Aim to understand that an ideal family is a God-centered family
Aim
* To understand that an ideal family is a God-centered family
* To learn about the Four Great Realms of Heart, especially the childrens and siblings
Materials
* Extracts from the Principle about the Second Blessing
* word and picture cards
* visual aids – picture of a family
* Story – “The Prince’s Happy Heart”
* children’s worksheet
Lesson Outline
1. Review the Three Blessings
2. The Second Blessing
3. The Children’s Realm of Heart
4. The Siblings Realm of Heart
5. Story & Discussion
6. Activity – match words and pictures, memory game, worksheets
7. Conclusion
8. Prayer
1) Review the Three Blessings
God asks us to do three things in our life called the three blessings.
1. Be fruitful (become an ideal person)
2. Multiply (create an ideal family)
3. Have dominion (build an ideal world).
To fulfill the First Blessing we must: Unite our mind and body centred on God’s love .
2) The Second Blessing
To fulfill the Second Blessing we must: Create an ideal family centered on God’s love
* Adam and Eve were to give birth to children with natures of goodness, forming a sinless family.
This God-centered family would have fulfilled God’s 2nd Blessing.
* If Adam and Eve had done this, they would have become the True Parents and True Ancestors of all mankind, establishing the Kingdom of Heaven. The basic unit of the Kingdom of Heaven is
the true family, From this, a true society, true nation, and true world would have been realized..
* An ideal family is a family centred upon God’s true love. Each person would be an owner of true love, expressing God’s love in their daily actions. True love means living for others. Parents
live for the children and the children live for the parents. Husband and wife live for each other. Brothers and sisters live for each other.
* Look at the picture of a family. Who are the different people in this family? Father, mother, husband, wife, 2 sisters, 1 brother, 3 children
* The family is the school of love. As in all schools we go through different stages of learning. In the family there are four stages of love, called the four great realms of heart.
Worksheet – Hand out the worksheet. Ask the children to use the code to find out what they are
PARENTAL LOVE
CONJUGAL LOVE
SIBLINGS LOVE
CHILDRENS LOVE
* God designed the family to be the place where we grow in love. We pass through each stage of learning to love, starting from children’s love, then siblings, conjugal, until we reach the parental stage. This stage is the closest to God’s love. Of course, before children can learn to love others, they need to receive love from their parents first.
*Each position in the family has a certain responsibility. Today we will look more closely at the children’s and siblings realm of heart, because they are the two stages that are relevant to you
3) The Children’s Realm of Heart
* This stage is the love children show towards parents. Show the picture cards. Love is expressed through obedience, respect and trust. Discuss each picture and relate it to the children’s own experiences.
1. Obedience – The father tells his son to pick up his toys. He does it immediately and happily.
How do you show obedience towards your parents?
2. Respect – The girl waits patiently and doesn’t interrupt her parents. How do you show respect for your parents?
3. Trust – The boy trusts his father to teach him to ride a bicycle, even if he is a little afraid.
Sometimes we don’t know why our parents want us to do something. Instead of asking why all the time, we should trust them, because they want the best for us. How do you show trust towards your parents?
*Another word for children’s love towards parents is filial piety. It means doing the things that make parents happy. Children want to please their parents by doing the things they like.
Obedience, trust and respect are three ways of showing filial piety.
*Are there other ways? – giving a hug, helping at home, saying thank you, being good brothers and sisters, making a mother’s day card
* The relationship between parents and children is vertical, meaning up and down. Parents are in the subject position or giver of love and children in the object position or receiver of love.
When children respect, trust and obey parents they become good objects and receive all their parents love. If children don’t, it is harder for them to receive parents love, even if the parents
want to give it.
* It is the same with our relationship with God. In order for us to receive God’s love, we need to be good objects to God. The starting point of being good objects to God is for children to be good objects to their parents.
4) The Sibling’s Realm of Heart
* This stage is the love brothers and sisters show towards each other. Look at the picture cards.
Love is expressed through helping each other, sharing and being fair. Discuss each picture and relate it to the children’s own experiences.
1. Helping each other – The older sister ties her younger brothers laces. How do you help each
other in your family?
2. Being fair– The brother and sister have the same time on the computer. How are you fair to
each other in your family
3. Sharing – The brother shares his apples with his sister. How do you share things in your family?
* It takes time for siblings to learn to help each other, to be fair and learn to share. Siblings fight, make mistakes, learn to say sorry and forgive each other. But under the love and guidance of parents, they learn the right and wrong way to treat each other, and develop sibling love.
* Are there other ways? – being loyal, keeping promises, listening to each other, playing together
* The relationship between siblings is horizontal, meaning equal, although older and younger have a vertical aspect. The younger sibling should respect and trust his older sibling. The older should also take care of the younger, similar to a parent.
* Sibling love is also the foundation of friendships outside the family. Siblings are equals and so are friends. Good brothers and sisters also make good friends.
5) Story & Discussion
Read “The Prince’s Happy Heart.” The story teaches that happiness can be found in a loving heart in a loving family. It also shows that a close-knit home is worth more than a kingdom.
Summary – This the story of a prince who is always happy because a golden heart hangs around is neck. One day he loses it and he becomes very sad. Without his golden heart he can no longer be happy. He searches all day for it throughout the city and country roads. Finally, near the end of the day he comes to a tiny house on the edge of the forest. Inside he finds a poor, but very happy family. Nobody wears a heart and the prince cannot understand how they can be happy. He discovers their love for each other is their secret. The prince’s own happiness returns and he discovers that he has found his happy heart, but now he is wearing it inside.
In what ways did the family love each other?
– The mother rocked her baby to sleep
– The father read a story aloud
– The little daughter set the table for supper
– A boy tended to the fire
– they played with each other pretending their house was a castle
6) Activities
* Match pictures and words
* Play the memory game to reinforce the lesson
* Complete the worksheet
7) Conclusion
Review the lesson by emphasizing the two aims of the lesson:
* To understand that an ideal family is a God-centered family
* To learn about the Four Great Realms of Heart, especially the childrens and siblings
8) Prayer
