Rules from God and parents are not about oppression; they are about choosing life. Obedience is not to bow down to a magisterial ruler, but to inherit blessings.
God’s and parents’ rules set up a cause and effect dynamic. Live for the sake of others is the cause; get your mind in control of your body is the effect. Make your bed—for others. Set the table—for others. Do your homework—for others. Be on time—for others. Parents naturally teach children to live for others. We know instinctively that by living for others, our children grow up. To grow up is to develop their mind’s dominion over their body.
We know instinctively that our children grow up by living for others.
As did God, Jesus expressed this as a rule—a commandment: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
Paul followed suit: “In view of God’s mercy, …offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. …In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Father Moon proclaimed this throughout America in 1973, when he said, “God’s definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live our lives for others. You live for others and others live for you. God lives for man and man lives for God. The husband lives for his wife and the wife lives for her husband. This is goodness. And here unity, harmony, and prosperity abound.”
By living for others, we grow into our parents’ image, which is God’s image.
By obeying parents, children learn to live for others. The child develops, in his or her brain, neural pathways for God. Into those pathways pours a spiritual energy, the life element, the energy and heart of love that brings prosperity and happiness. Living for others is self-perpetuating; it feels good, you want to do it more and more.
And by living for others, we grow into our parents’ image, which is God’s image.
(References: John 15:12-14; Rom 12:1, 5; http://tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon73/SunMyungMoon-731020d.htm. The photo is of True Father’s departure to Danbury prison, July 20, 1984.)
