Gratitude

Gratitude How can we show our gratitude to God, our Heavenly Father? Its actually quite hard to do so. The reason is He is so great and we are so small. We cannot make things or bring worlds into existence. We cannot originate things, but only use the things He has made and reconstitute them in some way. We can build on what is there, but even in all man’s greatness, that is technology and advancement, still does it even compare to the power and complexity of the sun? A human cell? No, not hardly…so then how can we show our gratitude to God when we are so small and He is so big…there are ways… we can love Him…how do we love Him…our love is invisible…but its real…we love Him when we live the way He expects us to live…we love Him when we love and serve others as He does 24/7… I think its possible to find many ways to show and express our love, but the essential point of all of this is that we need some vehicle to show our love…prayer is good, but often not enough…we need to have something tangible and demonstrate able…which leads me to my point - we can show God our gratitude when things are difficult…its actually the fastest, most profound way of proving to ourselves and God that we are truly grateful. Usually when things get difficult we curse, or complain, or give up or even destroy…yet if we see things from another view point, it is in these very difficulties that our small self can show God’s big self that we are related with Him and are grateful. That is we say, “I am suffering now, I feel this and that, I could complain, but instead of doing what everybody expects of me, I will not complain or be a burden to You, but rather I will be grateful…I mean really grateful that I have this chance to show You my character and heart.” Thus I can be grateful in difficulty… True Father says, “If we were to learn even this, that is how to be grateful under difficulty, it would be a life well spent!”

What has that to do with your being matched today? Well, the way I see it, we all face many decisions in life, which way to go, what to eat, how to respond in any given situation, etc. In fact in many ways all day long we have to make some decisions one way or another. Many of our decisions are mundane and automatic in some ways, others are more difficult. For example, we might have to make a career decision or a decision that would affect not only ourselves, but also the lives of others. In some cases we even have to make decisions about good and evil or right and wrong. If you have ever been in one of those moments when you had to decide between right and wrong or selfish and unselfish, you know how painful and torturous it can be. The agony of those moments can even lead us to deep resentment and complicated problems. In short, making decisions is not always easy. Yet today you and Younjoo faced a decision. I watched in awe, as the circumstances around making this decision were made easy, light, and beautiful. Almost as if all of nature was coming to you to help you and support your decision…it was easy wasn’t it? I saw God’s love for both of you in this day… not because of the fact of being matched, but because of the circumstances surrounding it…today you could actually make one of the hardest decisions of your life, the decision to have an eternal spouse and dedicate your self to another person forever…this is the biggest decision you can make in your life, bigger than career changes and personal preferences…there is nothing that comes close to the level of this decision… and yet today this decision seemed effortless…yet, you remember, that once a long time ago you also made this same hard decision and you suffered greatly for it, both of you did with

your previous matchings. In other words, today you had to make the same sort of huge decision that you made before…a decision that led not to happiness and fulfillment, but to sadness and loneliness…perhaps you even thought you might never recover…yet today we could see the evidence of God’s love for you in that He made the hardest thing simple, sweet, and easy…he demonstrated His profound love for you by making all the circumstances around this day as close to perfect as one can imagine and hope for in our movement…through this we can also understand that God was suffering along with you every day since your previous matching experience…today, through our True Parents, He showed you his heart and love and tender concern for you…Kazuki, you may face some hard decision some day, on that day, please remember this day, and how this day God himself made your way smooth and your burden light. But if a hard burden ever falls on you again, take it with gratitude and appreciation and use it as a chance to show your heart of gratitude toward Him, take it as a chance to show that even though small, you are capable of loving God and comforting Him, the way He comforted you.

Man’s Portion of Responsibity Finally, as if I have not said enough, please remember also, that even though it was easy to make this decision today, you did actually make the decision…no one made it for you…this is very important for your future in that our lives are not one sided in that God just tells us what to do or makes us do it, in fact you made a decision today which means that you own this matching, and blessing, and that you fully participated in your own growth through fulfilling your own portion of responsibility, but as Rev. Kwak often says, blessing is just the beginning, we must realize the ideal of the blessing through every moment of our lives living as God and True Parents have taught us to live.

May God Bless you.

Frank LaGrotteria,