I was blog surfing and came upon Heidi's meme called Pondering in My Heart Monday and it's a chance to reflect on what's truly important in our lives. The below verse is one she is pondering and it spoke LOUDLY to me.
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
I've been asked to make an announcement on something I am organizing (Rosary Rally Crusade) in my area and it's something I believe in yet, I hate public speaking. My parish priest asked me to make the announcement to encourage parishioners to join me in this rally which makes sense. But, I wish the anxious feelings about public speaking would GO AWAY!
To add to that, I was asked to sub as a reader for two days in daily mass and again, my heart started pounding with me thinking "can I do that?" I know I can but can I do it without my voice shaking? Pronouncing all the words accurately? We shall see because I agreed to do it.
I don't want to be fearful in speaking in God's house so I will try and conquer this fear.
I'm linking this up with L.A.C.E. because I need all the prayers I can get!!
Please pray for me!!
Blessings,
Noreen
I've been asked to make an announcement on something I am organizing (Rosary Rally Crusade) in my area and it's something I believe in yet, I hate public speaking. My parish priest asked me to make the announcement to encourage parishioners to join me in this rally which makes sense. But, I wish the anxious feelings about public speaking would GO AWAY!
To add to that, I was asked to sub as a reader for two days in daily mass and again, my heart started pounding with me thinking "can I do that?" I know I can but can I do it without my voice shaking? Pronouncing all the words accurately? We shall see because I agreed to do it.
I don't want to be fearful in speaking in God's house so I will try and conquer this fear.
I'm linking this up with L.A.C.E. because I need all the prayers I can get!!
Please pray for me!!
Blessings,
Noreen
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I'm so glad you joined up with Heidi's link! Public speaking is frightening if you aren't used to it. May the example of the Blessed Virgin's humility give you strength to go out of your comfort zone and risk public humiliation. well, let's hope that last part won't take place, but I'm sure the BVM wouldn't mind that either. Good luck, I'll offer up a prayer for you!
ReplyDeleteHi Noreen,
ReplyDeleteWhat a blessing that your priest asked you to make the announcement! I'll say prayers for you for your announcement and your scripture reading! You have a beautiful heart and love for Jesus and our Blessed Mother. I'm sure your love and passion for our Blessed Mother and her Son will shine forth as you stand in front of others to tell them of your wonderful Rosary Crusade! God will bless your efforts!
Noreen,
ReplyDeleteI am praying for you right now and I am sure that both talks will go well.
To help you prepare please imagine this:
Pontius Pilate's palace. Jesus is standing there silent. The crowd is shouting and screaming abuse. Pilate silences them and asks: Does anyone here have something to say on behalf of this man?
You move forward timidly, nervous, dry throat, voice shaking and you speak ...
Tell the people about the Rosary Rally Crusade, and do the readings at Mass. You are doing it for Him. And you'll do it well because He'll make sure of that.
God bless you Noreen.
Prayers going out to you right now, Noreen! You will be carried by the Lord, doing His will:) Peace of Christ!
ReplyDeleteIt's been awhile since I have visited your lovely place. First, I want to say that I LOVE your new blog background. It's just lovely!
ReplyDeleteNow, onto the post. Public speaking has NEVER been one of my strong points. When I was in college, I tried to dodge any public speaking assignments at all costs. Then, I learned that if I did the speaking first, it wasn't too bad, but it was still scary. So, I can understand this fear.
But as you said, you don't want to have these fears in the Lord's house, and I agree with you. I pray that the Lord will give you the courage you need to speak without shaking or being fearful.
Blessings,
~Madame Wildflower
Dear Noreen,
ReplyDeleteI will be praying for your intentions.
I understand how anxiety can be overwhelming at times when we feel our weakness.
The Lord will greatly bless your effort to serve Him in these upcoming events!
You will honour Him by doing the readings at Mass and making the announcement- don't you worry - all will be well :-)
Thanks for linking up today.
love in Jesus..Trish
Thank you friends for your encouragement! Once I made the decision to do it, the anxious feelings subsided just a bit!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites. I have that verse on my fridge. I just finished reading CALM MY ANXIOUS HEART by LINDA DILLOW and it really helped me (and still is) with my constant worrying. It is incredibly hard as a mother/wife/PERSON to not worry about things. But in all honesty, most of which I worry about never really happens. The only thing that does happen is more and more stress!
ReplyDeletePublic speaking is my greatest fear so I am sending you lots of hugs and prayers that you find your inner strength to make it thru.
ReplyDeletePraying for you Noreen! Phil. 4:6 is one of my favorite verses. I'm sure you will do great :)
ReplyDeleteNoreen,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you so much for sharing your post on my blog. I was so anxious about starting this link up because there was such a fear of "failure" even if it was something that I really felt called to do...hearing from you has really given me heart to keep on pondering and sharing.
I hope that you felt peace in your public speaking roles, and thank you so much!
Hi Noreen,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at school, the public speaking competition (which we had to participate in every term) was my biggest nightmare. My voice would shake and so would my hands. I hated it! Then at university I realised I'd have to do more public speaking and I decided I just had to overcome my fear. And I did!
I am sure you'll do a wonderful job, Noreen. I do admire you very much. Can I admit that I don't read at Mass, not because I am afraid of speaking, but because there are so many words from the Bible I just don't know how to pronounce? Isn't that ridiculous!
Noreen, you wrote this post a few days ago. I wonder if you have made your announcement yet. Wish I could have been there to hear you!
With prayers. God bless!
Thank you friends for your kind words of encouragement! It's certainly hard to step out of my comfort zone even if it's for the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus... well worth it though.
ReplyDelete