By Floyd Refulle, The Philippines

I was born into a poor family, with seven children. One of my brothers is disabled and unable to walk or speak. My father is a farmer, and my mother washes clothes for a living. Although life was difficult for us, our parents loved us very much, and they did their best to provide and care for us. I was often sick when I was young, and among the seven of us, Mom cared for me the most. When I was sick, she would do everything she could to treat me, and she’d always try to find ways to make sure my needs were met. Though there wasn’t much money for my schooling, she’d borrow money from neighbors. From then on, I told myself that I had to earn a lot of money when I grew up to repay my parents and help our family escape poverty. So I studied really hard, even studying until 2 a.m. to make sure I got good grades. I didn’t let my parents down, and my academic performance was always excellent.

In 2019, when I entered university, I applied for a scholarship, which reduced the financial burden on my parents. I initially wanted to become a lawyer, as it would provide a pretty high salary, and this would allow my parents to live a better life, but our family didn’t have enough money to pay for my law studies, so I chose to become a teacher. Though the salary wasn’t very high, it was a stable income, and crucially it allowed me to stay close to home to care for my parents. Later, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and many people who got infected died. I felt very anxious, worrying about the safety of myself and my family. During that time, I developed GERD and also had a fever, and I was really anxious. Because of my illness, I couldn’t go to school. On December 5, 2020, God’s salvation in the last days came to me. I knew the Lord Jesus has returned, and that He has expressed the truth and is doing new work to purify and save humanity. I also understood that catastrophes are in God’s hands, and that those who sincerely believe in God and pursue the truth will be protected by Him, while those who do evil and resist God will fall into catastrophes and be punished. I was overjoyed to welcome the return of the Lord Jesus, and I no longer worried about whether I would get infected or fall into catastrophes. After a while, my condition improved greatly.

Later, I did my duty of hosting online group gatherings, and due to the pandemic, I attended classes online, so this didn’t affect my duty. A year later, I began to preach the gospel. Since there were many people to preach the gospel to, my class schedule kept conflicting with my preaching schedule, I couldn’t balance my studies and duty at the same time, and over time, this caused dissatisfaction among my teachers. I knew this wasn’t a long-term solution, and after careful thought, I decided I no longer wanted to attend school, because I felt that preaching the gospel was meaningful. Every time I preached the gospel and I saw potential gospel recipients smile upon hearing God’s voice, I felt very happy. This was something I never felt when I was studying at school. So I wanted to stop my studies and devote all my time to doing my duty of preaching the gospel. But honestly, this was a very difficult decision for me because I still wanted to become a teacher so that I could earn money to support my family and give them a good life. If I stopped my studies, I wouldn’t be able to find a good job, so I was very hesitant. One day I read God’s words: “As members of the human race and devout Christians, it is the responsibility and obligation of us all to offer up our minds and bodies for the fulfillment of God’s commission, for our entire being came from God, and it exists thanks to the sovereignty of God. If our minds and bodies are not dedicated to God’s commission and the just cause of mankind, then our souls will feel ashamed before those who were martyred for God’s commission, and much more ashamed before God, who has provided us with everything” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 2: God Holds Sovereignty Over the Fate of All Mankind). “Awaken, brothers! Awaken, sisters! My day will not be delayed; time is life, and to take back time is to save life! The time is not far off! If you fail the college entrance examination, you can study for it again and again. However, My day will not be further delayed. Remember! Remember! These are My kind words of exhortation. The end of the world has unfolded before your very eyes, and the great catastrophe will soon arrive. Which is more important: your life, or your sleep, your food and drink and clothing? The time has come for you to weigh these things! Doubt no longer! You’re too afraid to take these things seriously, aren’t you?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 30). “Keep watch! Keep watch! Time lost will never come again—remember this! There is no medicine in the world that cures regret! So, how should I speak to you? Is My word not worthy of your careful, repeated consideration?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 30). God reminds us to make the right choices while there’s still time. At that point, I was in my third year, and it would take another year to finish my studies. But God’s work waits for no one. The great catastrophes have already begun, and we have little time left to do our duties to prepare good deeds. If I kept pursuing worldly things, I would lose my chance to pursue the truth and receive salvation. Time is tight, and it’s crucial that we do our duties at this final critical moment. I thought it over again and again, and decided to do my duties. Moreover, I am a created being, and preaching the gospel and doing my duties are my responsibilities and obligations. God is now doing new work to save humanity, and many people still don’t know. I have the responsibility to preach the gospel to those who are longing for God’s return. That evening, I decided to dedicate myself to doing my duties full-time. I told my mom my thoughts, and she shook her head in shock and said, “What? Are you crazy? You’re almost done with your studies; why change your mind now? You’re our family’s only hope. What will happen to your future if you don’t continue studying?” I calmly replied, “Mom, I have already testified to you about God’s work of the last days. Now the catastrophes are growing, and many people still don’t know that God has returned and is doing new work. If I don’t preach the gospel and testify about God, I will disappoint Him, and many people won’t be able to receive God’s salvation.” After I said that, my mom burst into tears and said, “I don’t oppose your faith, but I’ve never heard that God wants you to stop studying. And besides, you have a scholarship of 20,000 pesos per semester; are you really going to give that up? Not everyone has the opportunity to receive a scholarship. I just can’t understand your choice.” Hearing that my mom disagreed with my decision, I felt very discouraged, but my desire to dedicate myself to my duties full-time remained unwavering. In the end, I still went to do my duties.

In September 2022, I was elected as a gospel supervisor and went to many towns to preach the gospel. Nine months later, I contacted my family, and they told me that they were almost out of money for food and for medicine for my disabled brother. I felt terrible, and I really wanted to go back and help them, and I worried that if I didn’t work and didn’t go back to help them, my parents’ lives would become even harder. During that time, I was in no mood to do my duties, and I didn’t spend time seeking the truth to resolve the problems in the gospel work, leading to a decline in the effectiveness of the gospel work. In June 2023, I told the leader that I wanted to return home to do my duties and to be with my family. Especially since I heard that my brother was sick, I really wanted to go home to care for them. A few days later, the leader agreed to let me go home and do my duties. When I first got back home, I was still able to continue doing my duties, but over time, caring for my family ended up taking a lot of my time and energy, and I even began to follow worldly trends with them. To make money, I helped my father plant vegetables in the garden, as this was our source of income. However, the harvest from the vegetables wasn’t good at that time, and in the end, we didn’t even have enough money to buy rice. My state kept getting worse. As a gospel supervisor, I was only following up on the work of the gospel workers online, so many tasks weren’t followed up on thoroughly, and gradually, the effectiveness of my duties deteriorated. Since I wasn’t doing real work, in October 2023, I was dismissed. Because I hadn’t fulfilled my duties, I felt more and more despondent, and I prayed to God, “Almighty God, I regret coming home. I feel so much pain in my heart and I feel very distant from You. Please guide me to escape from this state. Amen!”

Later, Sister Belle invited me to Carmen to testify there, and I knew that this was an opportunity from God, so I decided to do my duties. After testifying in Carmen, I returned home. Two days later, Brother Jeffrey said that the results of the gospel work where he was weren’t very good, and that he needed me to cooperate with him to testify. So I went out again to preach the gospel. My older brother found out I was going out of town to preach the gospel, and he got very angry. He immediately sent me a message, “Is this why you’re not going to school? What’s the point of being busy with your faith all the time? Can you make money from this to support the family? Our parents are already old, and they need our care. Don’t you feel guilty leaving them behind?” His words cut into my heart like a knife. My parents had grown old and didn’t have enough energy to earn money. They’d raised me, and I felt I had to repay them. I’d already given up my studies for my duty, and if this time, I couldn’t take care of them because of my duty, they’d say that I didn’t care about them as their son, and my brother might tell people in our village that I didn’t take care of my parents. Then what would they think of me? Would they think that I was unfilial? I was afraid of their criticism, and I felt really ashamed. So I replied to my brother that I would find a job and do my duty part-time. One day, I went to the field to find my dad. I saw my dad bent over, looking exhausted, and my heart was pierced with pain. My dad was already very old, and I was still young and strong, but I hadn’t helped him. My mom used to remind me that they’d had so many children because they hoped that we could take care of them when they got old, but I hadn’t done anything for them. Tears suddenly began streaming down my face. I felt so guilty and indebted to them.

Later, I opened up about my state to Sister Belle, and she sent me an experiential testimony video, entitled How to Treat a Father’s Care and Protection. I was deeply touched by a passage of God’s words quoted in it. Almighty God says: “Some people abandon their families because they believe in God and perform their duties. They become famous because of this and the government frequently searches their house, harasses their parents, and even threatens their parents to hand them over. All their neighbors talk about them, saying, ‘This person has no conscience. They don’t care for their elderly parents. Not only are they unfilial, but they also cause so much trouble for their parents. They are an unfilial child!’ Are any of these words in line with the truth? (No.) But aren’t all these words considered right in the eyes of the nonbelievers? Among nonbelievers, they think this is the most legitimate and reasonable way of looking at it, and that it is in line with human ethics, and in accordance with the standards of human conduct. No matter how much content is included in these standards, such as how to show filial respect to parents, how to take care of them in their old age and arrange their funerals, or how much to repay them, and regardless of whether these standards accord with the truth or not, in the eyes of nonbelievers, they are positive things, they are positive energy, they are right, and they are considered irreproachable within all groups of people. Among nonbelievers, these are the standards for people to live by, and you have to do these things to be an adequately good person in their hearts. Before you believed in God and understood the truth, didn’t you also firmly believe that such conduct was being a good person? (Yes.) Moreover, you also used these things to evaluate yourself and restrain yourself, and you required yourself to be this kind of person. If you wanted to be a good person, you must have surely included these things in your standards of conduct: how to be filial to your parents, how to make them feel less worried, how to bring them honor and credit, and how to bring glory to your ancestors. These were the standards of conduct in your heart and the direction of your conduct. However, after you listened to God’s words and His sermons, your viewpoint began to change, and you understood that you have to forsake everything to perform your duty as a created being, and that God requires people to conduct themselves this way. Before you were certain that performing your duty as a created being was the truth, you thought you should be filial to your parents, but you also felt you should perform your duty as a created being, and you felt conflicted inside. Through the continuous watering and shepherding of God’s words, you gradually came to understand the truth, and it was then that you realized that performing your duty as a created being is perfectly natural and justified. Up until this day, many people have been able to accept the truth and completely abandon the standards of conduct from man’s traditional notions and imaginings. When you completely let go of these things, you are no longer constrained by words of judgment and condemnation from nonbelievers when you follow God and perform your duty as a created being, and you could cast them off easily” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. What Is the Truth Reality?). God’s words exposed my exact state. I used to hear others praise me as a good kid who had good grades and who was sensible. They said that I’d be sure to get promoted and live a good life. But now, after I started doing my duty, all the neighbors were gossiping about me, and almost everyone was disappointed with the path I’d chosen. They’d always advise my parents to stop me from preaching the gospel and make me finish my studies. When I’d hear this, I’d feel a bit sad. I’d think about how I’d had only one year left to graduate, and that by giving up my studies, I hadn’t fulfilled my obligation as a son. I constantly felt that I owed my parents. After I took on my duties full-time, I still cared about my family, and when I went home and saw my father still working in the fields in particular, I felt really indebted to him, and I worried that he would say he regretted having such an unfilial child. To take care of my parents, I even planned to set aside my duty and find a job, to fulfill my responsibilities as a son. I always worried about my parents’ feelings and others’ opinions of me, but I never considered God’s intentions, or thought about how to propagate the gospel and fulfill my duty. I had no loyalty to God at all. In truth, I hadn’t fled from my responsibilities as a son. I was just leaving my parents to fulfill my duty and complete my mission. This is in accordance with God’s intentions. Sister Belle also fellowshipped with me, “The state of the world is becoming more and more tense, and there isn’t much time left for God’s work. Every day, many new videos are uploaded to the website of God’s house, all in the hope that these videos can be distributed online as soon as possible before the great catastrophes so that more people can watch them and come before God sooner. God’s heart is urgent, and it is really important for us to fulfill our duties and satisfy God during this limited time. We cannot control the future of our family, but we can pray to God, believing that whether rich or poor, everything is in God’s hands.” After hearing her fellowship, my state improved a bit. But at that time, my brother kept urging me to find a job. Feeling helpless, I thought I could go to a city where brothers and sisters are to find work, so that I’d also be able to do my duty.

Later, I met Brother Danny in another city. He was a leader who was responsible for the gospel work. That night, we had a gathering. Brother Danny asked about our states, and we read Almighty God’s words together: “What does God mean when He says that ‘God is the source of man’s life’? It is to make everyone realize this: Our lives and souls all come from God and were created by Him—they do not come from our parents, and certainly not from nature, but were given to us by God; it is just that our flesh was born of our parents, and our children are born of us, however, the fates of our children are entirely in God’s hands. That we can believe in God is an opportunity given by Him; it is ordained by Him and is His grace. There is therefore no need for you to fulfill your obligation or responsibility to anyone else; you should only fulfill the duty to God that you ought to fulfill as a created being. This is what people must do above anything else, it is the main thing and primary affair that people most ought to complete in their lives. If you do not fulfill your duty well, you are not a created being that is up to standard. In the eyes of others, you may be a good wife and loving mother, an excellent housewife, a filial child, and an upstanding member of society, but before God you are one who rebels against Him, one who has not fulfilled their obligation or duty at all, one who accepted yet did not complete God’s commission, one who gave up halfway. Can someone like this gain God’s approval? People like this are worthless” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only by Recognizing One’s Own Misguided Views Can One Truly Transform). “Is showing filial piety toward one’s parents the truth? (No, it’s not.) Being filial to one’s parents is a correct and positive thing, but why do we say that it is not the truth? (Because people do not show filial piety to their parents with principles and they are not able to discern what kind of people their parents truly are.) How a person should treat their parents relates to the truth. If your parents believe in God and treat you well, should you be filial to them? (Yes.) How are you filial? You treat them differently from brothers and sisters. You do everything they say, and if they are old, you must stay by their side to care for them, which stops you from going out to perform your duty. Is it right to do this? (No.) What should you do at such times? This depends on the circumstances. If you are still able to look after them whilst performing your duty near your home, and your parents do not object to your faith in God, then you should fulfill your responsibility as a son or daughter and help your parents with some work. If they are ill, look after them; if something is troubling them, comfort them; if your financial circumstances allow, buy them the nutritional supplements that suit your budget. However, what should you choose to do if you are busy with your duty, there is no one to look after your parents, and they, too, believe in God? What truth should you practice? Since being filial to one’s parents is not the truth, but only a human responsibility and obligation, what then should you do if your obligation conflicts with your duty? (Prioritize my duty; put duty first.) An obligation is not necessarily one’s duty. Choosing to perform one’s duty is practicing the truth, whereas fulfilling an obligation is not. If you have this condition, you may fulfill this responsibility or obligation, but if the current environment does not allow it, what should you do? You should say, ‘I must do my duty—that is practicing the truth. Being filial to my parents is living by my conscience and it falls short of the practice of the truth.’ So, you should prioritize your duty and uphold it” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. What Is the Truth Reality?). After reading God’s words, I realized that everything we have comes from God, and that our life is also a gift from God. But after we were corrupted by Satan, we didn’t recognize God’s sovereignty. We always thought that our parents gave us everything, and people always said we should be filial toward our parents, because without them, we couldn’t have been born into this world. These views always stuck with me as I grew up. I only saw how my parents raised me, but didn’t see God’s provision for me, and I was unaware that God was secretly providing everything I needed. So my love for my parents grew deeper while I neglected God’s love. Now, through God’s words, I came to understand that God allows us to live in this world to fulfill our responsibilities as created beings, not to repay our parents by being filial toward them. God is the only One we should repay. At the same time, I also understood that while being filial toward our parents isn’t wrong, it shouldn’t interfere with our duties. When we need to do our duties, we should put our duties first and entrust everything regarding our families to God. Afterward, I prayed to God, “Almighty God, it was You who saved me, and You let me meet and fellowship with brothers and sisters as soon as I came to this city. I still can’t decide whether I can do my duty full-time or not, but I am willing to submit to Your orchestrations and arrangements. Please guide me.”

The next day, Brother Danny said that Sister Madel, a leader, would soon be transferred elsewhere for her duty, and that a new leader would be needed to replace her. That evening, I was elected as a leader. I suddenly remembered the words of God I read the day before: “If you have this condition, you may fulfill this responsibility or obligation, but if the current environment does not allow it, what should you do? You should say, ‘I must do my duty—that is practicing the truth. Being filial to my parents is living by my conscience and it falls short of the practice of the truth.’ So, you should prioritize your duty and uphold it” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. What Is the Truth Reality?). I hadn’t expected to be chosen as a leader while I was looking for a job. As a leader, I’d need enough time to do this duty well. I immediately realized that God’s intention was in this, so I stopped looking for a job and chose to do my duty full-time.

Afterward, I felt somewhat worried. I’d come to this city to find a job to repay my parents. My mom always said that they raised us when they were young, and that when they grew old, we children should take care of them. But now I hadn’t found a job, and I felt that they might be really disappointed in me. I remembered God’s words: “Regarding people, no matter whether your parents looked after you meticulously or took great care of you, in any case, they were just fulfilling their responsibility and obligation. Regardless of the reason why they raised you, it was their responsibility—because they gave birth to you, they should take responsibility for you. Based on this, can everything that your parents did for you be considered kindness? It can’t, right? (That’s right.) Your parents fulfilling their responsibility to you doesn’t count as kindness, so if they fulfill their responsibility toward a flower or a plant, watering it and fertilizing it, does that count as kindness? (No.) That is even further from being kindness. Flowers and plants grow better outside—if they’re planted in the ground, with wind, sun, and rainwater, they thrive. They don’t grow as well when they’re planted in a pot indoors as they do outside, but wherever they are, they’re living, right? No matter where they are, it has been ordained by God. You are a living person, and God takes responsibility for every life, enabling it to survive, and to follow the law that all created beings abide by. But as a person, you live in the environment that your parents raise you in, so you should grow up and exist in that environment. You living in that environment is on a larger scale due to God’s ordination; on a smaller scale, it is due to your parents raising you, right? In any case, by raising you your parents are fulfilling a responsibility and an obligation. Raising you into an adult is their obligation and responsibility, and this cannot be called kindness. If it cannot be called kindness, then is it not something that you ought to enjoy? (It is.) This is a kind of right that you should enjoy. You should be raised by your parents, because before you reach adulthood, the role that you play is that of a child being brought up. Therefore, your parents are just fulfilling a kind of responsibility toward you, and you are just receiving it, but you are certainly not receiving grace or kindness from them. For any living creature, bearing and looking after children, reproducing, and raising the next generation is a kind of responsibility. For example, birds, cows, sheep, and even tigers have to take care of their offspring after they reproduce. There are no living creatures that do not raise their offspring. It’s possible that there are some exceptions, but there are not many of them. It’s a natural phenomenon in the existence of living creatures, it’s an instinct for living creatures, and it cannot be attributed to kindness. They are just abiding by a law that the Creator set out for animals and for mankind. Therefore, your parents raising you isn’t a kind of kindness. Based on this, it can be said that your parents are not your creditors. They are fulfilling their responsibility to you. No matter how much of their heart’s blood they expend for you and how much money they spend on you, they should not ask you to recompense them, because this is their responsibility as parents. Since it is a responsibility and an obligation, it should be free, and they should not ask for compensation. By raising you, your parents were just fulfilling their responsibility and obligation, and this should be unpaid, and it should not be a transaction. So, you do not need to approach your parents or handle your relationship with them according to the idea of recompensing them” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (17)). God’s words made me understand that raising offspring is a law predestined by God for all creation, just like how animals raise their young until they become independent. This is an instinct of living creatures. My parents were the same. When I was a child, my mom always took care of me patiently. She made me breakfast, worked hard to help me scrape together tuition fees, and when I was sick, she accompanied me to get treatment and took care of me the whole time. I always felt that they’d sacrificed a lot for me. But after reading God’s words, I understood that this was their responsibility as parents, and that I felt indebted to my parents because I viewed their obligation to raise me as kindness. To repay my parents, I gave up the chance to do my duty full-time, and I deliberately returned to be with them and take care of them. To be with them, I wallowed in fleshly affections and put my duty aside, delaying church work and my life entry. God’s words helped me let go of my mistaken views, and I realized just how important it is to seek the truth. After understanding these things, I firmly chose to do my duty and gave up on finding a job. Later, I learned that my parents were living well, and that even though I didn’t have a job and hadn’t given them money, the crops they’d planted at home had yielded a good harvest, and that this harvest alone was enough to meet their living needs. I was so grateful to God.

Later, I thought about how I had given up doing my duty full-time and chosen to go home to take care of them, but even so, my family’s situation got worse. But when I chose to do my duty, their situation improved. I then saw that everyone’s destiny is in God’s hands, and that no one can control their destiny. I came across a passage of God’s words: “What parents ought to do is raise you and let you grow up healthily and smoothly, embark on the right path, and fulfill the responsibilities and obligations you should fulfill as a created being. All of this is not for the purpose of changing your fate, and indeed it cannot change your fate; they merely serve as a supplementary and guiding role, raising you to adulthood and steering you onto the right path of life. What you should not be doing is using your own hands to create happiness for your parents, change their fate, or let them enjoy great fortune and good food and drink. These are foolish thoughts. This burden is not one you should carry, it is one you should let go of. You should not make any pointless sacrifices or do any pointless things to repay your parents, change their fate, and enable them to receive more blessings and suffer less, for the sake of satisfying the personal needs of your conscience or feelings, and to avoid disappointing them. This is not your responsibility, and it is not what you should be thinking about. Parents should fulfill their responsibilities to their children according to their own conditions and according to the conditions and environment prepared by God. What children should do for their parents is also based on the conditions they can achieve and according to the environment they are in; that is all. Everything parents or children do should not be for the purpose of changing the fate of the other party through one’s own power or selfish desires, so that the other party can live a better, happier, and more ideal life because of their own efforts. Whether it’s parents or children, everyone should let things take their natural course within the environments arranged by God, rather than trying to change things through their own efforts or any personal resolves. The fate of your parents will not be changed because you have these kinds of thoughts concerning them—their fate has long since been ordained by God. … fulfilling your responsibilities and obligations to them according to God’s words and the truth principles is also part of your duties as a created being; this is the responsibility given to man by God. The fulfillment of this responsibility is based on God’s words, not on human needs. So, you can easily treat your parents according to God’s words, fulfilling your responsibilities and obligations toward them. It’s as simple as that. Is this easy to do? (Yes.) Why is it easy to do? The essence here, as well as the truth principles that people should adhere to, are very clear. The essence is that neither parents nor children can change each other’s fate. Whether you try hard or not, whether you are willing to fulfill your responsibilities or not, none of that can change the other’s fate. Whether you hold them in your heart or not is only a difference of emotional need, and it will not change any facts. So, for people, the simplest thing to do is to let go of the various burdens brought by their parents’ expectations. First of all, you should look at all these things according to God’s words, and second of all, you should treat and handle the relationship with your parents according to God’s words. It’s as simple as that. Isn’t it easy? (Yes.) If you accept the truth, all these things will be easy, and in the process of your experience, you will feel more and more that this is really the case. No one can change a person’s fate; one’s fate is only in the hands of God. No matter how hard you try, it will not work” (The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (16)). Through God’s words, I realized that God is the One who controls our destiny, and that the amount of suffering and blessings a person will experience in life has all been predestined by God. Just like how my mom was always with me and taking care of me since I was a child, I saw her suffer a lot to raise me, and I really wanted to repay her and make her later years better. When I entered college, I thought I could finally realize my dreams, but unexpectedly, the pandemic broke out, and I developed GERD. Later, my condition worsened, and I couldn’t even attend school regularly. Later, I did my duty full-time, and when I heard that my family was facing financial difficulties, I thought of going home to find a job to change our family’s dire situation, but in the end, the situation at home didn’t improve and actually got worse. We didn’t even have money to buy rice, and I became negative and depraved. I wanted to use my own hands to make my parents’ lives better, but I didn’t realize that people’s destinies are in God’s hands. When I chose to do my duty full-time, their lives actually improved, which made me see that God is sovereign over our destiny, and that even though I wanted to give them a good life, they still might not be happy. Whether my family is rich or poor, everything is in God’s hands. This isn’t something I can change.

Throughout this experience, I always felt indebted to my parents for not taking care of them, but when I read God’s words, my perspective changed, and I understood that their care for me was their responsibility as parents. Now, even if I’m not in a position to care for them, I no longer feel indebted to them. I’ve understood that I should prioritize my duty, and that fulfilling the duty of a created being is the most meaningful and important thing in my life. Thanks be to Almighty God!