Introduction
Life is filled with standards. We have standards of measurement for time, weight, size, length, distance, etc. Standards make life easier by providing a commonly agreed upon reference for measurement.

Description
By looking at some common standards of measurement in this object lesson, youth will consider the standards we use to measure the life we live.

Around Mother’s Day we hear the old saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” But is that true?

Augustine was a fourth-century scholar who is considered one of the greatest thinkers of all times. He was born under Roman rule in what is now Algeria. His Christian mother, Monica, was married to a pagan who lived an immoral lifestyle. Even so, she gained a reputation as a peacemaker and counselor in turbulent times.

What is America’s greatest source of strength and inspiration?

According to the U.S. Congress, it’s American mothers. Stay-at-home moms, Congress declared, are “doing so much for the home . . . and [for] religion,” which leads to “good government and humanity.”

A mother noticed that it was about time for school to dismiss and since it looked like it would rain, she drove toward the school to pick up her eight year old daughter.

A story from Scotland tells of a mother’s dramatic rescue of her child. Workmen were blasting rock in a quarry. One day after they had attached the fuse and retired to a safe place and gave the alarm they saw a three year old child wandering across the open space where danger threatened. Every passing second meant death was closing in on the child.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE REALLY A MOM WHEN…

• You count the sprinkles on each kid’s cupcake to make sure they’re equal.
• You want to take out a contract on the kid who broke your child’s favorite toy and made him/her cry.
• You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

One day, a girl walk to her mother and look at her mother’s hair and sadly said: “Why are some of your hair white mom?”

The mother replied, “Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.

Hymn: “Rescue the Perishing” by Fanny Crosby

“There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.

This year, Mother’s Day is on May 11th, 2008.

Are you looking for some Mother’s Day ideas for your children’s or youth activities? Maybe a Mother’s Day illustration for a youth talk?