A playground is a happy place to be. The world seems a little better, a little happier, when children are at play. And when a child is happy, somewhere a mother is happy too.
Interviews/sound bites…with children
- How does your mom show you she loves you?
- What do you love about your mom?
- What have you learned from your mom?
- What’s the best thing about your mom?
Each mother and each child is different. Yet each is so lovable and so loved. This is true even though no child or mother is perfect. What a powerful and important idea—we don’t have to be perfect to love and be loved.
All mothers fall short of the elusive ideal, and yet God trusts them anyway—with a responsibility of boundless importance. If motherhood didn’t matter so much, it wouldn’t be so difficult or so profoundly joyful. With that perspective, both mothers and children can find a willingness to understand, a determination to forgive, and a path toward greater happiness in life’s most fundamental relationship.
There has never been a mother or child who did everything right. But good mothers try to do a little better each day. They sincerely and selflessly love and care for their children the best they can. Every time a mother wipes a tear, every time she pauses to listen, every time she kneels to pray for those she loves, heaven comes a little closer to earth.
In the words of the poet William Brown from long ago:
The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.[1]
[1] William G. Brown, “Mother, Home, Heaven,” in Poets and Poetry of Vermont, ed. Abby Maria Hemenway (1858), 323.
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May 14, 2023
Broadcast Number 4,887
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Conductor
Ryan Murphy
Organist
Andrew Unsworth
Host
Lloyd Newell
When in Our Music God Is Glorified
traditional English melody; Arr. Emily Crocker
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, from Oklahoma!
Richard Rodgers; Arr. Arthur Harris
Carillon de Westminster
Louis Vierne
A Lullaby
Ryan Murphy
A Mother’s Eyes Reflect the Love of Heaven
Stephen Jones
Music in the Air
African American spiritual; Arr. Ryan Murphy