Speaking In Church and the Post Pregnancy Brain

Last week I was approached by a guy at church. He is in charge of assigning talks to the congregation, amongst other things. 

He handed me a talk:

The talk is titled "Choose to Believe" by Elder L. Whitney Clayton. I was supposed to speak on how we choose to believe  in Christ, rather than being forced into belief. I could take any quotes from the talk, insights I had, scriptures, or stories that followed my theme.

I told him "No Problem" and stuck it in my bag. It was a crazy day. Carter gave a talk to all the children, I lead the music to the congregation, and I taught a class.

Today, another man at church came over and said "I noticed you are speaking today." What? Me? You're talking to me? He shows me the program. I thought it was a joke. He mentioned that the man who asked me was out of town (which I knew ahead of time) and they thought he asked everyone ahead of time. I reached into my bag and pulled out the untouched talk. Yes, he did ask me. I will have something ready. 

On the top of the talk, there was a hand written time frame: "8 - 10 minutes". I was hoping to make it to 5! 5 minutes of my rambling on and on would suffice right? They would be tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to sit down before I ever got to 8 minutes right?

My first instinct was to run out of the chapel, find a quiet classroom and plan something in the 15 minutes I had. However, I lead the music. I was able to read ONE paragraph and up on the stand I went (Thank goodness we were there early!!). After I led two songs, I ran back to sit with David so he didn't have to keep the kids quiet on his own the entire time. Also, I didn't want to miss Beckett's first time taking the Sacrament. 

There was a 13 year old young man who gave a talk, 6 or 7 minutes long, then it was my turn. I completely winged it. I have never done that. I used two quotes from the paragraph that I had read, some stories from my life that applied, and I sat down. I spoke for 7 minutes and 55 seconds. . Whew. I did it.

I walked from the podium, to the organ. I grabbed my book, and led another song. I sat down with my family. I listened to the last speaker fill the rest of the time nicely - even cut some out of what he had originally intended to say - then I got up and led the last song. I went from there to teach my class.

What a crazy whirlwind of a day!!

My brain just does not work like it used to! Babies really sucked the brain cells out of me. 

After I have had time to think, I realized something. I was super stressed out for about 20 minutes today. However, had I remembered, I would have been stressed out for 7 days. I stressed out over Carter's talk, and I wasn't even able to be there!! This would have put my stomach in knots all week! What a blessing!