Parental Love

I. Introduction

II. Ask audience questions (class interactions) with show of hands.

A. How many are parents?
B. How many have children?

III. How long should Parental Love last?

A. How many years?
1. Parents grow cold in terms of feelings?
2. The answer is "yes."
B. Give example of marriage to display term.

IV. Unselfish love towards children.

A. We do not fall out of love with our children.

V. Use of imagination to try to make the audience understand.

A. Pour out our hearts to children.
1. By teaching.
2. By serving.
3. By hugging.
4. By loving.
B. Never subjected the children to even a single moment of ill temper.

C. Standard of unselfish love.

1. Surpass all:
a. Saints.
b. Good people of history.
D. Children respond with a beautiful heart of love.
1. Parents and children think alike.
2. Parents and children understand each other.

VI. Do we want to continue our heart and love?

A. We want to be with our children for eternity.

1. How do we know that this is true?
a. Parents whose children die.
i. Parents grieve over their dead children.
B. This does not mean that children want to live with their parents in the same
house.
1. This means that parents and children feel joy.

VII. God created an after-life.

A. Nature of parents to live for eternity with their children.

1. Not logical for God to create us and then have us disappear

B. To be free and relate to others

C. Have many different names by different religions.

1. Denoted as the "Spiritual World."
a. An example would be the movie "Ghost."

VIII. Parental love affected by the knowledge of "Spiritual World."

A. We want to see the children again after we physically die.

IX. Conclusion

A. Relationships of unselfish love are eternal.

B. Parental love is part of eternal relationships.
 Appendix: Parental Love is Eternal

How long should parental love last? After we have poured out our heart to our children, for ten,
twenty, or thirty years? Should we grow cold in our feelings toward them?

It is simple to answer that by asking ourselves if at the height of our new love for our children,
when they are young; we would like to love them forever. Of course the answer is "yes." It is
rather like couples when they enter into marriage. It would be quite odd if two people said to
each other, on the way to the alter, ""Now Rudolph, now Matilda, remember - this is only for a
month. After that we won't love each other at all."

We don't plan to fall out of love with our spouse, and don't plan to become estranged from our
children. Rather, our fervent hope is that our love will become more and more burning, more
and more passionate and unselfish.

Imagine that we have poured out our hearts to our children, teaching, serving, hugging, and
loving for many years. Imaging that we have never subjected the children to even a single
moment of ill temper. Imagine that we have loved our children with a standard of unselfish love
that surpassed all the saints and good people of history. We have expressed our love fully and
completely. Our heart toward each of the children is totally committed and pure, with no feeling
of anger or resentment. Imagine that our children have responded with a beautiful heart of love.
They love us profoundly, to the point where our children and we almost think alike. They
understand our hearts completely, and we experience a vibration between us that resonates with
joy.

Would we want our relationship of heart or love with our children to continue from the point on,
forever and ever?

We want to be together with our children for eternity! How do we know that this is true? Ask
anyone whose child has died. If the parents don't want to stay with their children, then why do
the parents grieve?

This does not mean that the parents and children would necessarily want to live in the same
house. Although, then again, they might. What it does mean is that the bond of the heart and
love would be so strong that the parents and children would truly feel joy to see each other. In
that sense, they would feel joy to simply "be together."

This one fact may be the best evidence that God has created an after-life for us to live in. It is the
nature of parents that they want to live for eternity with their children. It is not logical that God
would create us to be his children of unselfish love, invest himself in the creation, care for us
throughout our lives, and then simply have us "disappear" at the age of eighty four, gone for
good. Erased from existence.

Instead, it is much more "heartistically logical" that he would create a realm where we could
freely relate to each other, our children, and to God. That realm has been called by many names
by many different religions. Perhaps the simplest way to describe it would be the "Spiritual
World." People, of all denomination are becoming intensely interested in the topics of life-after-
death. Hence, movies such as Ghost, with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, are very popular.

Even though life after death is still an unknown realm, isn't it true that our vision about parental
love is affected by the knowledge that the spiritual world exists? After a lifetime of loving our
children, we have at least the glimmering of hope that we will see them again and love again,
after we physically die.

This has a tremendous impact on our hearts. Our love for our children becomes focused on an
eternal relationship. With that time frame to work with our perspectives about the value of love
deepens and broadens.

Based upon this view that relationships of unselfish love are eternal and are of the highest value,
an action and viewpoint will be influenced. It will become even clearer to us that parental love is
part of an eternal relationship. A relationship that will bring us far more joy than any material
stimuli. This type of value system will create an impact on our lives, the lives of our children,
and the lives of everyone around us.