Guidance for Heavenly Tradition Volume 3

by Rev. Young Hwi Kim
Chapter 39
March 15, 1985

Blessed Life
(To Japanese Members)

The Blessing comes from God not man. So unless we know God and have established a relationship with Him, we cannot receive His Blessing. The Blessing is invaluable, it is the fruit of God's effort and suffering throughout history. We often forget this, thinking we can receive the Blessing simply by working for 3½ years. That isn't true; we are given the Blessing on the foundation of God's prolonged struggle, our True Parents' travail and our own 3½ year effort. We often forget God and True Parents' effort, solely considering our 3½ year course. As a result we cannot fully appreciate the preciousness of the Blessing. Once we clearly understand that it was given to us on the foundation of God's historical effort and True Parent's sixty years of tribulation, we will treasure the Blessing.

The Blessing can change history. All of mankind is descended from Satan; God has no children. In order to realize His ideal, however, God needs children; we cannot change history unless God's children are born. Through the Blessing God's children can be born on earth; it is the gateway to God's children. That's why Father tells us that even though we in the fallen world have done so much evil and lived our own selfish lives, for the sake of the blessed children coming after us God gave us the Blessing anyway. We aren't worthy to receive the Blessing at all. We must understand that God forgives our failures and gives us the Blessing for the sake of the blessed children that will come through us. We make a big mistake if we think we received the Blessing because we were qualified. We should realize that we, who are unqualified, only received the Blessing because of God's special forgiveness. There are quite a few families in Europe that don't know this; they think they received the Blessing because they are great or qualified. Only by understanding the value of the Blessing can blessed families follow the path God wants them to. We can never fulfill the Blessing, otherwise.

Even after receiving the Blessing our course isn't easy. Satan cannot be silent. Through the Blessing his territory decreases and his enemies increase, because God's children are being born. Satan cannot keep still in this situation; he tries to defend his territory by destroying our Blessing. That's why the blessed couples experience so many problems. Furthermore our ancestors in the spirit world, knowing that they can also be saved through the Blessing, come to us to solve their problems and resentments. Such ancestral problems can become a heavy burden for us. We must understand that blessed couples represent their ancestors and their descendants; they are the bridge that connects ancestors and descendants. If we make an error the wrong generation will be born and our ancestors' resentments cannot be solved. There is neither future nor past without the present. We should realize that our ancestors are keeping an eye on us; we cannot just do as we please. If we make even a small error, we will destroy all our ancestor's hopes and steer their destiny in the wrong direction. We must be aware that blessed couples are in a fearful position.

It is so important that we preserve our Blessing. We cannot do so without effort, each couple must make a united effort. God's desire is to bless man. This is the essential purpose of sending the Messiah. Jesus came to receive and give the Blessing and our True Father's primary purpose is also to give the Blessing. Father fought Satan at the risk of his life in order to establish a victorious foundation upon which he could give man the Blessing. So Father cannot bear to see Satan destroy blessed families. Our foremost filial obligation to God and True Parents is to protect and preserve our Blessing and bear good children through our families. We have many other duties, but this is the foremost.

I heard that there was an article in the New York Times recently about broken blessed families. This puts Father to shame; he loses face before heaven and earth. Father must show that blessed families are different from fallen families. By showing this example heaven's dignity can be established for the first time. But what will happen if it is said that blessed families are just like ordinary families? By reading such an article, people who don't know anything about our church will become critical towards it. We must recognize that our position is very important. It varies from person to person. Some people are shown their spouse through a vision or a dream before the Blessing. We can also learn about the value of the Blessing from a spiritualist. I think it isn't easy to actually feel the significance of the Blessing. But if we understand the Principle well we can understand what the Blessing is and its value.

The most important aspect of the Blessing is that once a couple starts family life through the three-day ceremony they should be inseparable. This is most important. Man and wife didn't grown up in the same circumstances; especially in our case where there are many international couples. But even when blessed with someone of the same nationality each one's background is completely different; their family and historical background are all different. People from completely different backgrounds come together and form a couple, so it is natural that problems will arise.

As I mentioned earlier blessed couples represent their ancestors and we have no way of knowing what may have happened in the past. It has been a long history; their ancestors may have been enemies sometime in the past. For a couple to solve an ancestral problem, a similar problem must arise and be solved. We must indemnify all historical problems, so the problems of the past will recur in our lives. When we overcome them, our ancestors who couldn't overcome can be saved. Unless we establish the substantial condition of overcoming the problem, their historic resentment cannot be solved. Can Jesus' resentment that he couldn't fulfill his mission ever be solved? Only if someone comes to earth and gains victory while enduring the same circumstances Jesus endured and overcoming the difficulties Jesus couldn't. Otherwise, Jesus' resentment will never be solved. Similarly many problems of past history will recur in us. If a couple can overcome them, their ancestors will be liberated. That's why blessed families have so many problems. They must not only solve the problems caused by their differences, but must solve their ancestors' historical problems as well. That's why it's so difficult.

He who receives the Blessing first in his family will experience the most difficulty. It's much easier if there are many blessed members in one family because then they share the burden. If there is only one, then the family's historical indemnity rests on that one person, which naturally makes it more difficult. The more that receive the Blessing the easier it becomes, since the burden is shared. Likewise the first couple to receive the Blessing in a nation has a difficult course. Once many people have received the Blessing, however, the burden of indemnity is lightened.

Since we have fallen nature, we usually notice others' mistakes before our own. By changing our faults through patience and effort, we can perfect our personality. So we shouldn't try to escape difficulties. Only if there is no way to escape our difficulties can we accomplish the difficult task of self-perfection. God knows this very well, so He prevents our escape, making us tackle our problems no matter how difficult they may be. This is true love.

It is human nature to choose the easier of two possible courses. Thus if divorce were allowed we would be tempted to escape through divorce when challenging problems arose in our marriage. Because people are unaware of the historical aspect, divorce seems to be easier than tackling their problems. They think it is a personal problem, so they divorce and look for another partner. What happens then though? Their historical problems aren't solved by marrying someone else, so the same problems recur. And the failure of their first marriage is added to their previous problems, so the second marriage may be even more difficult than the first. No matter how many times people divorce it will always be the same. If divorce wasn't allowed, however, there would be no way of escape, people would have no choice but to go forward and solve their problems after all. If they tackle their problems seriously, they can be solved. It depends on how serious the couple is.

Blessed couples must demonstrate that there is no divorce, otherwise the ideal will never be realized. We can only establish the ideal by overcoming and solving all problems. In this way we can achieve self- perfection and also pay historical indemnity. If we are victorious our descendants lives will be easier and our ancestors will bow down to us saying: "Because you endured all hardships and suffering we were saved as well." Since our children can gain happiness as a result of their parents' sacrifice, the one who indemnifies ancestral problems will be recognized as the greatest in a family. The reason everyone respects True Father is that he has walked a path of indemnity as mankind's representative for the sake of mankind. We will stand in the position of True Father in our families. But as long as divorce is permitted we can never achieve self-perfection. People are constantly divorcing in this fallen world, but they will never find happiness this way. God knows everything. When I think about this I always feel that God is very clever; He does everything knowingly. Men must know that God is great. If we recognize that God is a great God and that True Parents are great, God and True Parents will be happy.

It's good to get to know as many blessed families as possible. There are many different kinds of problems so we can learn different lessons from each couple. Conversation between husband and wife is essential, so we must create an atmosphere in which we can talk freely. Also in our center life if we aren't able to talk to each other freely, life becomes difficult. There is no way to solve problems if we cannot talk freely. So first we must discuss things. We must create such relationships that we can always speak freely and openly to one another. It's not always possible to discuss everything openly from the very beginning; we need an opportunity to establish good relationships. For example, if we help someone when they have a problem, we create a good atmosphere to share with that brother or sister. Most important is to make a good atmosphere so that brothers and sisters can speak openly and freely. Relationships deepen through give and take. There are many reports about marital problems in the news; many couples want to separate or divorce. When we seek the cause, we usually find that they can't talk to each other anymore.

In order to create an atmosphere in which they can talk openly and freely with one another, partners must understand each other well. We must consider others' opinions and feelings and examine our attitude towards them. Often we ourselves don't know what we are doing; we have habits and ways of doing things that we are completely unaware of. Often a person doesn't even realize what his attitude towards others is. In order to change our annoying habits though, we have to know about them. So when a couple can't talk to each other anymore, they must discover why.

I read an article in a Japanese newspaper recently about a couple who had such problems. The husband demanded that his wife follow his way of thinking in everything she did, from doing the shopping to her style of clothes; everything. He ignored her opinions and way of doing things. As a result they couldn't talk anymore and began to think about separating. Then one day a special guest came to visit them, so the husband helped his wife in the kitchen. He realized that he had never helped her in the kitchen before; he had worked in the kitchen when he was alone in the house, but never together with his wife. Through that experience he realized many things about her and began to appreciate her more; gradually they began to talk again.

A few days later a cat in the house got sick. His wife took care of it, taking it to the hospital, giving it medicine and doing as much as she could for it. Her husband realized that she was a kind and tender person. In the process of wondering why she wasn't kind to him he realized that he had faults that made it difficult for his wife to love him. From that time on he began to care for his wife more. So by understanding his wife and taking more of an interest in her they began to come together again. The man realized that although he had lived with his wife for a long time, he had actually been living alone. In order to change the situation the husband had to change; he had to understand, appreciate and respect his wife's way of thinking.

When we become a couple we aren't alone anymore, but are two persons. If man and wife each go their own way, there will be no give and take. From the instant we marry we're not on our own anymore. As a couple we must discuss things and make decisions together, otherwise we cannot unite. If one partner insists on doing everything his or her way, problems will arise. Conversation is essential; not only between man and wife, but in community life as well. When the give and take among members is disturbed, problems begin to multiply. If we discuss things with each other, we can bring problems out into the open and try to solve them. If there is no give and take, however, there is no way to find the problems or solve them.

Mutual understanding is essential; each must make effort to understand the other. If both sides try, they can find a meeting point. This is essential in community life, and especially in married life. If two people live without communication, they are actually living alone. Communication is essential for our life; it is the beginning of everything. In order to converse an atmosphere is necessary. Singing songs together is a good way to create an atmosphere of unity. We sing holy songs at church services to increase our awareness that we are one before God. We should try different ways to create a feeling of unity. This is the key to success in our mission.

We live a community life in our church centers. This type of life is truly precious. Through it we can discover faults we cannot find by ourselves. We can learn much more through community life than by living alone. So we should be grateful for community life. Most Westerners prefer individualism though, because they don't want to be bothered by others nor do they want to intrude in others' lives. Of course Westerners have good points too, e.g. the attitude to fulfill one's responsibility oneself. This spirit of independence is good. We should be independent and fulfill our duties ourselves, but should also help others and cooperate with each other. We mustn't forget that we are one community. We should care for and be considerate of others. If we are truly brothers and sisters then if someone is going in the wrong direction we must warn them. This isn't practiced so much here now. We must learn to appreciate the advantages of community life and teach this to Western members.

Many Japanese sisters have been blessed with Westerners. You have a difficult task: encouraging Western men to work hard for the mission. First of all you must show your husband that his wife is really close to God. You must demonstrate this through your life, otherwise no matter how much good advice you give him, he won't accept it. You must live centering on God and True Parents. Through your prayer life show him that God and True Parents are the center of our life. This is very important. You also have to work harder in other aspects of church activity to set an example for your husband and help him understand how important it is to work for God at this time.

Father stresses the importance of proper education: helping people understand and then helping them practice what they know. The best method of education is to teach people without them even noticing, they should learn and come closer to God without even being aware of it. Husband and wife must help each other. Loving one another means trusting and supporting each other, correcting each other's mistakes. By correcting our minor faults we can gradually change to a great degree. Husband and wife need to educate each other, so married life is a life of learning from and teaching one another.

Many members say they joined the Unification Church because they heard about the ideal family, they were attracted by the words ideal family. Then who will establish the ideal family? God? He can't do it by Himself! The ideal family is created when couples work together centered on God. An ideal family is a family in which God's ideal is realized. In order to create an ideal family an ideal husband and wife are needed. We must make our spouse an ideal husband or wife. A man cannot become an ideal husband by himself nor a woman an ideal wife. By working together we create first an ideal couple and then an ideal family. Ideal families can only come about on the foundation of ideal couples. Everything we do should be focused on becoming God's ideal children. We must make effort to become ideal husbands and wives. Ideal families are realized when ideal children are born from ideal couples. Unless our family becomes an ideal family we cannot say we are truly God's blessed family. God's ideal family must have a higher standard than fallen families. This doesn't mean that we must be richer than fallen families, but that we must have a higher standard of love.

Father once said that when we see children we see their parents. Children learn everything from their parents. Of course they learn from others as well, at school for example. What I mean here though is not external knowledge but the knowledge of heart and deed. Children learn from their parents' lives. Embryos are influenced by their parents' lives while still in the womb and once born the are even more sensitive. Children notice everything, so what we do in front of them is a serious affair. We must recognize that parents teach their lives to their children. We often forget this. When parents fight, they are teaching their children to fight. Children are their parents' judges. If parents make mistakes their children learn the wrong thing. If they do good things, however, the children will learn only good things.

Children absorb everything from their behavior to the way they speak from their parents. Most important, however, is the aspect of heart. If their parents hate others, the children will learn to hate others as well. We must remember that children are the fruit of their parents' life of faith. In order to have good children we must be good parents. It's as simple as that. It is impossible to have good children by living in the wrong way. We are responsible to bear and raise children God desires and offer them to God. This is the major difference between ideal families and fallen families. In the fallen world people often don't know why they bear children, but we have a very clear purpose: to bear and raise God's children for Him. No matter how great God is, He cannot create children without us.

True Father always emphasizes that couples must love each other and fuse into one. Whenever Father speaks he speaks about love. Love is so important; that's why he constantly emphasizes it. If we had been born into an ideal world with perfected parents, he wouldn't have to tell us such things, we would have learned about love through our life. God didn't create man as a complicated being, but to become a perfected man of love without great effort. Because of the fall, however, a false start was made. Man lived in God's love in the Garden of Eden, but then distrusted and disobeyed God. Upon being banished from the garden, they entered a place where there was no God and were full of fear as a result. From that time on problems arose. Adam and Eve began to fight, their life was one of mutual accusation. Adam accused Eve: "I fell because you tempted me." Eve responded: "It's your fault, you didn't control me in the right way." Their children saw and heard their parents fighting; there was no joy there. Adam and Eve must have experienced incredible agony and remorse. All of this suffering must have been visible in their daily lives. Naturally their children were influenced by growing up in such circumstances. As a result of this environment they fought and Cain killed Abel. The ultimate cause of Abel's death can be seen in Adam and Eve's discord.

Human history began with discord, conflict and murder. We grow up learning to accuse and harm each other, rather than to forgive each other. This nature has been passed on from generation to generation throughout history; men are completely stained with evil nature. In order to escape from this state and return to the original world, we must cut off from the old lineage and engraft to the new by denying ourselves completely. By denying our old life we can be engrafted to the new. We must pass through such a state of heart; total self-denial is necessary. Unless we deny everything that belongs to the fallen world, we cannot receive the new world. That's why religious life has always been a life of self-denial. This doesn't mean we should deny our virtues, but the evil we have inherited.

If Adam and Eve hadn't fallen, they would have grown up receiving God's love. The angels also would have helped them and they would have become perfect in God's love. There would have been no sadness or fear in their world, only joy, satisfaction and peace. Since parents would have loved each other in such a world, their children would only have seen and experienced love and joy. Children learn to love by seeing their parents' example. In such a situation children would naturally have grown up as children of love; loving each other would be as natural and easy as having a meal. God created us to become men of love naturally. But because of the fall we have to learn to love by repeatedly hearing that we must love each other.

I'll give you an example of what I mean. You're all trying to learn Korean, but you often forget what you have learned a couple of days later. If you had been born of Korean parents, you wouldn't need to make so much effort to learn Korean; you could learn it naturally. It's the same with love. We were meant to learn love naturally, just as we learn our mother tongue. It's difficult to learn Korean once we are grown. Likewise, even though we are constantly being told to love each other, we always forget. This is a fallen world; we must make it a world in which people love each other without being told. It's easier to teach love through example than by word.

God wanted to teach man to love by example. We want our children to learn to love from us, through our lives. That is the life of the Garden of Eden. But our world is still fallen; our children see people fighting in school. And sometimes teachers teach the wrong things to our children. So even if we as parents are good, it's still not easy. In order to raise our children as God desires we must make great effort and set a good example for them. This is our present state. If possible we want to establish our own schools where members teach our children. This is why God wants to restore a sovereign nation as soon as possible. Once a nation is restored we can establish schools and economic programs. Then everything will be easier. Otherwise our children will have to endure great difficulties. This is the reason we now have the motto about creating God's nation. God's wish is to establish schools to educate His children according to His word as soon as possible. To do this we need a nation: God's nation. God worries that His blessed children might grow up to be fallen people as a result of false education.

So as future parents you must make more effort. We are responsible to protect our children from the fall and raise them to be perfect husbands and wives through God's Blessing. To do this various spiritual conditions are necessary. Parents must complete all required indemnity conditions and protect their children from the evil influence of the fallen world, teaching them good things. But no matter how much we teach them by word, if we don't practice the word in our lives our children won't listen. Our words and our deeds must harmonize; we must be parents whose actions coincide with our words.We have many responsibilities: we must become perfect, then bear children and accomplish God's providence. The first point involves individual perfection, the second creating an ideal family as a couple and the third accomplishing God's providence. We must fulfill these three missions simultaneously; we can't do them separately because they're all connected.

Most people reflect about their lives and how they lived before they die. People who have experienced passing away say that their whole life flashed before them in an instant, that everything was reviewed. Many people die with the feeling: "If I were born again I would live differently." There are very few people who accomplished everything they wanted to in their lifetime and have no regrets about their life on earth. Most people pass away with regret in their hearts; it is important that we not do so. Since we know the Principle we should think about our life and practice what we know now. We should review our past and reflect about how we should live according to the Principle point of view. If we do this now, it will be like being born again. You are all about thirty; you still have long lives ahead of you, so if you think this way and change your life now it will be like starting a new life. If we do this, we can have a valuable life. The person who lives a life without regret is truly a happy person. We only have one life on earth, so we should become people who can live a life without regret. God wants us to do so. We have a clear goal: to reach individual perfection, establish an ideal family and fulfill God's providence. What we do for God's providence may differ according to our circumstances; that's alright as long as we do whatever we can according to our abilities and circumstances.

The future is uncertain, it can be influenced depending on one's attitude. There is always a possibility we might fail in an undertaking; when we wage war the possibility of defeat always exists. We lie if we say we've never failed. We should always keep the possibility of failure in mind, but we shouldn't be afraid of it. If we are we won't have the courage to do anything. Whenever we do something, we should investigate beforehand to find the best way of doing it and make a good plan. But before starting we should also make a contingency plan in case we fail.

We should learn from failure. If we give up after having failed then we have been defeated by our failure. But if we get up and keep going after having failed, we can gain victory over our failures. We must become people who aren't afraid to fail, people who can stand up again after having failed. It is important to defeat failure and learn from it, i.e. not to repeat the same mistakes. If we fail once in some aspect of our life of faith, we shouldn't make the same mistake twice. If we do, we become a total failure. To fail once is alright, but constantly repeating the same mistake leads to total failure. So in order not to repeat our mistakes, we must discover the reasons for our failure and learn from them. This is important in our life of faith.

We live only once, so even though we fail from time to time, ultimately we must succeed in life. Father often says, "Even if we lose 99 battles, what actually counts is that we win the war." We all experience ups and downs in our life of faith, but when all is said and done we must reach our goal. Some of us may rejoice over our successes now, but we won't know the end result until we pass into the spiritual world. We must gain the ultimate victory and be people who can stand as victors before God and True Parents at the end of our lives.

The final moment is decisive. We must be a person who doesn't lose one's faith at the final moment, but remains grateful to God and True Parents. Even though we are grateful to God at other times, if we lose the heart of gratitude at the time of our passing we are lost. We never know when we will pass away, so we should always live with a grateful heart. This is very important. Why must we be grateful? If we aren't grateful, we cannot receive. That's why the Bible teaches us to go forward with gratitude and prayer even in trying situations. If we lose this heart of gratitude Satan can easily attack and defeat us. It's easy to be thankful when we're happy, but it's important to have a heart of gratitude even in the face of adversity. We must make constant effort to maintain this attitude.

Ultimately gratitude means giving something back, the desire to reciprocate. According to the principle of give and take unless we give we cannot receive. Reciprocity is the basis of give and take action. When we receive something from God we should show Him our gratitude, then He can continue to give to us. This is give and take action. Children should be grateful toward their parents, i.e. return something to them, then the parents can give again. It is the same with God, who has given man everything. Although we cannot do much for God, if we live with a grateful heart, he can relate with us again. The materialist doesn't return God's grace. When we reciprocate God's grace we become children of filial piety. Since we receive grace from God we must thank God, our parent. It is the same for our parents and teachers. This reciprocation of God's, parents' and teachers' grace is the foundation of human ethics. Nowadays we hear about students striking their teachers. This is a phenomena of the Last Days. It is the same as striking old people; this should never happen. After all filial piety, whether directed toward God or our elders, is the same on every level. When this is realized the world will become a world of ethics, otherwise it will remain a world of wild animals. We don't want to live in such a world.

Likewise in our center life, we must to try to live like humans, not animals. When we fight we become like wild animals. Men long for a world of humanity. It is important to have relationships where people long for each other and want to see each other. We must live a life that everyone will be drawn to. The attraction should be of heart and love. If we have this people will be drawn to us naturally. So we must make effort to become people of heart and love and to create such circumstances. Everyone longs for parents and wants to be with them because parents are the source of love. Parents always love their children more than themselves, that's why children are always happy to see them. Such a world is the homeland of our heart.

Father always says, "We must make a church where people want to come." In the early days of our movement when Father was still in Korea, many women were drawn to the church on their way to go shopping. In order to attract people heartistic power is needed. To create such circumstances we must make effort in prayer and our activities. If we can create such circumstances, we can easily witness to people and their hearts can be resurrected. If we can make guests feel that they want to come again, our witnessing will succeed. Otherwise, witnessing will continue to be difficult. No matter how much energy we invest in prayer and other activities, if we cannot make guests feel like coming back, our witnessing result will remain small.

Westerners may be different from Orientals, but man is man. Even though there are differences the key to success in witnessing is to create a comfortable atmosphere in the center. In order to accomplish this we need to pray more and try to have more love. Such an atmosphere can never be created if we fight amongst ourselves. This is the same as kicking our guests out. We can never succeed in such a situation. Once there was a sister who threw things whenever she was angry, which was quite often. I made her leave the center immediately. We cannot witness when such a person is in the center. It may be unfortunate for them, but such a person shouldn't live in the center. Since we want to have as many members as possible, we often try to keep such people, but they shouldn't stay in the center. It's not good for them, the center, the members or the new guests. Such a person shouldn't stay in the center; we must be strict in such cases. We bring people to the church in order to give them new life, but in such cases where the person hasn't changed despite repeated efforts, we must be strict. Some members may complain that this isn't love. But being strict is love, because it is for the good of the person and the whole center.

The purpose of our centers is witnessing. So whenever we evaluate our efforts or decide something, we must do so from the viewpoint of witnessing. Making a center where we can witness is God's desire. Brothers and sisters work hard, when this effort bears fruit we gain strength, but if no result comes we become exhausted. So we need to discover where the problems lie in our centers. We shouldn't con- stantly repeat the same thing, but investigate and make an effort to solve any problems that may exist. Otherwise, no matter how hard we work our efforts will never bear fruit.

We must set an example. Showing people an example is much more effective than talking to them. You came from faraway Japan to work in Europe, so you should set an example in center life and activity. True Father loses face when you are pointed at with scorn,because he always says, "Westerners should learn from the Japanese." This is true in America as well. So if Japanese members don't set a good example for other members, then Father, who told them to learn from the Japanese, will lose face. So the most important thing is to set an example of church life and activity.

There are quite a few elder blessed families in Germany who aren't contributing so much for the mission at the moment. How can we move them to contribute more for the mission? We need to teach them the principle and we need to love them. There must be some reason they became like this. They worked hard before, but for some reason are less involved now. We must help them solve their problems, so they can be more active. We must be concerned about each family. In order for the nation to be revived the elder blessed couples must stand up and move forward. When they retreat, it is difficult for the younger blessed couples to advance. So it is essential that we revive the elder blessed couples. We are investing much energy in this effort and it is gradually beginning to bear fruit. When the elder blessed families stand strong, the younger ones will follow them. We must let the elder couples who are not willingly participating in the mission know that God exists; this must be clear. They also need to know the history of God's providence and how the Blessing was brought about. We must let them know that the center of God's providence is the Blessing and that we only received the Blessing through God's grace, not because we were qualified. If they are not aware that the Blessing is the greatest gift God could give us, they cannot appreciate it.

We must consider their spiritual state when we speak to them about these things, i.e. whether they can accept what we want to say or not. It isn't easy. First of all their spiritual state must be elevated to a certain level; we cannot teach elementary school children university lessons. First they need the primary knowledge, then they can try the university level. The Blessing is like a university entrance exam. We entered university through the Blessing, but just because we've entered, doesn't mean we'll all graduate. Unless we study hard and fulfill the requirements, we won't receive a diploma. Even though we've received the Blessing, it is only by overcoming historical prob- lems that we can fulfill its purpose. We received the Blessing by passing a difficult examination, but whether we succeed or not is up to each couple. Thank you.