President Gordon B. Hinckley planted a young tree near his
home soon after he was married. He paid little attention to it as the years
passed. One day he noticed the tree was misshapen and leaning to the west
because winds from the east had bent it while it was young and supple. He went
out and tried to push it upright, but the trunk was too thick. He tried using a
rope and pulleys to straighten it, but it would not bend. Finally, he took his
saw and cut off the heavy branch on the west side, which left an ugly scar. He
later said of the tree:
“More than half a century has passed since I planted that
tree. My daughter and her family live there now. The other day I looked again
at the tree. It is large. Its shape is better. It is a great asset to the home.
But how serious was the trauma of its youth and how brutal the treatment I used
to straighten it.
“When it was first planted, a piece of string would have
held it in place against the forces of the wind. I could have and should have
supplied that string with ever so little effort. But I did not, and it bent to
the forces that came against it” (“Bring up a Child in the Way He Should Go,”
Ensign, Nov. 1993, 59).
