(Minghui.org) I’d like to tell you how my parents and mother-in-law became in-laws, then enemies, and then became close after practicing Falun Dafa.
My father worked out of town for many years, and my mother raised three children alone in her hometown in northeast China. As a single parent she endured a lot of hardship. Thirty years ago, I left my mother to work in the south. Before I left home, my mother found a famous local fortune teller to see how my marriage would be.
The man told my mother about my future in-laws and described their appearances. He said, “Your two families have been blessed by Buddhas who arranged their fates, so cherish this marriage.” My mother did not believe in Buddhism, so she was not too happy and said, “I don’t want any fates arranged by Buddhas.” But the fortune teller said, “Don’t say that. This fate is rare in a thousand years. Cherish it!”
Many years later, when my parents, mother-in-law, and I started practicing Falun Dafa, we realized that this fate arranged by Buddhas that the fortune teller referred to is the predestined opportunity to practice Falun Dafa.
A few years later when my mother met my in-laws for the first time, she was stunned. Their appearance was just as described by the fortune teller. My mother-in-law was a big person of 1.7 meters. My father-in-law was not tall, and his expression was the same as the fortune teller described. My mother didn’t tell me about this until many years later.
My father-in-law was a mid-level leader of a large state-owned enterprise. My father was an ordinary worker in that enterprise, working abroad. My father had been unemployed for many years, and my family was poor. My father-in-law lived in the nicer building, while my parents lived in the workers’ section.
Before I married, my in-laws and my parents did not know each other well. My father-in-law asked his subordinates to reach out to me after he met me by chance. This is how I met and married my husband.
My mother-in-law was irritable and rude. My mother was unforgiving. Although my father-in-law was just a mid-level cadre, my mother-in-law thought she was the wife of an official and looked down on everyone. She was very critical of my parents, mainly because she thought my family was poor.
When I got married, my younger sister was still in junior high school. My mother-in-law even opposed my sister’s continued education because she was afraid that my parents would ask for financial assistance from my husband. She said my family was a “hole that could not be filled” and a “bottomless pit.” My mother-in-law always went to my parents’ house. She humiliated and scolded me many times in front of my parents, and pressured my husband to divorce me.
My father exclaimed, “I pushed my daughter into the fire. I regret it! If I had known that her mother-in-law was such a person, I would not have let her marry her son!”
My husband and I didn’t have our own house. He lived in his parents’ house. When my mother-in-law scolded me, I went back to my mother’s house. I basically lived in my parent’s home most of the time because she criticized me every day.
When my mother-in-law asked my husband to request a divorce again, my mother could no longer take the pressure and said, “As long as my daughter is not pregnant, we agree to divorce!” However, a month later, I was pregnant, so my mother-in-law became quiet for a few months.
A few months later, my mother-in-law saw that I didn’t have any stretch marks on my face, so she was sure I was pregnant with a girl. She started to make trouble again. She approached my mother every day, saying she wanted me to have an abortion. When I was six months pregnant, she came to my parent’s home again and wanted me to induce the baby’s birth. My mother said, “This is my daughter’s first child. Now she is pregnant for six months. It is too risky and may cost two lives.”
My mother-in-law didn’t give up and asked an old Chinese medicine doctor to take my pulse and see if it was a girl or boy. So I had to endure several hours of bumping along on countryside roads as we drove to that doctor’s place. The old doctor said, “It’s definitely a boy. If it’s not a boy, you can come and close my clinic!” When I returned, the acquaintance who took me there told my mother-in-law about it, but she decided that the acquaintance and I were in cahoots. The acquaintance had to explain again and again before my mother-in-law gave up on the abortion idea.
After my son was born, things were peaceful for nearly a year. My husband went to work out of town, and I often traveled. My mother took care of my son. My mother-in-law was displeased and said that my mother was abusing her grandson. The gossip spread to my parents, so the hostility between our two families intensified.
Finally, my mother-in-law went to my parent’s home and forcibly took my son out of my mother’s arms one day. The conflict exploded! My mother-in-law and my mother started to argue and fight each other. The mother-in-law grabbed a bench and smashed it over my mother’s head. My mother fell to the ground with her head bleeding. She was sent to the hospital for a checkup and was found to have a concussion. The two families were now outright enemies.
When I came home, I saw my father-in-law holding my son. Before I got to the door, he walked inside and refused to open the door. For the next two years, I could only see my son when my husband returned home from the other city.
My mother-in-law asked my husband to divorce me again, saying that she would throw herself into a wall and die if he did not divorce me! This time my husband was determined and said he would never divorce me. He was angry and smashed an ashtray. His hands were cut and bleeding. My mother-in-law then gave up on insisting on a divorce.
Before 1999, many people in my in-laws’ company practiced Falun Dafa, and they taught people for free. My mother-in-law went to learn. My mother wanted to learn to practice, but she didn’t go when she saw my mother-in-law there. My father read Falun Dafa’s main book, Zhuan Falun and felt that Falun Dafa was good, so he learned it himself at home. After my father started practicing, his health improved.
Since my mother-in-law started practicing Falun Dafa, I was no longer the little daughter-in-law being abused. My mother-in-law, who used to have a stern face toward me, smiled at me, and she even cooked my favorite meals. She became a nice person. I could go to my mother-in-law’s house freely to see my son. Every day, I saw my mother-in-law respectfully reading Zhuan Falun and copying the words she did not know into a small notebook.
Witnessing the changes in both of them, I decided to give up the qigong I had practiced for more than ten years. My health had never been good, and that qigong did not talk about cultivating one’s character.
My mother and I started practicing Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa enlightened us and cleansed our minds. We learned to look within whenever conflicts happened, and we knew that we should think of others and be compassionate. I became joyful, and my mother’s personality also improved.
My in-laws and my parents forgave each other. If we did not practice Dafa, our two families might really have cut off all ties. People who do not practice Dafa cannot let go of their old hate and grudges. Two sisters in my company didn’t speak to each other for decades because of a single incident. They avoided each other whenever they met.
When my son was five years old, my mother-in-law went to another province to take care of her daughter’s child and then moved there, leaving my son with my mother.
In 2006, I was arrested because of my faith in Falun Dafa and was imprisoned in a brainwashing center. The elderly in both my families were worried, as I was not only their daughter and daughter-in-law but also their fellow practitioner.
My mother-in-law came back from her daughter’s home to help rescue me. My mother-in-law walked into my parents’ house. She put aside all grudges and feuds, knocked on the door, and shouted, “Sister!” My mother softly returned her cry and said, “Hey!” Worth a thousand words, the two held each other.
The ice and snow in their hearts finally melted.
They took care of each other in the days to come and encouraged each other. They went out happily every day in all weather, telling people the truth about Falun Dafa and advising people to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. They told people that the true meaning of life was to return to their true selves. They became people who live for others. They are now optimistic and calm, and together they are on the path of returning to their true selves.
Thank you, Master! Thank you for the wonderfulness and goodness of Dafa which resolved such intense hostilities!
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