20 Seconds of Courage

I really liked that new mantra to live by from the movie "We Bought a Zoo".  We just need 20 Seconds of Courage to often change our life.  I like that.



I have been so impressed with what I have read about George Albert Smith, the eighth president of the Church.  It was in 1947 when I was visiting in Utah and I was walking with my Aunt to go into the Tabernacle for the Centennial Celebration of the Pioneers entering Utah.  For some reason we were walking alone, was some of my family already inside or was I alone with my aunt??  I am not sure but I remember we were hurrying because it was late.  However, my aunt steered me over to an old man who was shaking the hand of a little girl with her mother.  It was President George Albert Smith on his way in to the north entrance. But he took the time to shake my hand as well.  No one else was around.  From what I have been reading this is the kind of person he was, a very kind and loving man who always had time for others.



It was interesting that in 1951 after President Smith died I was also in the right place at the right time.  I was a freshman at BYU and President David O. McKay had come to be with V P Harry Truman as he spoke to us at the football stadium.  I was in a center bench near the front and as soon as it was over I was able to be one of the first to go stand by Pres. McKay and although I did not shake his hand, I was able to touch his arm.  I remember I was thrilled as I had heard so much about him from my Mom.  He was very available to us all.  It was always amusing to me that none of the students were interested in V P Truman who left the stadium in a limousine with his Secret Service men  surrounding him.  I was not aware of any protection around Pres Mc Kay but there may have been some, however he was quickly surrounded by students.

My mother had been a friend of his daughters and had told us stories about his family.  The story I visualized most was him walking my Mom and his daughter to a church dance.  I think my Mom patterned her child raising techniques after Emma Riggs McKay, who wrote about how to raise your children peacefully, and my Mom never did speak to us in a loud voice in all the years I remember.  My sisters say the same thing and we all marvel at it.

Then in the 70's when I was Stake Primary President and we were to go to General Primary Conference we had prepared a birthday card for President Spencer W. Kimball.  It was very large and signed by all the children in the stake.  President Naylor, who had grown up in the same town as President Kimball, said he would try and get us an appointment so we could personally give it to him.  He did and we did and he shook each of our hands and looked us directly in the eye and talked a second or so to each of us.  It was very emotional, he had such a spirit about him.


One other experience I had was when we were preparing the meal the Saturday night before Stake Conference.  President Naylor would have a special dinner for the visiting General Authorities and the Stake Presidency and High Council and their wives.  The Stake auxillaries would take turns preparing the meals.  This was before Howard Hunter was the Prophet and President but he was an Apostle and he took the time to come into the kitchen and personally address each one of us.  Here again, such a kind and spiritual man.  I remember speaking directly to him and shaking his hand.



Another General Authority I conversed with was when Richard was in the Stake High Council and we were to attend the Saturday night dinner.  For some reason Richard could not be there and the wife of the visiting General Authority S. Dilworth Young was not there either so President Naylor asked me to sit by him.  I think President Naylor knew I could carry on a conversation with him or maybe he felt sorry for me being alone.   Elder Young was very kindly and talkative.  He had two pills he had to take and he said one was for him and one was for Huldah, his wife.  I later read a story about his wife in the Ensign.  She had been a single woman all her life and then after his first wife died she married him.  He was an older man, born five years before my mother and he died a few years later in 1981.

Anyway, I do not know why '20 Seconds of Courage' made me think of those experiences but in all cases if I had hesitated to act or speak up I would not have had the opportunity to meet and/or talk with these exemplary men.