ICE BREAKERS:
Choose One -
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Describe your experience with the goal you set from our last meeting.
Did you come closer to God through pursuing it? How?
READINGS:
Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the
earth, and have dominion over it and subdue it. (Gen. 1:28)
~ ~
Adam and Eve …should have become husband and wife,
forming one unit. They should have multiplied by having children,
and established the four position foundation centered on God. When
a man and woman have actualized the Second Blessing of God (Multiply) this
becomes an good object for God’s joy and (the husband’s and wife’s joy).
(Divine Principle, pgs. 43-44)
~ ~
Children are the fruit of the love of the
mother and father. Children embody their parents' love, life, and lineage.
Little children often say “This is mine,” but parents are the origin of
everything that children refer to as their own. Parents are the root and
the trunk.
Parents are the primary source of love
for children. The parent-child relationship is vertical, and the husband-wife
relationship is horizontal. The lines of these two relationships should
cross at right angles. The relationship among siblings forms a third dimension,
a front-to-back axis. In the God-centered family, vertical and horizontal
loves are united as one. (Everybody Wants True Love, 11/20/99)
~ ~
Essentially there are four great loves:
parents' love, brothers and sisters' love, husband and wife's love, and
children's love. True family is the smallest unit where these four great
loves can be experienced. This true family is the foundation of true human
love and true happiness. It is the place from which true life and true
lineage sprout forth. It is the training ground and school of love that
prepares people for life in a peaceful, prosperous, and loving society,
nation, and world. (The Family and World Peace, June 11, 1998)
~ ~
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
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What do the above readings say about the value of having children?
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What is your experience with the value of children, either by having your
own, by being a child in your youth, or by working with children
as an adult?
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Describe a time when you saw God in (your or other) children?
~ ~
READINGS:
God is in a parental relationship to His children.
As a parent, He invests and forgets. If you want to secure a love relationship
between God, yourself, and your spouse, you can offer true love to God.
There is only one way to reach God - through the practice of true love.
The practice of true love means investing yourselves over and over again,
whole-heartedly. (39th True Children's Day Address, 11/19/98)
~ ~
True parents do not tell their children,
“Once you become children of true filial piety, do not become loyal citizens.”
True parents should teach children of to give their family to the
world by following the way of a loyal citizen in service to the nation
and in service to the world. Then parents should teach their children to
give the world in service to Heaven and Earth, and to even give up Heaven
and Earth to God. (True Family and True Universe Centering on True Love,
6/16/97)
~ ~
Essentially there are four great loves:
parents' love, brothers and sisters' love, husband and wife's love, and
children's love. True family is the smallest unit where these four great
loves can be experienced. This true family is the foundation of true human
love and true happiness. It is the place from which true life and true
lineage sprout forth. It is the training ground and school of love that
prepares people for life in a peaceful, prosperous, and loving society,
nation, and world. (The Family and World Peace, June 11, 1998)
~ ~
As husband and wife, it is only when we
gain the victory with our children, together as a family, that we can say
for the first time that we are a family that has realized the ideals and
purpose of creation. Unificationism teaches that this purpose is
not achieved by an individual alone; it can only be achieved in the family,
together with the children. (Raising Children in God’s Will, 52-307)
~ ~
When there is oneness in the individual,
there will be harmony in the family. When there is harmony in the
family, there will be unity in society. When there it unity in society,
there will be peace in the world. (Confucious)
~ ~
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
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The readings suggest that a good society and world come from good families.
Think of a time in your life when you saw that this is true.
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Would you like to see your children as existing for a higher purpose than
just your own enjoyment or sense of purpose? If so, why?
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How could you see your family benefiting society? You can answer
this based on childhood experiences or present ones.
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Set a goal for the next week to improve your attitude toward children:
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If you are a parent, toward your own children. If you are single,
set a goal to move your ideas about marriage and family to a “higher” level.
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