faith

Love Stimulates Love

Posted on by jptanabe

“What’s wrong with the world…People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas.”
This is from the song “Where Is the Love?” by the Black Eyed Peas.

On each trip to the library, I pick up a few books on marriage and relationships. This has always been for me the most interesting topic as life is all about relationships. if we can get the fundamental relationship of husband and wife going strong and the family is well, then all will be well.

In his book Family First, Dr. Phil shares that he has an obligation to protect and care for his family. He and his wife made a pledge to each other and their family, reporting to God in prayer.

The other book I picked was the The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts, by Judith S. Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee. They said that one in two marriages ends in divorce, and one in three children can expect to experience their parents’ divorce. The bride and groom themselves may question why they should marry, since it’s likely to break up.

To continue from The Good Marriage, the authors convey that even happily married men and women can get depressed, lose jobs; they cry, yell, get frustrated; they come from sad, abusive neglectful backgrounds as well as from stable families. All marriages are haunted from things of the past.

Marriage counselors like to tell their clients that there are at least six people in every marital bed: the couple and both sets of parents.

My favorite book this month is by Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages. The title of his book is Love as a Way of Life.

Chapman said that his marriage radically changed after he asked his wife three questions every day:

1. What can I do to help you today?
2. How can I make your life easier?
3. How can I be a better husband to you?

He said when he asked these questions, his wife gave the answers with no reluctance. Her answers taught him how to express love to her in meaningful ways. Within a month, he saw a change in his wife’s attitude towards him. Within three months, she was willing to ask him those three questions in return. Their relationship took a positive turn. “Love always stimulates love.”

Chapman also mentioned that they gave each other complete access to computers, cell phones, and financial records. Being an open book to each other like this means not hiding anything, not cheating. It is better to share everything for protection, and be together in everything. He emphasized that no other man could treat his wife as well as he does. He believes he needed divine help in order to make love as a way of life.

I was very thrilled this month when my editor announced she transcribed sixteen tapes of Dietrich’s classes on Marriage and Family. Without God things become quickly impossible and hopeless! Dietrich was a theologian first and foremost. And second, he has the same dream as God, our Heavenly Parent, to make an eternal relationship with one’s spouse and God together. I have to say as his wife he did an excellent job!

The Pain Traveling Through Our Family Line

Posted on by jptanabe

A long time ago I had a good medical doctor, Dr. Teubl. By good I mean caring, welcoming, listening well, loving, emphatic, hopeful, with faith in God and prayerful. The moment you entered his office you sensed the good vibes! The good doctor was a family man, he had eight kids so he could understand all characters and personalities as he was being trained at home.

This good doctor said to me that we can overcome in one generation those problems inherited from seven previous generations. So, the remedy he gave me was a Bible verse to repeat every day. Because you see my problem was emotional not physical. I was born just at the end of World War Two, and my mom who was carrying me lived in anxiety. She had lost the previous child because the midwife happened to be drunk.

I read the following quote online:

Pain travels through family lines until someone is ready to heal it in themselves. By going through the agony of healing you no longer pass the poison chalice onto the generation that follows, it is incredibly important and sacred work.

Doctors often ask about your family history to understand your potential health situation, so we inherit the good and not so good. in today’s modern medicine there are so many different modes of healing: plants, herbs, homeopathy, energy healing, family constellation healing, spiritual healing, angels healing, prayer healing etc. Statistics have shown that a person who is prayed for heals faster, a person who goes to church can add seven years to their life.

Letting go of old stuff like toxic emotions, letting go of toxic shows, letting go of trauma, we need to break the chain. In vibrational healing it is possible even to remove stuck spiritual entities from our cells and raise our vibrations and replenish our energy through prayers, choosing good things, reconnecting with nature. Positive grateful thoughts raise our vibrations. 

Since my husband was a theologian, we talked often about the sins of our ancestors and how we wished to heal all of them during our lifetime, that all generations to come will be healthy and free!

I like these quotes from Hak Ja Han Moon, Mother of Peace, about healing the pain of our ancestors:

Besides bringing the word of God, during my tours I conducted ceremonies to liberate the spirits of those whose lives had been sacrificed. The True Parents’ victory upon the earth has opened the gates of resurrection in the spirit world. The members in Austria, in the spring of 2018, carried out such a ceremony. If you follow the Danube River west from Vienna for about two hours, you come to the village of Mauthausen. Amid its beautiful scenery is a visitors’ center in front of a depressing and sinister-looking building. That building with its towering walls of thick, gray brick brings on tears of bitter grief, for during the Second World War it was a concentration camp. There, the Nazis incarcerated Jews and many others. Many of the almost 200,000 people that passed through Mauthausen met miserable deaths. What remains are not relics from 70 years ago. The true pain one feels there is that of the spirit persons who are stuck in that prison, trapped in their resentment. They can resurrect only after the True Parents of healing and hope can console them and alleviate their bitter resentment and sadness. ~ Hak Ja Han Moon, Mother of Peace, 2020, page 219

Holding onto the frame of the Door of No Return, I shed tears, along with the mayor of Gorée and everyone present, as I prayed for Africa to be freed from the pain and resentment caused by slavery. Liberating those who have ascended differs from comforting those who are alive on earth. Both are possible through the earnest prayer of God’s only begotten Daughter, who carries the mission to save humanity. Facing the silent, grieving walls of the Slave House, I forever broke the miserable chains of Africa’s oppression. ~ Hak Ja Han Moon, Mother of Peace, 2020, page 293

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

Love and Life

Posted on by jptanabe

I enjoyed reading “Love & Life” by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

She said that security in marriage comes from fulfilling the vows you made “To Love, honor, and cherish.” She also advises that repairing marriages is better that ending them. Children grow up best with a married daddy and mommy.

Finally, she said that if you want to improve your marriage:

  • Do not say anything to your husband that is not sweet
  • No bitching
  • No complaining
  • No whining
  • No nagging

Instead, be a girlfriend to your husband because girlfriends know boyfriends leave if this situation happens.

In my situation when I got married, I was dysfunctional. Dysfunctional because of my inheritance – spiritual or character traits accumulated in my ancestry that were not necessarily the best, my upbringing, my experiences in life, my shortcomings, my inadequacies to handle conflicts etc…my too strong emotions.

My husband Dietrich often said to me that I was irrational, or “Oh! You are so emotional!”

In my opinion, Dietrich was also dysfunctional. He did not know what to do with me when “I was irrational.” He also came to our marriage with stuff. He was not aware of the stuff he was carrying around.

We did not know how to deal with conflicts the best way at the time. We were both dysfunctional trying to make a happy ending with our relationship. Was it an impossible dream to come together?

We did three things:

1. We educated ourselves on how to resolve conflicts by taking marriage seminars

My husband wrote his doctoral dissertation on marriage and family.

2. We served and loved our parents

Dietrich intentionally and actively loved and served my dad and mom.

I was smart enough to know that a successful relationship with Dietrich was to absolutely reconcile with his German father, and unite with his mother. This I did with much difficulty, because as I said before our marriage was between two enemy nations. Through loving his parents, I loved his inheritance, his ancestors.

3. We had unshakable faith

Our secret weapon for both of us was our absolute faith in God, our Heavenly Parent. Because of our faith, the impossible became possible. He was persistent not to be deterred by any conflict. I loved it when my husband said, “I love you no matter what.” I was stubborn to cling to God, our Heavenly Parent. We never let go of our dream to be true love partners forever.

So, from dysfunctional we became workable, to wonderful, to true love partners for ever, finally to a sacred heavenly bond.

Over the course of our forty years of married life together, we learned to forgive, to love, to honor, and to cherish. We became eternal love partners, Beloveds, forever together.

If we could do it, you can too! Elisabeth Seidel

God’s Problem Solvers

Posted on by jptanabe

We Blessed Couples who have received the Holy Marriage Blessing are God’s problem solvers.
 
People are suffering here on earth. There is so much dysfunction and division. Sin is an addiction for most people. We are here every day to solve problems.
 
I remember when my husband, Dietrich, was counseling couples, he could always think of a remedy for their different difficult situations:

  • The first one was always to keep faith.  
  • The second one, go to church together. This acts like a protection. We always need protection every single day of our life.
  • Then, always pray together. This is our anchor, our stabilizer. Our assurance for Heavenly Parent to be with us.  

I do not like to eat alone. I know for sure my husband does not like to eat alone either.
Now that Dietrich is no longer with me on the earth, I wish I could just see him next to me again.
 
In fact, we Blessed Couples are supposed to open up the communication between the two worlds. Even though we are not mediums, we can talk by feelings, sending loving thoughts, and receiving joyful impressions.
 
Sharing heartfelt sorrows rejuvenates our spirit of love, because we need to function as a couple in two different worlds, always together. As Dietrich said “Beloveds, forever together.” This way we continue to be God’s problem solvers.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

L’espoir fait vivre

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When my daughter Diesa was in her early twenties, she planned a trip to Haiti to lead a camp for a young girls’ basketball program called “Raise her” in January 2010.

Arriving in Haiti she met the amazing Dr. Renee who created the Haitian Academy, with whom she would work on her program for the girls. One day, as she was waiting in one of the classrooms for the next group of girls who were late, all of a sudden she had an intuition, a gut feeling, an impulse out of the blue to grab her bag and get out as fast as she could.

At that moment of stepping out, she felt as if a big truck was rolling after her as the buildings started crumbling around her. It was the big Haitian earthquake which hit the island. Because she intuitively recognized God’s premonition she could be safe. Soon after that episode, Dr Renee drove the school bus with Diesa to check on the casualties and bring people to the hospital, as much as they could. It was untold hardship to hear people screaming under buildings. At this point Diesa was drafted to the hospital, where she was attending patients and putting her hand to things she had never done before, like putting a cast on someone, or encouraging people with words when no medicine could be found.

From left: Diesa with girls from the Haitian Academy (school), Top right: Diesa with one of the girls who attended the basketball camp, Bottom: January 2010 (days after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince)

She said it was amazing how people responded to words of care, of love, of reassurance, words of comfort, of hope: “You will be OK, you are tough, you will make it.” Men, women and children were grabbing her arm or hand, or leg, thinking she was the American doctor, who could do everything and anything and with her around they would be OK; they would be safe. In Haiti, their motto is: l’espoir fait vivre – Hope brings life.

As for me at home, seeing and hearing the horrific news on television about the devastating earthquake, and trying to keep my husband away from the news, I did not hear from my daughter. During the longest 48 hours of my life, my dear friend Inge was with me, trying also to make sense of it all, and she kept saying to me, “She is tough, she is strong, she will make it,” doing with me what Diesa was doing at the hospital.

Finally, Diesa could find a computer and email us a message which said:

I am ok!!! Be strong and courageous, and do not be afraid or discouraged, for the lord God, my God is with you (1 Cor 28:20). I am using internet at a missionary s house which only works sometimes. No cell services anywhere. Please tell my mom I am OK. I love you all. Pray for Haiti. We need medical help. Hospitals collapsed.

As I was finishing writing this story this morning, I read in one of my emails a friend of mine quoting John F. Kennedy, one of our past presidents, who closed his inaugural address with these words:

With a good conscience, our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking HIS blessing and HIS help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

Be safe, be home, be tough.
Blessings from your friend, Elisabeth

Faith and Love and Forgiveness

Posted on by jptanabe

If we have faith, believing the unbelievable, if we have love, loving the unlovable, and if we have the ability to forgive, Jesus said seventy times seven times, then our life will be worth living and meaningful.

Any act of love, of kindness, will make our credit in our bank of love go up. My husband always said, let’s make sure our love credit is high then in times of hardship and struggle we have already a high credit.

An act of love and kindness makes my heart melt. A couple of weeks ago as I was taking my daily walk around the neighborhood, a lady who lives on the next street stopped me. She had just parked her car and was unloading her bags. She asked if I was celebrating Christmas. I said, yes of course. Then she said she had a gift for me. I was surprised because I never met her before. She said it was from the heart – from her heart to mine – she wanted to buy me a special gift. It was a beautiful silvery heart for Christmas decoration. She said that when she sees me walking, she thinks of our story that she read in the local newspaper. Then she gave me a hug.

This is the beautiful heart my neighbor gave me as a gift.

Unexpected encounter that brings Christmas joy. Random acts of kindness that make the heart melt. Did not Jesus say to love our neighbors like ourselves?

And a gift to ourselves: to forgive, because when we cannot forgive, we have grudges. Grudges are no good for anybody, especially the people who hold them. They bubble up and then fester, fester, fester. So, we need to let go.

We do not let go of the truth, or the right, or the seven virtues, but the arrows which came in our direction and wounded us. Time and forgiveness are the greatest healers of all.

So, this Christmas season let’s all make gifts of love, believing the unbelievable things, loving the unlovable, and praying for the ability to forgive all the hurts we received that could not heal until today, because today we are making a wish: We have the ability to forgive.

Here is the link to the newspaper on their website, where the article is seen beginning on the front page.

Hudson River View December 2018