A Trial of Love

How do you know your children love you--I mean, how do you really know they love you? They may tell you every day, but you can never be certain...Perhaps the only way to really know is to test their love. Angie decided to put Ben's love to the test tonight. A year or so ago Angie purchased four sets of corn handles to help us hold our corn-on-the-cob while we eat it. Ben very quickly learned how to push the sharp ends of the handles into the end of corn and loves to use them to eat his corn. What made it even better was that one of the sets of handles came in his favorite color--blue! Well, purple is actually his absolute favorite, but he will tell you that blue is also his favorite. Tonight I cooked some corn-on-the-cob for dinner. When I brought the corn to the table, Ben quickly jumped up, exclaiming, "Ohhh, I know what will be perfect for this!" He ran to the drawer, pulled out the corn handles and gave Angie the first choice between the colors--blue, red, white or yellow. I looked up after Angie selected the blue handles and saw a sort of sly grin on her face as she waited for Ben's response. She knew full well that Ben always chooses the blue handles, so she was testing him to see what his response would be. Ben thought for a second and then simply turned and asked me what color I wanted. Angie and I both knew at this point that Ben truly loved his mom as he was willing to sacrifice his favorite color to make her happy. At this point, Maddie jumped up and picked the yellow handles. Since yellow is not one of his favorite colors, Ben easily gave them up and offered me the two remaining pairs--white and red. I knew that Ben had already sacrificed a lot for a four year old, so I asked him which color I should take. I was a little surprised when he stated red because I knew that was his next favorite color. However, he very quickly corrected himself and stated, "I mean, I will take the red." He then handed me the white handles and we all enjoyed our corn. Ok, so we really do know our kids love us. How could we not know with all the great snuggles and the way they run around the house giggling when we come home from a meeting. Sometimes we just like to see how far that love will go. Tonight, Ben passed the test.