Sweet and Simple Words

Kaci smiled as she took her seat in Primary. Today had been the children’s sacrament meeting presentation. It had been scary to say her part, but she did it!

Sister Dench, the Primary president, stood up front. “Good job in sacrament meeting today!” she said. “I know you each worked hard to learn your parts.”

“Except for Kaci,” one of the older boys said. “No one could tell what she said.”

Sister Dench frowned at the boy, then turned to smile at Kaci. “You did a wonderful job.”

Kaci tried not to cry. She’d done her best to learn her part. But sometimes her words didn’t come out right.

On the way home, Kaci couldn’t stop the tears any longer.

“What’s wrong?” Mommy asked.

“One of the boys made fun of me. He said I didn’t say my part right.” She started crying harder.

“You did a good job. Daddy and I are proud of you,” Mommy said. “Do you know who else is proud of you?”

Kaci shook her head.

“Heavenly Father,” Mommy said. “He knows you did your best.”

Kaci felt a lot better. She wanted to use her words to help other people feel happy too.

At school, Kaci told her teacher that she was doing a good job teaching.

At home, Daddy was fixing a shelf. Kaci told him he was doing a good job making their house nice.

Outside, Kaci and her brother played ball together. Kaci told him that he was doing a good job throwing.

Telling people they were doing a good job made Kaci feel good inside. When she saw others smile, she knew that her simple words made a big difference!

Illustrations by Greg Paprocki