Say Something Nice

I remember when I was practising my vocal solo for the A.C.E. Convention I was feeling pretty stink because I could not get the timing right and I thought my voice sounded dreadful. But when a friend heard me singing and said I had a great voice and that he was nervous about competing against me for he was also doing a vocal solo I immediately felt "ten feet off the ground." My friend never knew the impact his encouraging words had on me, but without them I probably would have never been able to sing my solo.

Words are powerful. They can bring life or death into someone's life.

When a person (especially a guy) says to a girl that she is ugly or comments negatively about her looks in any way, she will often take it it heart and will start believing that maybe she isn't pretty and that no one could love her. Even if what you said was in jest!

Ephesians 4:29 says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."


So guys, let us build up our sisters in Christ. Tell her she is beautiful or give a word of encouragement. Oh, by the way girls, the reason why guys won't always say you're beautiful is because we are too darn scared. This is because us guys can have major self-confidence issues. I know I do. But, this is where you girls can help. You can give us the confidence boost we need. You see, whenever us guys do something that is outside our comfort zone like giving a speech, leading an activity or even just opening a door for a girl, we always wonder what people think about us. And if nobody says anything we often assume the worst and come to the conclusion that everyone thought what we did was lame or done badly. So if you have a friend who may have just delivered a speech tell him it was great and what parts you enjoyed. Likewise, if he leads something, thank him. Whenever he moves outside his comfort zone encourage him.

Words can make or ruin someone's day. You have the power. So, face your fears encourage each other. Tell her she is beautiful or tell him he is awesome. Go out of your way today and encourage someone. '...a word spoken at the right moment - how good it is' (Proverbs 15:23). Encouragement and nice words spoken - this is one of the ways we can shine the light of Christ.

Rethinking Companionship

 When I was younger Mum always told me to choose my friends wisely. She often would say, "Make sure you have godly friends because the people you hang out with will influence who you will become." I thought, "Fair enough" and followed my wise mother's advice.

Just recently though, I read the book "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris and in one chapter they briefly talked about companionship in a new light.

In Proverbs 13:20 Solomon says this, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed." (NKJV)

Now for the interesting part. What if companionship was not just limited to people? What if it also included the things and activities we spend our time with? If foolish human companions can harm you aren't foolish movies, websites, computer games, music and comic books just as bad?

Sometimes (and especially in my case) we can actually spend more time with these 'non-human' friends than we do with real people. That's why it is so important to evaluate our activities and honestly ask ourselves which ones are wise friends and which ones are foolish. For example, going for a run would be a wise friend because running has countless benefits for you. While on the other hand randomly surfing You Tube is a foolish friend because it is unproductive and can also be dangerous.

Once you have honestly identified them, replace your foolish friends with wise ones.

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A Quick Word: The Solar System of Your Life

I was reading an article from Desiring God and I thought this was a great picture of why Christ should be the center of our lives.

My conviction is that the better you know the supremacy of Christ the more sacred and satisfying and Christ-exalting your [life] will be. I have a picture in my mind of the majesty of Christ like the sun at the center of the solar system of your life. The massive sun, 333,000 times the mass of the earth, holds all the planets in orbit, even little Pluto, 3.6 billion miles away.

So it is with the supremacy of Christ in your life. All the planets of your life—your sexuality and desires, your commitments and beliefs, your aspirations and dreams, your attitudes and convictions, your habits and disciplines, your solitude and relationships, your labor and leisure, your thinking and feeling—all the planets of your life are held in orbit by the greatness and gravity and blazing brightness of the supremacy of Jesus Christ at the center of your life. And if he ceases to be the bright, blazing, satisfying beauty at the center of your life, the planets will fly into confusion, and a hundred things will be out of control, and sooner or later they will crash into destruction.

Article was from http://desiringgod.org/

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Four Steps to Face Your Fear

When I started on this journey to face all my fears I really wished I had a set formula to help me over come fear. Unfortunately such a thing does not exist because fear does not actually go away until you have done what you where afraid of. But all the same I wanted to share with you the four key steps I took when I faced my fear of "singing in front of people."

1. Yes, That Scares Me

The first thing we need to do in the journey to face our fears is to identify them This step is easy to because we all know what we are scared of. It might be telling your friends about Christ or talking to the girl/guy who is new at school and has no friends. My big fear however was singing in front of people.

2. Get Accountable

This step is super important, yet so many people skip it and thus never do what scares them. You see, when we get accountable and tell people what and when we are going to do something we must do it because if we don't we look like the world's biggest hypocrites.

When I wanted to overcome my singing in public phobia I told over almost a hundred people that I would sing a male solo on stage. Now, if I chickened out of this one (and believe me I almost did) I would look like a massive hypocrite in front of my whole school. This accountability was the thing that kept me from making excuses and looking for ways to skip the solo.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

You heard the saying that practice makes perfect. Well I'm here today to tell you that this statement is a whole load of... Truth.

Unfortunately there is no fast way to get good at something. Everything worth doing takes time and practice.

When I said I would perform a vocal solo I knew it would take a lot of practice. Thankfully I had been having singing lessons. Thankfully I had six months before the day I said to would do it. So guess what I did for those six months. Yeah, that's right, I practised, practised and practised some more.

4. Just Do It

This is by far the hardest step out of the four. The climax, the end, the showdown, the final frontier! Or also known as the part where you actually do what you are deathly afraid of.

When the time came for me to walk on to the stage and perform my vocal solo I felt fear in all its dreadful strength. I had so much self-doubt and kept asking myself why the heck I was doing this, but when I actually started and got into my song all the fear left me. That's why, when the time comes there is no magic word or prayer that will make the fear go away. The only thing you want do is "Just do it."



"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to face it." - Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

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The Ultimate Adventure

Since the beginning of this year I made a conscious decision to always say "yes" to doing the things that scared me. That's why I said yes to preaching in front of a hundred people and that's why I performed a male vocal solo at the Student Convention. Both these things scared my socks off, yet I have leant so much from them and grown in confidence, purpose and faith in God.


Often teens are saying that their lives get kind of boring. They always dream of adventure like we see in the movies. I mean what guy hasn't thought life would be a heck of a lot cooler if he was a secret agent or something.

I know that everyone at some point must have wished that their lives weren't so boring. Me included. I was always looking to the next thrill, the ultimate adventure. That's why I love mountain climbing. There's nothing like being 2000+ metres up knowing that if you make a mistake you could fall over 1km to your death. I know this ain't for everyone, but this is my kind of adventure. Yours might be having a romantic relationship or traveling the world, but the problem with these adventures is that they are very temporary and lack purpose. Yet we do them because we do not know that our Father in Heaven has the ultimate adventure waiting for each one of us. His adventure for us has been hand crafted by Him for us and always has purpose.

But here's the catch. God's adventure for your life has been designed to stretch you and get you to move outside your comfort zone. If we want to live the ultimate adventure we need to be able to overcome our fears. That's why I recommend - always do what you are afraid to do - if it is beneficial to others.

A teenager's life does not have to be boring. God has an exciting adventure waiting for all of us. All He asks is that we be available and willing: Willing to do the hard stuff even if it scares our socks off.

In the next post I will give you some practical steps to overcoming fear.

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I'm the Guinea Pig! Part Three

Well, the next day came and with it the dread of having to perform my solo. Even though John had encouraged me I still felt majorly scared. When I went down to breakfast I started to feel really nervous. I was practically dying inside, asking myself why on earth I had said yes to performing a male solo. But then I thought, "No, I will overcome this fear!" So I went straight to our choir teacher and asked her to listen to my solo and tell me what she thought of it. I was still nervous singing it in front of her, but I thought that it was a good idea to tackle a little, scary thing before I took on the big one that afternoon. This worked out to be one of the best decisions I could have made because she sincerely encouraged me and said I had a really nice voice which meant a lot coming from a musical person like her.

After this practice I went into the music room to await my turn to perform. I became rather scared waiting there to sing and old fears began to creep in again. But thankfully I didn't have the time to be swallowed by my fears for my singing teacher had just walked in and I was called up to perform my vocal solo. I slowly made my way to the stage praying that nobody could see me trembling. I felt rigid and way out of place like a fish out of water when I introduced my song. I quickly closed my eyes as the music began and prayed again for God's strength. Then I opened my mouth and began to sing like I had never sung before. I forgot the audience and the judges and sang my song with all the emotion I had. My song was about the beauty and commitment of marriage and so it made some of the mothers in the audience cry. A friend had once jokingly told me that her greatest ambition in life was to make the audience cry, so I guess I must have done okay. I finished the song and felt so relieved to have done it. My sister Lydia came up to me and said, "Flip, I didn't know you could sing like that!" As you can imagine I felt pretty good. I had just overcome my greatest fear. Now that I look back on that day I wonder why singing in front of people scared me so much, I mean, now I kind of enjoy it. I never dreamed that something I was so scared of is now something I love to do. But, I guess that is what happens when people face their fears.

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