Fear of Looking Bad

Michael Barne's in today's BYU devotional, touched a powerful chord. In a discussion of Ether 12:27 and of 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10, he used his own weakness of "the fear of looking bad" as a case in point. I recognize this, with this exact wording, as a serious problem for me. In a recent discussion with Melinda, who is very good at expressing her personal concerns, and in on-going discussions with Carolyn, who, after four decades feels equally free, I understand this fear to be common to all three of us -- and therefore possibly to many more.

I am impressed with Brother Barne's thorough examination of Ether 12:27 (a scripture which was also a favorite of Mom's, Ireta C. Head's, and which she considered to be useful to me because she often drew my attention to it), and I refer everyone to this examination. It is available on http://www.byub.org/devotionals/ and should soon be downloadable and viewable online.

If I can come up with a bottom line to this half-hour devotional, it is the concluding clause in Ether 12:27: "...then will I make weak things [i.e., the fear-of-looking-bad mentioned above] become strong unto them," and 2 Corinthians 12:10: "Therefore I take pleasure in [my weaknesses] for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong."

But I advise everyone to watch/listen to the entire devotional.