3 generations living together - Grandmother, husband and wife, and nine children

Good morning! My name is Jae-sik Lim. I am the father of nine children. Three generations live in our home. I’m Hye-kyung Cho the mother and this is our oldest daughter, Won-hwa Lim. We were blessed at the 30,000-Couple Blessing Ceremony in 1992.

Dad: My brother first came to church and was doing activities; a little later, he invited me to join, and thanks to him, I received the Blessing. At first, I didn’t think much about it, and I did not know much about the church. Still, since I lived and grew up with my brother, I had absolute faith and trust in what he suggested. I had just been discharged from the military at the young age of twenty-four and with my brother’s encouragement, I decided to take part in the Blessing Ceremony.

Mom: In my case, I recall a speech from True Parents that said, ‘If you live with your parents, you will be blessed’, so, as soon as I received the blessing, I knew that I had to live with grandmother. The children’s grandmother is very devoted to the children. When the balsam flower blooms, even if they are all asleep, she puts a flower in their hands; she does everything for them. She cuts all the best fruit and places them on a plate in front of us. From the moment I gave birth, everything from bathing to eating and dressing — she did — I only gave birth to the babies, and my mother-inlaw raised them all.

One time, I asked grandmother, “Please give me a compliment.” Grandmother said, “What should I compliment you for?” “Maybe you can’t think of anything but I am sure there is at least one thing,” I replied.” She was embarrassed for having remained silent for so long, but since I kept asking her for at least one compliment, she finally said, “You seem to have done a good job giving birth to nine babies.” After she said that, I cried a lot that day. I was so grateful that I fell asleep after crying for a few hours, so all the scolding and discouraged feelings melted away with that one message.

Daughter: First of all, it is always noisy because I have so many roughhousing brothers. When I go out, I always have to fix my hair. One day I went to church and came home, no one was there. I couldn’t see any of my younger brothers. It turns out, I had left them at church. Every time Mom and Dad leave the house, they say, “When mom and dad, aren’t home, you and your younger brother are the parents, so don’t fight with each other.”

Since then, I have been very nervous. Because when I see Mom and Dad fighting over something, I feel as if it is happening to me too. When my Dad scolds me, my heart freezes. I remember thinking some days that I have to fix a situations as fast as I can before Mom or Dad return.

Dad: We make certain plans for our children’s futures, but as we were raising them, things didn’t always go our way. They grew up as second-generation members, and we want them to receive the Blessing, hopefully with another second-generation member that has faith. First of all, we hope that they will receive blessing and follow the same path we did, the path of creating a happy family.

Daughter: After graduating from university and living a social life, I feel grateful that my parents can lead a harmonious family. I feel privileged. If they said something like this before, it didn’t make sense to me. However, as I was working, I realized that “My parents must have felt like this.” Especially when I started working, it was really hard at first. So, I felt the feelings of my parents, and when I looked around, I saw that there are many divorced families. I came to realize that in our church family, the divorce rate is extremely low compared to society.’ I think that when we come to realize such things, we are satisfied and want to keep our family close and live a harmonious life.

Mom: We always speak kind words for our family members so that there may be love in the family, the love of a couple, the love of parents, the love of brothers and sisters, in this family. We feel that what we learn through life itself is not something we can teach or learn somewhere else. These children, whether they liked it or not, grew up together and learned together. That’s what we feel as parents. No matter how harsh the world is, I want to live a good life. If you live a good life, the end will be good. So, as long as we live with kindness, we can feel that Heaven is always with us wherever we are. God is with us even now. Feeling and receiving these blessings, we cannot deny our True Parents. Because that’s how we met, so the children actually can’t go anywhere else, they are the product of this amazing Blessing and life.

I am always grateful for that. I like my husband. I want my children to have many children. Because I know how pleasant it is, I want my children to feel that too. What I want to say to my children is to live a good life, and when you get blessed, remember that having many children is a blessing.

Family Together: You are a blessing!