Faith & Life

To Start Your Communication, Acknowledge Your Family Members the Way They Are

A daughter-in-law made soy sauce while her mother-in-law was sick. She did exactly the way her mother-in-law showed her, but it didn’t taste as good as her mother-in-law’s soy sauce. She had no idea what was wrong, so she asked her mother-in-law for help. Then the sick mother-in-law listened to her patiently and got up, saying, “I think I know what went wrong.” Her eyes were brighter than ever before, and she looked lively. How could the sick mother-in-law positively help her daughter-in-law who asked her what she thought went wrong with the soy sauce she made? It was because the daughter-in-law acknowledged her mother-in-law’s skill of making soy sauce. Some people become dispirited when they become old though they…

Language Habits to Be Thrown Away

All people want others to listen to what they say, and want to have a good conversation. Sound Expert Julian Treasure says that there are seven bad speaking habits you need to avoid if you want people to listen to you. The first bad habit is gossiping. We must remember that if we engage in gossip, we can make others to start gossiping about us. The second is judging. How would you feel if another person judges you? The third is being negative. Negative words make it hard for others to listen. The fourth is complaining. Complaints make your life a misery. The fifth is making excuses. People avoid the person who puts blame on someone else, not taking any…

As Long As You Do Not Give Up

Through my older brother, I heard about the truth and was born again into a new life, but that was all. I have not contacted the Zion members for years. However, when I started a new job, God allowed me to contact again through a sister who was employed in the same department. The sister preached the word of God at work with confidence. When I saw the sister with confidence and boldness, I was so amazed. I had never even thought of someone in my age knowing God in detail and telling people about the Bible without hesitation. On my way home, I saw the sister on the same bus. I asked her where she was heading, and she…

Victoria Dhedadig from Sydney, Australia

Roberto Clemente Award

Roberto Clemente was a leading hitter of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Major League Baseball for nearly twenty years. He regularly donated baseball equipment and food for poverty-stricken children of his native country, Puerto Rico, and of Central America. On December 23, 1972, when a major earthquake struck Nicaragua in Central America, Roberto sent relief goods for the victims twice. When he heard that local officials were pocketing the relief goods, he loaded more than two tons of relief goods into a plane and headed directly to the stricken area. Unfortunately, the old airplane loaded with too much stuff exploded as soon as it took off. The Major League Baseball enacted the "Roberto Clemente Award" to honor his charitable activities…

Making Gimbap

I liked eating gimbap when I was young. On a picnic or sports day, my mom always made gimbap for me. So I took it for granted that I should eat gimbap on a special day. Time passed, and I became a mother. I, too, decided to make gimbap on the day of my child’s picnic as my mom did. But for the first time, I realized that it’s not easy to make gimbap. I shopped for groceries the day before, trimmed the ingredients, woke up at dawn on the day of the picnic to cook rice and fry ham, fish cake, carrots, and eggs. After preparing all the ingredients, I finally challenged making gimbap. I spread cooked rice thinly…

Kim Yu-ra from Suwon, South Korea

Between Stimulus and Response

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist who was confined in the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II and survived with his indomitable will, left these words in his book. To put it plainly, let us suppose this case: On a sunny day, you are driving a car pleasingly to go on a family picnic, but a car following behind you suddenly gets in the way at the front. You can either get irritated and upset or you can just ignore. It is up to you to decide whether you will spoil your…

Benefits of Tribulation

One of the methods to grow tomatoes is pricking the fruit with a needle when it just produces the fruit. Then it takes nutrient from the root to heal the wound; while doing that, it can be more resistant to disease and insects, and produce a nutritional fruit. Proper tribulation is not bad for humans, too; rather it is useful when we think of our whole life. While struggling to overcome the tribulation, we come to have a strong will power, and after getting it over, we can feel thrilled and find the meaning of life. This is why youth treatment programs, which let adolescents experience a certain amount of hardships, increase these days; it’s because in our society adolescents…

Pink Lens Effect

When you fall in love, dopamine is secreted from the brain’s nucleus, and you feel much joy and happiness. Naturally, there will be liveliness and more smiles on your face and the world looks bright and beautiful. As you feel good, you will become generous even with the matters you usually got annoyed or irritated with. You do not see the disadvantages of the loved one but see only good things. This phenomenon is called the pink lens effect in psychology. Just like you wear pink glasses, the person you love looks adorable no matter what he or she does. How good would it be if the glasses were not taken off forever? The validity period of the pink lens…

Love & Unity

I heard the news that we would have a Worldwide Blood Drive to Give Life Through the Love of the Passover. Just in time, it was my class-free day, so I joined it. Since it was a good opportunity to share God’s love, I willingly showed my intent to participate in it, but I was a little afraid. I’d never donated blood before, and when I thought of blood donation, all I could think of was a cold, scary needle. At the event, thanks to the members who welcomed me with smiles from the entrance, I could relax. I went into the bloodmobile, encouraged by the members’ cheer. I was afraid for a moment, but encouraged, seeing the members donating…

Goh Na-young from Busan, South Korea

The Reason Robert Marchand Raced

Robert Marchand, known as the living legend of aged cyclist was born in France in 1911 and went through two World Wars. For his living, he job-hopped—firefighter, truck driver, logger, etc. When he was sixty-eight years old, he started to dream of becoming a cyclist. In order to achieve his goal, Robert Marchand enjoyed eating fruits and vegetables and practiced for one hour every day. He even made sure to live a well-regulated life by going to bed at 9 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. In 2017, he went out for competitive cycling at the age of 105 and set a new world record in his age group. When a reporter asked him how he felt about cycling,…

Treat Your Family Gently As You Do to Your Customers!

When you go to a restaurant for a meal or when you enter a store to buy something, if shop assistants give a warm welcome to you, you will feel very good. Even if you are not so satisfied with a product, you may sometimes buy it because of the kindness of a sales assistant. Thus, kindness is powerful, then why don’t you regard your family as your customers and treat them as gently as possible this month? It is not as easy as it sounds to be always kind to your family. Sometimes, when you are upset, when you are ill, or when you care about other things, you may bluntly speak and act. Because of this, you may…

A Small Good Deed, Big Touching Waves

The day before our cleanup, there was a heavy rain. We were worried that it was going to continue raining and make it hard for us to carry out our cleanup. However, it stopped raining and the skies were very clear the next day. We gathered at the cleanup venue with bright faces. The Taguatinga Park is in an area with a large floating population. This probably explains why there are so many cigarettes, snack wrappers, and big and small trash from the stores in the street. We divided teams to clean around the fountain, in the flower beds, streets, etc. We picked up trash even in the parts that people couldn’t reach because they were covered with thorn bushes…

The Brasilia Church in Brazil

The Miracle of the Team in the Last Place

An English football club of which the transfer fee of all 11 players in total is less than half of the transfer fee of one player in a prestigious club; 14th place during the 2014–2015 season at the Premier League champions, 19th place in the following seasons, and 0.02% of winning rate; it is Leicester City FC, the poorest club in the professional football world, where capital is led to championship. At the moment when the winner of the 2015–2016 Premier League was declared, they hugged each other in cheers because Leicester City FC was the champion. How could this miraculous thing happen? According to the analysis by football experts, Leicester City players lagged behind the prestigious teams in terms…

No Matter How Much You Have

Charles F. Feeney, known as a rich Irish American, has kept his promise to return all his property to society by donating $7 million to his alma mater, Cornell University. The total amount of contribution he made over the past 35 years reaches $8 billion. Media once criticized him as a cool-tempered person who was crazed about money, but he established a charitable foundation long time ago and has been steadfast in his good work, never showing what he did. If his business didn’t get involved in a dispute and the accounts had not been disclosed, his tremendous donation would have been kept secret until the end. He is now living in a rental apartment with his wife, enjoying his…

Mother’s Prayer That Leads Me to Life

On the earth, God creates life. Human mothers carry their children before they are finally given life. In that time, the children can hear and know their mothers’ voices even before they are born, though they have never met them. I realize this is the same with Heavenly Mother and our spiritual life. I am certain that it is no coincidence that Mother gave me birth, prays for me, and thinks of me. Even before I was born on the earth, Mother was with me, guiding my entire life, and finally led me to Her. For this, I am so thankful and I would like to share my fragrance of Zion regarding this. When I was eight or so, I…

Lachae Garrine Berrien from New Windsor, NY, U.S.

In the Same Daily Routine

Are you bored and tired of your repetitive daily life? In a survey conducted by a job portal site, the most skeptical moment for employees is when they feel that the same routine is repeated every day. If you continue to do the same thing day after day just like a squirrel running on a wheel, you sometimes get tired and bored. But changing your mind will change your life. A sushi master chef who has made sushi for over 60 years has said, “The way to become a master is to repeat the same thing every day.” If you keep doing one thing, you will become a master or a great expert in the field. Competence is not built…

Learning from a Plant

Gang Hee-an, who was a representative writer and painter in the early years of Joseon Dynasty, was also good at gardening. In his book, Yanghwa Sorok, he recorded the properties of plants and cultivation methods, which he discovered while raising plants. This book, which has the information about sixteen plants such as chrysanthemum, sweet flag and orchid, can stand comparision with the book that teaches fine character of men. Gang Hee-an says that the purpose of growing flowers and plants is to cultivate the heart, throw away arrogant mind, and strive after virtue; we should learn unwavering integrity from pine tree, the way to lead a quiet life from chrysanthemum, and dignity from plum flower. And he also emphasizes the…

Men and Women Are So Different, but That’s What Makes More Harmony!

The book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus has been one of the best sellers ever since it was published. The book introduces an interesting idea of how men and women are different in their characters and their ways of thinking because they are from different planets. It also explains how men and women feel and think differently, which has elicited public sympathy. Actually, even people of the same gender sometimes have problems understanding each other. There is a conflict between a mom and a daughter, a dad and a son, a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. So we cannot jump to a conclusion that the cause of misunderstandings is a gender difference. Moreover, it is not right to…

Uncomfortable Happiness

When an opponent team made a mistake in an athletic match, when a boss I dislike was scolded by his boss, when a friend in a similar grade mismarked answer sheets, when a hotshot politician’s corruption was exposed, or when my rival was gossiped... we may find pleasures in them rather than feeling bad for them. Everyone might have experienced this. Dr. Richard H. Smith, a professor of psychology in the U.S., defines the pleasure derived from the misfortune of others as Schadenfreude. He says this is human nature which comes from an idea that when people around us have bad luck, we look better. So he recommends we should refrain from it because if this mentality persists, we may…

Mother’s Love to a Dry Land

The land of Spain at the western end of the European continent was where Apostle Paul, who went out for several preaching trips, was unable to reach. We went on a preaching trip to Barcelona in Spain by adding our passion to Paul’s earnestness. We made a resolution before leaving, but the wall of reality was high. We couldn’t find anyone interested in the matters about the soul or God because the people of Spain were enjoying their life well supported by their social welfare system without any lacks. First day, second day, third day⋯. We haven’t met a person paying attention to the words of God even after a week. We got tired little by little. A member showed…

Kang Min-jeong from Daegu, South Korea