Friday Confessions: I am not a Public Speaker

I am naturally NOT a public speaker. I had several instances in my childhood that clearly proves that statement.
First, when I was in early elementary school I participated in thechurch choir. I never chose to participate. I just did. It was not an option. Although this is not technically public speaking it was my first instance of being in front of a large group of people. One service the music to the first song started, and I didn’t even sing the first word before I ran off of the stage, down the aisle, and out the back of the church.

The second instance was in seventh grade my class had to see who would represent our school in the geography bee. We would all stand up in front of the class and the teacher would ask each of us a geography question. The gist was if you got the question wrong you would sit down and you were out. Of course my question was the easiest and I froze. It was something like. What is the name of an ice house that people live in? Okay, so that is not the actual question, but it was certainly as easy. The answer if you didn’t catch it is igloo. IGLOO. Come on. I didn’t even get a real question like the name of some obscure country in South Asia. I got ice house, and I could not come up with igloo.

Thirdly, in highschool I had to read a paper I wrote in English class in front of the entire class. Needless to say, my voice shook and my eyes watered up so bad I could hardly read what I wrote.

So as you can see I do not have a good track record.

Even a year and a half ago I would have trembled at the possibility of being asked to speak in front of a group, but very recently that has been changing. I have been teaching some in the junior high Sunday school class and I have really been enjoying it. I don’t know if the junior higher have been enjoying it, but at least I know I have. This past weekend I even asked Glen, “what do you think about me being a teacher?- like for a job.” Never before have I even wondered something like this because of my inability to speak in front of groups, but I am not sure that I have found the job that God has planned for me. I love junior higher, but I guess teaching them is different than ministering to them. Of course I know that where I am now is God’s plan for me, but what about the future? It’s a question I have been pondering. I’ll let you know if it’s still a thought I have next week.

Note: I probably did not have a speaking part in whatever we are doing here.