Each one of us has the inert desire to create. It is one of our God given talents. Not all of us are very good at it and we all have different ways that we create. Some of us create food and new recipes or old recipes in the kitchen. Others, create art, sculptures, paintings, drawings and so on. Some of us sew. Some people create novels or the written word in all it's varieties. Others create flower arrangements or architecture and household or landscape design. Some people like to scrap book or knit. Others work with makeup and hair. The list goes on and on. My point is that we all like to create at something even if we have to copy someone elses design. I am not very good at coming up with ideas on my own but I can get on pinterest and create a floral arrangement or get card design ideas from others.
Not all of us are good at creating a business out of what we like to create but we do create and operate our own homes. That in turn makes us some sort of entrepreneur. The difference is what we choose to be a master of and our ability to endure the perseverance it takes to master our marketable skill.
Perseverance is becoming a lost art unto itself. We are often to inclined to enjoy the immediate results of our world today. Everything we want is almost at our finger tips. We hardly have to work for what we desire. My children are experiencing this dilemma much too often for my liking. One child decided that she no longer wanted to speak in public and that it was scary. I don't argue that it can be scary but she was given the opportunity at school to opt out of doing an oral presentation and taking the F. Just like that it was done and there wasn't anything I could do about it. The next school year she had another class and the teacher told her also that she didn't have to do it either. Well, she was coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why her teachers weren't encouraging her to do better and that it was OK not to do hard things if it made her uncomfortable. Even in church she was passing on opportunities to speak in Primary or in sacrament meeting.
We had a good long talk about this several times.You have to learn to overcome obstacles. You're going to be asked to speak at various times all throughout your life and you can't let it beat you and control you. She didn't care and was certain she could somehow avoid all possibilities of speech class, in high school, or youth talks, etc. A few weeks later she was asked to speak in church. I assured the primary secretary that she was capable despite her and her sisters claims, and that my daughter would be speaking. We wrote a short talk with her, for her was more like it. and had a prayer with her asking for courage. I told her that brave people are brave because they do things even though they are scared and they don't let fear stop them from doing that which needs to be done.
Her time came and she walked to the pulpit. Shakily she whispered four words and into the microphone and then slumped down to the floor to hide behind the podium. I stood beside her offered encouragement and pulled her up by her elbow. I held her firmly as she stood there hiding behind the picture we brought from the library and we stood there until she read the main points of the talk. We skipped the middle and read only the important main points. She eventually made it to the last sentence, closed her talk and ran out of the room to hide in the bathroom in a heep on the floor. I told her how proud I was of her and how brave she was that she had done that. Sometimes we have to face our fears in order to overcome them.
That was her breaking point. After that she realized that her younger brother could give talks without problems and that if he could do it so easily at his young age that she could find courage and do it also. I'm happy to report that only a month or so later she was able to speak in Sacrament meeting in her last primary program and also gave a speech in her science class.
We can do hard things if only we are brave enough to stare down our fear and persevere until weak things become strong, or at least less hard.
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