Welcome to the classic speeches podcast presented by BYU Speeches, bringing you treasured talks from 70 years of BYU Devotionals.

Be sure to check out our other podcasts by searching BYU Speaches wherever you get your podcasts,

or by visitingspeeches.bYU.edu slash podcasts.

This devotional address, entitled The Super Highway of Life, was given on February

10th of 1998 by Mary Ellen Smoot, then the Relief Society General President of the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I grew up in the small town of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I grew up in the small town of Clearfield, Utah, as President Bateman has said.

And the last thing on my mind during those formative years was that someday I would speak to

the student body at Brigham Young University.

Until I was in junior high, my hometown was little more than a bend in the road.

In those days, my biggest challenge was gathering the eggs from the chicken coop without

being attacked by the hen.

And I would carefully choose a stick large enough to lift each hen, and as she picked

the stick, I would quickly gather her warm egg into my basket.

On the street where I lived, there was a church, a canning factory, a small store in the

school.

My life was uncomplicated and centered around home, church, school, and the garden aisle

at the local store.

That aisle was my incentive to work.

I was blessed because I had a kind and loving father and mother and five sisters. We lived to guard, and our father

would have his daughter's assist in planting potatoes, corn, and various seeds in the ground each spring.

We would place bedding plants around the yard and assist our father in mowing and trimming

...