If there is a person who makes 365 days of one year into victorious days and live a grateful life, that person can feel that a life with a relationship to God is a truly worthy life. A person living such a life will experience such things, and therefore surely he will live his whole life in gratitude. Even when the person is in the situation of death, his grateful heart toward God will remain.
The Way of Public Leaders, p. 209. (Japanese edition)
The importance of “a life of gratitude” can be said to be the ultimate counsel from self-help books or a therapist. There may be many people who have been healed through such advice.
True Father preached the importance of “showing gratitude to God” for people of faith. If you can spend 24 hours a day living, being, and having gratitude together with God, the parent, your heart will remain cherished for eternity.
Of course, a life of faith is not all roses. There will be many times when you encounter difficult challenges. There are times when God will give you an ordeal that can be providential or a trial to clear indemnity, and at other times He will prepare obstacles for you to overcome so that He may raise you up.
This is when we are asked about the fruits of a life of gratitude. As long as you can accept any challenge with gratitude, it will give you courage and the hope to keep on. Satan cannot penetrate a grateful heart, so a grateful heart is also a great weapon to protect yourself as person of faith.
True Mother always stresses gratitude
My motto in life is ‘How can I live today with more gratitude than yesterday?’ I have tried to live a life in which I am more grateful today than I was yesterday, and in which I will be even more grateful tomorrow than I am today. It has been my life’s goal to have gratitude in my heart every day. Right before True Father left for Danbury, he said, ‘Please never complain. You should be grateful for the position you have been placed in, for when you become completely one through your gratitude, great miracles can take place.
Chambumo Gyeong: The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk, p. 1,560.
True Mother spoke these words 10 days after True Father was imprisoned at Danbury Prison (July 31, 1984). I would like to express my heartfelt respect to True Mother who spoke of the importance of gratitude at a time she was going through great heartache. I believe she is able to lead children and brothers and sisters, who cry out in tears, so that they can overcome challenges with gratitude because she has overcome many trials while cherishing “gratitude to God, the parent” as the slogan of her life. That moment was one where hope and unity was brought to a Belvedere that was filled with tears centered on True Mother.
In Reverend Sa Gil-ja’s diary (36 couple, ascended in 2019), there are many words given by True Father when he left for Danbury.
When I asked“God, what next do you have in store for us?, He responded to me “humanity will take your side.” …This is why when I overcome this hill, a united group of people from all over the world will be waiting for me. Therefore, I believe that the path I am taking is the path of hope. I am setting out on a path of hope and joy.
The Providence in America Centered Around Danbury, p. 184. (Japanese edition)
When he went to prison, True Father considered it a holy mission of liberating hell, and came out of it alive. He was able to transform the way of the cross to one of gratitude and hope, with the hope that a new world was waiting beyond the difficult mountain pass. Satan had no choice but to retreat from Father’s presence, who overcame the ordeal with a heart of “gratitude.”
Reality is that both True Father and True Mother have always stood at the forefront of the providence as the vanguard, and we have continued to follow while looking at their backs.
It is easy for us to complain about our condition, environment and situation, but True Parents’ lives have taught us that the first thing we need under any circumstance is a heart of gratitude.
We are about to cross a big providential milestone in 2022. True Mother is leading the way and she will continue to push forward, no matter what, with an unchanging heart backed by the slogan of “gratitude.” Let us also push forward together with her as children without losing our sense of gratitude.
