Today's Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[Guest guest]

I Love You More

By Christie A. Hansen

Meet my daughter, . Four years old and a fountain of knowledge. The other

day she was reciting a list of all the facts and tidbits she has memorized. One

plus one is two. If you mix yellow paint with blue you get green. Penguins can't

fly. . . . On and on she went.

Finally, she finished. " Mom, " she said, looking very smug, " I know everything. "

I let on as if I believed her, but chuckled to myself thinking of all the 'this

and that's' that a four-year-old child couldn't possibly know. Comparing her

four years to my almost three decades of life experiences, I felt sure I knew

what she knew and then some.

Within a week, I'd learn I was wrong.

It all began as we were standing in front of the bathroom mirror, me fixing

's fine, blonde hair. I was putting in the final elastic of a spunky pair

of pony tails and finished with, " I love you, . "

" And, I love you, " she replied.

" Oh, yeah, " I taunted, " well I love you more. "

Her eyes lit up as she recognized the cue for the start of another " I love you

more " match. " Nuh-uh, " she laughed, " I love you the most. "

" I love you bigger than a volcano! " I countered - a favorite family phrase in

these battles of love.

" But, Mom, I love you from here to China. " A country she's learning about thanks

to our new neighbors up the street.

We volleyed back and forth a few favorite lines. " I love you more than peanut

butter " . . . . Well, I love you more than television " . . . . " I even love you

more than bubble gum. "

It was my turn again, and I made the move that usually brings victory. " Too bad

chickadee. I love you bigger than the universe! " On this day, however,

was not going to give up. I could see she was thinking.

" Mom, " she said in a quiet voice, " I love you more than myself. "

I stopped. Dumbfounded. Overwhelmed by her sincerity.

Here I thought that I knew more than she did. I thought I knew at least

everything that she knew. But I didn't know this. My four-year-old daughter

knows more about love than her twenty-eight-year-old mom. And somehow she loves

me more than herself.