. Your husbands should teach your children how precious you are as their mother. This is where the right education begins. This is where the husband of goodness comes into being. (039-109, 1971.01.10)


You love your children, don't you? Children are inclined to follow their parents. This is why you should serve God first in your family. Your children must remember you as the father who prays. They should remember you as the father who always lives for the sake of God and for the sake of others. You should earn your children's unspoken respect. Paving the way with sacrifice and selflessness, you must establish such a foundation. (047-331, 1971.08.30)


"Our father suffered so much in the past to raise and educate us. He didn't mind undergoing hardship for our sake." The greater the misery children uncover in their father's past, the stronger the motivation this provides them to be filial children. It would not discourage them at all. We have seen this happen time and again. Children who are acquainted with the sorrowful tears of their parents cannot disobey them. (048-074, 1971.09.05)


The mission and responsibility of the headquarters is very important.

Your actions in the headquarters don't just affect your life but also directly concern mine. ... There will come a time when I will no longer be able to address you at dawn. I will have to spend time in personal prayer or in educating my own children. Do you understand what I mean?

As their father, I haven't had the time to educate [my children]. It's not as if you tried to teach them either. Now that my children are growing up, I should be taking the time to raise them.

I have nearly fulfilled my responsibility in caring for you. This should be completed by 1972 or 1974 at the latest. With the end of the second seven-year course ... I believe that I will have fulfilled my responsibility toward our church. I would have to shift my focus upon the education of my own children. That is how I think. Do you have any objections? In order for me to do that, you should be exemplary in forming a protective wall around my children. From that point of view, what you do will become a global issue, and my children will also become a global issue. Owing to the multiplicity of issues that arise, it is necessary to adapt a variety of approaches according to the standard of the Principle.

From that perspective, not just anyone should be allowed into the headquarters when I am here. Only blessed families should be admitted. I need to make people undergo some special education; it is time to implement such programs, instead of regular courses. Churches exist at various levels, namely the formation, growth and completion stages. The time will come when people from other regions and countries will view your actions as examples to follow. This is why you must be very serious in approaching your mission and responsibility as headquarters personnel. (051-282, 1971.11.28)


"Be couples needed by the Messiah and give birth to children needed by the Messiah. Be the children that preserve the tradition of the nation. Follow the tradition of the ruler of the nation." That is what you should say to your children. Your love for them should not stop at the level of calling them lovely or cute, but you should tell them, "Do you know with how much pain God has been waiting to see men and women exchange love with Him for thousands of years?" That should be the level of discussion between you and your children. Only when there are children with such a level of heart can there be such a nation and such a world. That is how I think.

You should even be teaching your children correct sleeping postures. Do not wait until you are on your deathbed to impart your last wishes to your children, but teach them with your living example while you are yet alive. Do not just die on your children, leaving behind but a few dos and don'ts. Share your secrets with them and work for the common goal.

Having established your goals, dive in with renewed zest. That is how Unification Church parents ought to be. Become the couples the Messiah needs. Create families and then tribes of the blood lineage of pure love. Throughout the millennia, God required innumerable sacrifices in order to effect the change of blood lineage.

Strive to create families that are needed by the Messiah. Be serious about preserving the tradition of goodness and purity before God. Let that be the center of your prayers. Take much interest in your children's education. Move their hearts through your sincere concern for their well-being. Educate them based on that. (055-087, 1972.04.23)


Bequeath your children the legacy of a life well lived. We are toiling assiduously all over the world in order to leave behind something worthwhile for posterity. You will be able to recount to them with much pride, "I've worked under extremely adverse conditions..." providing them with valuable educational content. Your lifetime is your only opportunity to perpetuate that tradition through your descendants. You must take the unchanging and eternal tradition most seriously. (071-019, 1974.03.24)


Parents should be able to stand in God's stead, teaching their children, "Love your brothers and sisters, your neighbors, your nation and the world more than you love us." Only those who do this deserve to be called true parents. Why? It is the only way for children to improve themselves and achieve greatness centering on goodness. (095-152, 1977.11.11)


Leave three things behind when you die. First, live a principle-centered life of following God's Will. Second, raise up your offspring to become better than you. Third, bequeath the education itself that you imparted to your children for them to achieve greatness. Those are your three responsibilities. (101-200, 1978.10.30)


I loved the 36 blessed couples absolutely as the elders of humankind, even to the point of death. You should teach my children from the position of archangels. Who educated Adam? It was not God, but the archangels who were supposed to educate him, and to protect and raise both Adam and Eve, until they reached maturity. The Unification Church must follow the same principle; otherwise, you cannot accomplish restoration through indemnity. For this reason, I loved the 36 blessed couples more than my own children. (121-240, 1982.10.27)


Who were supposed to care for and educate Adam and Eve? Neither God nor I, but archangels were supposed to do so. Within the realm of dominion based on accomplishments through the Principle, the angels were given the responsibility for the upbringing of Adam and Eve. The three archangels were charged with their protection. The 36 blessed couples must educate my children in line with the Principle. Don't you think angels should be involved in loving my children?

My children's life and death truly depend on you. These are not my words, but principle. Who are the children to inherit the tradition of the original family I have established? The question is: who will inherit that tradition? You must teach my children what I have taught you, namely the realm of familial love that can be linked to loving the world and the cosmos centering on God's love. (126-147, 1983.04.12)


Adam and Eve were meant to be educated by their guardian angels, not by God, till they became adults. Similarly, it is the duty of spiritual children to help their spiritual parents to return to the heavenly side.

When the latter go to God with His blessing with the help of the former, they can all enter Heaven together, thereby restoring the three archangels. Likewise, the three sons of Adam and also of Noah can be restored, establishing the condition of recovering the position representing the three stages. (127-051, 1983.05.03)


At what point are people supposed to establish their eternal bond of love with God? It is the time when they reach maturity. For this reason, my own children must absolutely obey me up to the point of receiving the blessing of marriage. They must absolutely obey God, at the same time receiving education from the three representative couples as well as the rest of the 36 blessed couples that are in the archangel position, come of age and then get married. Till then, they must not entertain other thoughts. That is the Principle. (128-110, 1983.06.05)


Our Unification Church members must always conduct themselves with utter decorum and never dishonor themselves. Educate others, including the children of your neighborhood ... I am educating people 24 hours a day, that is to say, I educate whomever I meet every day. Educate people, whether through the International Federation for Victory Over Communism (IFVOC) or through Home Church work. Let the church give Principle lectures, let the IFVOC conduct seminars on Victory Over Communism (VOC), and let the professors of the Professors World Peace Academy teach Unification Thought. Then, we will have done our job. (148-133, 1986.10.05)


What is the core of Unification Church education? It is to shed sweat for the earth, tears for man and blood for heaven, with the heart of a parent, and in the shoes of a servant! Have you done exactly that? Did I do it? Before teaching you, I had already put that into practice.

Whatever I declare I have already accomplished myself.

What must your families do? If I am the first generation, you are the second. Seek to become true couples and true children centering on True Parents. Without educating your children, your future will be in ruins.

God's historic sorrow was in being denied the third generation. As such, He had to tread the thorny path of restoration through indemnity, shedding blood, tears and sweat. If you fail to provide for the proper upbringing of your children, the entire family will end up paying for it. (213-198, 1991.01.20)


It is a great problem if your children do not unite with you. Blessed families must provide their children with the right upbringing. That also goes for your relatives. Similar to Cain and Abel, if the elder brother is on God's side, he should save his younger brother and raise him. The time for blessed families to go out proselytizing people other than their relatives is over. The Cain-Abel conflict is over. How many sacrifices did we have to make during the period of forsaking our families and relatives in order to go out witnessing? The time for working on the family level has come. (260-121, 1994.04.28)


Now I have blessed families of whom I can be proud: the first, the second and the third generation. I will begin educating families with three generations. When I reach the age of ninety or hundred, I will teach even if I have to use a walking stick. God could not educate all three generations of humankind. We need the textbook of family tradition. Please invest yourselves fervently. (263-190, 1994.08.23)


Absolutely attend the Family Pledge and Sunday Service. Teach your children in the morning. Mothers and fathers must educate their children. Not doing so results in children who fall. If your children fall, you will have eternal regret. (269-042, 1995.04.06)


We have to truly understand what kind of debt we owe to Father. We are indebted to Father because he sacrificed his youth for the sake of humanity. Our responsibility, as the first generation parents, is to educate our second-generation children in the absolute standard and compensate for Father's lost youth. To do so, we must fully understand the sacrifice True Father has made on behalf of mankind. He lost his family and his children, the entire Moon clan was victimized and the Korean nation fell prey to Satan. We have to deeply understand this. It is not just a past reality, but still lingers today. Just as Father sacrificed his entire youth and the first forty years of his life for humanity, from now on, we should be willing to sacrifice our own lives for the sake of humanity as our mission; it is not a job, but a God-given mission. (270-325, 1995.07.23)


The goal of children's education is definite: you must belong to God and become the hope of the world. You must be kings or queens, princes or princesses. All that was lost when the very foundation of love was torn apart. The starting point of the love of God, Adam and Eve should have been one, but Satan interfered and became the center...God was left all alone and His ideal of true love for His children shattered. (272-279. 1995.10.08)


Even if in quality you are not 24 karat gold, at least your color should be the same. That means that your family must resemble Father's life.

You must try your absolute best to become true pure 24 karat gold for the sake of your entire family and descendants. Eventually they should become 24 karat gold as well. This is the life of the blessed couples.

If some couples are only 14 or 18 karat gold you must go into the furnace again and become 24 karat gold. Make sure that you give the right and proper education to your children for the future of your descendants. (280-318, 1997.02.13)

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