Happy Birthday, Ruth

I have now been a mother for 20 years. I remember holding Ruth for the first time and feeling a little terrified and like I had not thought this through well enough. I held baby Ruth and realized that I was in for the long haul, there was no going back. There was work to be done and I would have to do it. And now, 20 years later, I am so glad that I did. I may have understood that there would be work, but I did not understand how much joy and happiness that work would bring me.

Ruth's reluctant to leave her teens and join the world of adults, as many of us felt at that transition. But, as I keep telling her-- twenties are a good time. There are many wonderful things that this next decade will bring to her, and I am excited about them. She'll come home from her mission a better person, find a spouse, marry, and have her first couple of children. She's stepped into a wonderful time. Being a missionary, dating, and marrying and having young children all have their difficulties, but they all hold fun, and joy that pales to anything a child can do.

My dearest daughter has grown into a choice daughter of God. I don't think I could adequately express Ruth's goodness. She's not only kind and serviceable, she is deeply good. When I think of who Ruth is, I think of the words of the 13th Article of Faith. Ruth is honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and does good to all mankind.