Because I Love You

On Saturday night, I spoke at Stake Conference.   I’m posting this excerpt from my talk because it happened last week, and it's one of those moments I want to remember.  Don’t worry, I told the story about the cops right before I told this story --just to keep things real  ; )

Last Sunday, my bishop taught a 5^th Sunday lesson on parenting.  He said at the beginning of the class that if we remembered nothing else from the class that we should remember to do all things in love.  During the lesson I reflected on an experience with one of my children (John) the day before where I had confiscated some Halloween candy and given a lecture about responsibility.  I had not done that with much love. 

When I was tucking this child in bed Sunday night after the lesson, I told him I was sorry for the way in which I’d handled the candy issue the day before.  I asked if he knew why I’d taken away the candy, and he said, ”because you didn’t want my teeth to rot out?”  I told him yes, but there was a bigger reason too.   He said, “because you don’t want to have to pay for new ones?”  I said yes, but there is an even bigger reason.  He looked at me like he had no idea where I was going with this, and then I said, “because I love you!”  He grinned and then he gave me some candy that he was hiding to eat after I’d tucked him in.  (My bishop is so wise – at last the secret to effective parenting…  It’s actually the secret to a lot of things.)