A little knowledge of the scriptures can be an embarrassing thing.  Sometimes we know just enough of a verse to enable us to misquote it badly.

"He sold his birthright for a pot of forage," is one of my favorites.  While I didn't even crack a smile when the lady said that to me, my mind was gleefully recording it for future use.

A ranch lady, who I know for a fact never reads, explained her family's occasional absence from church by saying, "Sometimes we have a cow in the brier."

For those who aren't sure what the ladies were misquoting, I should explain that Esau "sold his birthright for a mess of potage;" and that though we're not to labor on the Sabbath, yet if on that day we have "an ox in the mire," it's OK to pull it out.

A little knowledge about anything can be an embarrassing thing.  Adam had a very difficult time suppressing his emotions as he listened to a fellow missionary give a talk on "The Law of the Harvest."  It was in the fall of the year.  "Right now, all across this country," the missionary said, "concubines are harvesting wheat."

The error wasn't a slip of the tongue, since it was repeated several times.  If anyone else noticed, they were kind, and gave no evidence of anything being amiss.

At least one other missionary did pick up on the error, however.  He later said, "You know what he meant to say, don't you?  He meant to say columbines."

One of the more amazing things that I saw happen occurred during a meeting of the stake presidency with all of the bishops in the stake.  Seventeen stake leaders were present as false doctrine was successfully taught.

The bishop was absent whose turn it was to give the opening inspirational thought.  The duty, therefore, fell to his counselor, who was there to represent him.  The counselor said that he'd found a really good scripture in Alma 1:4, and proceeded to read it.  I thought to myself, "Alma, chapter one is one of the three chapters in the Book of Mormon about antichrists.  I'd better look this one up to see what he's reading."

By the time I managed to get my scriptures opened to the proper verse, the man had finished reading, smiled broadly, closed his book, and the stake president was thanking him and moving on to the next item on the agenda.

This is what I read:  "And he also testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all men, and had also redeemed all men; and, in the end, all men should have eternal life."

The counselor had read the teachings of Nehor, the antichrist.  He'd taken the verse out of context, and no one had caught it.  What should I do?  It was fairly obvious that no one had tuned in to what the man had read.  He'd done it so fast.  I decided that rather than make a public correction and embarrass the man and everyone else present, it would be best to ignore what had taken place.  So it was that Nehor the antichrist was successfully able to have his teachings presented to the leaders of a stake, 2000 years after his death.—But as so often happens, no one was listening.

A very clever mistake was made by a man who had been asked to lead the opening hymn in priesthood meeting.  No pianist was available, so the hymn was sung a cappella.  The man chose the hymn "Israel, Israel God is Calling," hummed the opening note, and led the men in a spirited rendition of that hymn sung to the tune of "Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning."

My mouth dropped open.  I didn't sing as I watched what was happening.  It was amazing.  It was working.  The words to that hymn fit the music of the other—and not one other person noticed what had taken place!