My students make speeches and find that this is a good way to learn English. A good speech shows the ideas and feelings of the speaker. One of the most interesting speeches that I have ever heard was made by Miss Omoto, a junior high school student in Osaka.
She said, "What does Heaven look like? It looks like an art museum. When a child is born, God puts one large picture on the walls of Heaven for that child. But there is nothing on the picture at first.
God gives every child many abilities. Each ability is one color. For example, the ability to see is blue, the ability to hear is red and the ability to speak is yellow. God also gives a different color for different qualities. Kindness is one color, patience is another color and honesty is still another color. All the good qualities get colors and all the bad qualities get colors too.
When a person uses each ability and each quality, this color is always painted on his picture in Heaven. When a person grows up little by little and uses his abilities and qualities, God uses more colors on his picture in Heaven.
Sometimes God makes mistakes. For example, he forgot to give Helen Keller the color for seeing, hearing and speaking. So she could not see, hear or speak. But because she was very kind, very interested in studying, and wanted to work hard, her picture in Heaven is one of the most beautiful pictures on the walls of Heaven. Beethoven lost his ability to hear, so his picture slowly changed. Beethoven had to use his other abilities so much that his picture in Heaven is still very beautiful and special.
God gives every baby all the important abilities. So every picture should be the same, but it seems no two pictures are the same. Every baby has all the necessary qualities, but every person uses them in different ways and in different manners. So everyone's picture is different. Some people use their good qualities more than their bad qualities, but other people use their bad ones more than their good ones. So some people's pictures are beautiful, while other people's pictures are ugly. We all paint a different picture, so it is very important how we use our abilities and qualities."
Miss Omoto ended her speech with the wonderful question, "What your picture look like?"