TTS:
Things They’re Saying

Christ stood before Pilate and “answered nothing.” And he stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Art thou the king of the Jews?” And Jesus said unto him, “Thou sayest I am.” And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, “Hearest thou not how many things thy witnesses lay against thee?” And he answered him not a word.

As illustrated by the Savior’s example, sometimes the most powerful and courageous thing a person can do is to remain silent.

I was attending a track meet, and there were about a dozen fellows who had qualified to represent their schools in the mile run at this invitational. As the gun was fired, those young men, who had trained hard for this vigorous race, took off. Four of them were running in a bunch so close together that it looked to us as if they might trip each other. Suddenly one fellow spiked the shoe of the boy running in front of him. As the spiked runner went to take his next step, his shoe flew off.

I wondered what this boy who had been leading the race would do. He had several choices: He could have grabbed the boy who had spiked him and done something to get even. He could have run over to the coach and yelled, “So this is what you get. I’ve trained half my life for this, and now on the big day, look what happens!” He could have said to his mom and dad, “Look what that guy did to me!” Or he could have sat down and cried.

But he didn’t do any of these things; he just kept running. This happened on the first lap, and I thought he would quit after that lap. But he kept running every step of the way. The cinders came up through his sock into his foot, but he said nothing. He just kept running. He finished the race, and I thought, “What a boy!” He said nothing. He simply finished the job he had to do.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton
of the Council of the Twelve

I’ve always been grateful for the scripture that says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Of everything that God created, he said and decided that it was good. Then when he created man, he said it wasn’t good until he had a helpmate. And this is the way it should be. We should help one another. We don’t want to fight one another. This is why women’s lib isn’t coming across—it’s abrasive; it isn’t feminine; it’s masculine in its attempts to compete and dethrone, in its failure to understand the true relationship and the love. Actually, a woman who knows love is liberated. You’re really liberated if you love and if you are loved.

Lenore Romney

These questions are often asked: “Which language is the prettiest, and which one is the easiest to learn?” I can only answer that to a native speaker, his own language is usually the sweetest and easiest. However, this was not true in the case of Charles V who ascended the throne of Spain and became emperor of the Roman Empire early in the sixteenth century. He had no knowledge of the Spanish language. Reared and educated in Holland and Germany by his German father, he felt little inclination to learn Spanish. But after mastering the language, he reputedly made the interesting observation that French is good for telling lies, Italian is good for conversing with ladies, German is good for calling dogs and horses, English is good for transacting business, and Spanish is most appropriate for talking to God.

However, I’ve learned another fact about language. Honesty and humility seem to be the language of prayer, no matter what tongue you speak.

Wayne Allison
Laie Third Ward
Oahu Stake