Public Speeking

So I had to give a talk in church on Sunday. Previous to this I had successfully avoided having to give a talk for three consecutive years by screening all phone calls from bishopric members, walking the other way when I saw them in the hall, and avoiding "get to know you interviews."

But then I got a new calling as communications co-chair and my co-chair and I had a meeting with the bishop. In the meeting the bishop asked me to speak in sacrament meeting. My co-chair Mike tried to help me out by saying that I was a terrible speaker, maybe the worst he had ever heard, but all to no avail.

So then I had to decide what to talk on. At first I considered talking about faith through trials, then several people suggested that I talk about chastity. Chastity does make a great topic, and I could have talked about avoiding temptation and given real world examples... For instance let's say you're a girl return missionary and you go on a road trip with boys. You should not sleep in the same room with them. Even though you consider yourself to be a strong person. Even the strong can fall Mary... and what kind of an example do you think you are setting for your impressionable older sister... and then I could talk about David and Bathsheba... Yes, chastity would have been an excellent topic, but in the end I decided to talk about worshipping false gods. Though a better topic would have been how to be happy through trials or the evils of sarcasm...