Tyler's Talk

Tyler spoke in sacrament meeting today and did very well. I never doubted that he would be able to do it. He came up with all of the basic ideas for his talk. Last night I helped him expand them a little and fill in a bit here and there. He wasn't nervous about having to sit up on the stand. He went right up there and sat down as soon as we got there. His friend Zach also spoke, so he was able to sit next to him. I think that helped him to be less nervous. (Zach did a great job also.) He walked up to the pulpit when it was his turn, stepped up on the step stool, adjusted the mic and got right to it. He told Ryan that once he was standing in front of everyone at the pulpit, it did make him a little nervous, but as long as he kept his eyes on the paper he felt fine. He read through it easily and you could actually understand him. He even remembered to bear his testimony at the end. I would always speed read when I gave talks as a child. Kind of like the Micro Machine guy. My parents would always tell me that I needed to slow down, but I was always so nervous that I couldn't do it. Ryan and I were both very proud. It's hard not to be when you see your 8 year old child behaving in such a grown up way. I could tell that Ryan was very touched by what Tyler said. It was very sweet and you could really tell that Tyler meant everything he said. Like I said, all the ideas were his. I just helped him pull them all together.