I’ve never enjoyed getting up in front of an audience. Ironically, when I was young, I recall doing Bible memory verses in front of my church, but as I grew older, I was less and less inclined to do it. So, when I was asked to participate in a Scripture recitation, I was not willing. Though I memorize Scripture regularly and strongly believe in the importance of memorizing passages, I wanted to leave the recitations to others. However, after numerous invitations, I eventually felt that I could no longer avoid the inevitable. I knew that for me to refuse again and again to get up in front of the church to recite Scriptures–due to my own vanity and nervousness–was disobedience. I wanted to obey God even if it was uncomfortable. So, I agreed to recite on the condition that I could do it with a friend. Just having another person beside you on stage is comforting. The other confidence-booster for me was “over-memorizing” the passage. Being very prepared takes a lot of the nervousness out of public speaking. It also helped that I had a very kind, patient, and encouraging director.