Fearful Memories

 

The majority of my childhood life was a happy time for me, except when I had to face challenges that were kind of hard for me. Like I said before I was very shy and when I was asked to do something like go to the neighbor’s house to borrow something, it brought out the fear in me. One day I was asked to go over to our Mr. Joe and Mrs. Lilly’s house, our neighbor that lived across the street from us, to borrow their hammer. I knocked on the door and Mrs. Lilly asked “who is it,” I said, “Len” in a very low voice. So Mrs. Lilly asked again, “who is it” so I answered in a little bit louder voice, It’s Len. Mrs. Lilly finally opened the door. Then I said in a voice that started out soft and ended up a little louder, “may I borrow your ham-mer.” What did you say Mrs. Lilly asked? May I borrow the hammer, I asked in a somewhat louder voice. Mrs. Lilly finally understood what I said and gave me the hammer for my mother to use. I know that I wasn’t the only shy person in the world, but a lot of times I felt like it. It’s pretty lonely in a shy world because you hardly talked to anyone, because for some reason you’re so afraid to.

 

The message I want to relay from this little passage is that when you are shy, as a little child it’s hard to overcome by yourself, I think my mother was trying to help me when she sent me over to Mr. Joe and Mrs. Lilly’s house to borrow their hammer, but what really would have helped would have been to first, help me and my siblings gain confidence in ourselves by speaking more positive words to us instead of negative ones, and  praising us more for the good things that we did instead of making us feel like we never did enough. Every child needs a little praise to help make them feel good about themselves, not to make my parents look bad because I love them very much, but neither me nor my sisters and brothers got a lot of praise during our childhood, except being told by other people how polite and well mannered we were. That was one thing my parents felt strongly about. That could be a plus or a minus because even though being polite is a good thing, a person can over indulge themselves in being polite and kind, which can lead to your kindness being taken as a weakness, so I say be kind with limits, but that’s another story that I will eventually write about.

 

Here are a few suggestions to help you bring yourself out of being shy and gain more courage:

• Praise yourself
• Learn to love yourself
• Never feel that you are not worthy of other people
• Focus on positive things people say about you
• Except compliments

 

Bible Verse:

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”