The Kingdom of Heaven Starts with Families of True Love

We all want to live in a better world: a world of peace, love and harmony. A world where people respect, care and love each others. A world where I can feel appreciated and always welcomed. A world where there is no more hate and no more war. A world where everyone loves God as their father and loves each other as their brothers and sisters. This is what is called the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

              Longing for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth

The expectation of a world of love and peace is not new, it has always been human beings expectation throughout the ages.

These two famous quotations reflect the longing of the people of the Old Testament age: “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion.” Isaiah 11:6

“They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Micah 4:3

In the Middle Age in Europe, Christianity was strongly influenced by the book called “the City of God” written by Saint Augustine around the year 420.

“The book presents human history as being a conflict between the City of Man and the City of God (a conflict that is destined to end in victory of the latter). The City of God is marked by people who forgo earthly pleasure to dedicate themselves to the eternal truths of Christian faith. The City of Man, on the other hand, consists of people who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present, passing world”

                           (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_God_(book))

This is also our understanding that if each one of us would be living a caring and loving life at the image of Jesus, we would be living in the “City of God” on earth.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Movement and the Universal Peace Federation says:

“Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of place is the kingdom of heaven? In brief, the heavenly kingdom is a world overflowing with God’s true love. True love is its axis. True love is everywhere, in the outward expression as well as in the inward thought. Everyone’s life is filled with true love from beginning to end. In the kingdom of heaven, people are born through true love, live in the embrace of true love and follow the track of true love until the day they pass on into the next world, the spirit world.”

Raising Families of True Love

as basis of the Kingdom of Heaven

Because the first place where we learn about life, about relationships, about caring and loving is our home, intuitively we know that the family is the central place for a good society.

The whole modern scientific research affirms the important role of the family.

In his famous book “Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child”, Dr. John Gottman, Ph. D. summarizes his twenty years of research:  “In this intimate cauldron (the family) we learn how to feel about ourselves and how others will react to our feelings; how to think about these feelings and what choices we have in reacting; how to read and express hopes and fears. This emotional schooling operates not just through the things parents say and do directly to children, but also in the models they offer for handling their own feelings and those that pass between husband and wife.”

Daniel Goleman, an other well-known expert on Parent-child relationships echoes this:  

"Family life is our first school for emotional learning." 

The recent research of Dr. David Popenoe, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University

confirms the irreplaceable role of the family for a good society.

“Children learn moral values mainly within their families, and mainly by relying on their parents as role models.”

“If morality and character are not taught in the home, other institutions (schools, churches, and the law) can not be relied on to undo the damage. That is why the quality of family life is so important, and why the family is society's most fundamental institution.”

Rev Sun Myung Moon teaches: “Ladies and gentlemen, the family sets the pattern for living together. The warm environment of oneness based on love and respect between parents and children, mutual fidelity and love between husband and wife, and trust and mutual reliance among siblings is the manifestation of the model, ideal family of peace. This means that you need to establish a true family, wherein the stem of true love emerges from the root of true love and bears the fruit of true love.”

“Family members who have established that vertical axis can perfect the four realms of love and heart—parental love, conjugal love, children’s love, and siblings’ love. That family links all directions—up and down, front and back, right and left. They revolve around each other in everlasting spherical motion. This is the eternal God’s model, ideal family, which expands to ideal model nations and a peaceful, ideal kingdom.

“What do you think is God’s ultimate purpose for creating human beings? It is to experience joy through the perfection of ideal families filled with true love.

When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually rejoicing in each other’s company.” 

This is what is called living in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and you can be part of it too.

To learn more about Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s vision on raising families of true love, look at: www.reverendsunmyungmoon.org

_* Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s excerpts are from his Peace Message No12 at http://www.unification.net/peace_msgs/

_* John Gottman, Ph. D. “Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child” Simon & Schuster, New York

_* Daniel Goleman, (1995). “Emotional intelligence”, Bantam Books, New York