1971
After All
June 1971


“After All,” Ensign, June 1971, 128

After All

I caught a smile this morning

From a friend across the way,

And I brought it along to the office

To sustain me through the day.

All the secretaries caught it,

And some of the bosses, too;

And all of them said, “Good morning,”

And none of them dropped a clue

That problems they had

Were terribly bad

Or couldn’t be solved with dispatch.

And the reason my day has started this way

Is the smile that I happened to catch.

Ruby F. Thomas
Salt Lake City

On a back-pack fishing trip into the High Sierras, our bishop remarked, “Steven (eight years old) looks like he’s all out of energy.” David (Steven’s ten-year-old brother) replied, “Oh, he has plenty of energy—he’s just too tired to use it.”

Robert W. English
Gilroy, California

As we were coming home from Sunday School, I asked my four-year-old daughter what they had done in opening exercises. She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and replied, “We didn’t do any.”

Mary Mosher
Ogden, Utah

President Heber J. Grant told of one brother who, when called upon to speak, walked to the pulpit arrogantly, with his chest puffed out. Facing the congregation, his mind went blank and he was obliged to return to his seat greatly subdued and humbled. Said President Grant, “If that brother had walked up as he came down, he might have come down as he walked up.”

Joseph M. Flake
San Carlos, Arizona

As we discussed prayer during one of our family home evenings, I tried to impress upon my eight-year-old son the fact that he could pray in his heart at any time and his Heavenly Father would hear and answer his prayers. Wanting to explore the point further, I inquired as to whether or not he had ever had occasion to do this. “Yes,” he replied thoughtfully. “Sometimes in school when we have a hard math problem I pray in my head, but if he doesn’t hear me, I count on my fingers.”

Mrs. Harold Thistle
Las Vegas, Nevada

Recently I received a letter that said: “George, please write me the details of one of your worries so I can put it in the wastebasket and you can forget it.”

George Ashby
Provo, Utah