Happy Mother’s Day to all of the women who make a difference in our lives. Day after day they take on many roles, put in countless hours in the service of others, and often don’t receive the credit they deserve.

Here is an excerpt from Music & the Spoken Word, titled “Charity: The Greatest Reward of Motherhood.”

Pausing once a year to give mothers much-deserved thanks is completely appropriate. And yet, maybe instead of being our annual day to honor mothers with flowers and cards, Mother’s Day should be our annual reminder to honor them every day—in whatever way will help them feel loved. When children (young and old) spend time with their mothers, to listen and learn from them, to remember something their mothers taught them, and to wrap their arms around their moms and express love—these are the love notes that mean the most to mothers.

Every day of the year, mothers worry about whether they are good enough, loving enough, firm enough, involved enough—or involved too much. We can help them see that they are just right. Every mother knows she cannot solve all the problems her children face. But that will never stop her from trying to help, even when her efforts seem to be neither noticed nor appreciated. But along the way, she learns how to listen more than speak. She learns to understand more than correct. She learns to see possibility when others lose hope. In short, she learns how to love.

In the end, when a mother stops to evaluate her life’s work, her satisfaction comes less from flowers and cards—as nice as such things are—and more from the love that has flowered in her soul: the love she feels for her family and the love they return to her. A mother is a living example of the kind of love that the Apostle Paul called charity: She suffers long. She is kind, humble, and unselfish. She rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, and endures all things (see 1 Corinthians 13:4–8). And she didn’t get that way by being a mother one day a year. Every day, she can receive and give charity, the greatest reward of motherhood.