The Mother's Day Tribute

The topic of the short talk was supposed to be "How I know my mother loves me." Hayley was one of six youth speakers at church to share their thoughts on this topic.

Her thoughts:

"I know my mother loves her children because she hasn't forgotten any birthdays that I know about."

"She goes to band concerts and track meets, time permitting."

And my favorite piece of evidence:

"I know my mother loves me because she cares about my teeth. I have braces and just last week, someone had given me some gum and I didn't think twice about it and took it. When mom came to pick me up, she made me spit it out."

The whole congregation was laughing, and I was nearly crying trying not to laugh as hard as I wanted to.

Other moms got "she does things for me," "she sacrificed for me," "she doesn't get mad at me," "she is a great example," and I get "she made me spit out my gum."

We are not a sappy family. We do like to laugh, however.

And I did make her spit out her gum last week. I did the "fake mad" routine. I fake yelled at her, saying, "Your dad and I are the ones paying for your braces. As long as we are paying, we get to decide how you use your teeth!" She laughed, but willingly spit out her gum and gave no argument.

I am glad I am a mother to five amusing children.