Two Things You Should Say to Your Kids. (Constantly.)

On Tuesday, I wrote about the wedding Husband and I attended in Miami just this past weekend. Well, there are so many details I'd love to share about the weekend because it was a really extraordinary time for me, but there is one thing in particular I would like to tell you all about today.

At the wedding, the father of the bride gave a speech. This isn't unusual. But this speech? It was something I will not forget. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because it was so simply, and profoundly, rendered. Maybe because it was delivered in a thick and wonderful Korean accent. Maybe because its words were imbued with such dense emotion, I couldn't help but tear up. I'm sure it was all of these things.

But what struck me most? The last two sentences of the speech. Short, simple, impossibly meaningful and universal sentences and sentiments. Those last two sentences?

I love you. Be happy.

Now. By the point these two sentences came, my eyes were already misty. The speech was anecdotal and wise and full of adoration. As a daughter, as a daughter who has lost her dad, the speech got me, and instantly. But these last two bits? They sliced through it all, and I thought: Aren't these really the two most important things that we can convey to our children? That we love them, and that we want them to be happy?

I think so. I do. I know I am good at the first part. I tell my girls I love them all the time, maybe too much. And I think I show them this too. But there hasn't yet been much talk of happiness as a concept in our home. Maybe because they are young. Maybe because its an elusive and enormous concept. But maybe it's never to early to discuss happiness?

Anyway. I just wanted to share this. I know well that this might not be earth-shattering for you as it really was for me. I know that it might occur to you that these are the basics of parental, or any, love. But for me, there was really a moment where this tuxedo-clad man said these words, simple and sublime, and it hit me: This is really what it is all about. These are the things that matter above all else.

Love.

Happiness.

(Right?)

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Do you agree that these are the things we should utter to our children? Are you typically touched by wedding speeches, or at least well-delivered ones? Do you discuss love and happiness with others in your life? With your children?