The Unselfish Love of a Mother

In the United States, we honor the nation's mothers on the second Sunday of May. The unselfish love of a mother for a child has been known since Bible times.

King Solomon was a very wise ruler.  One day two women were brought before him at his palace in Jerusalem.  The women lived in the same house, and had each given birth to a baby boy within 3 days of each other.  One of the babies had died.  Each woman insisted that the baby who still lived belonged to her. No one had been able to figure out who was telling the truth.

Solomon commanded that the living child be cut in two with a sword so that each mother could have half of him.  One of the mothers said that was a great idea, but the other mother - the real mother of the living baby boy - said no, she would give the baby up.

Wise Solomon knew that the baby's real mother would give up her claim rather than see her son killed. 

When the people of Israel heard about how he had solved this puzzle, they were glad to have a king as wise as Solomon!