Recently my youngest son graduated from high school. He was the second in his class and so was given the responsibility to be the Master of Ceremonies at his graduation. He did a fantastic job conducting and introducing speakers.

I asked him if he was nervous. He said a little bit, but he prayed before hand and asked Heavenly Father to help him not be too nervous, and he said that once he got going, he really wasn’t nervous at all.

This got me thinking about all the times throughout my children’s lives (and my life) that they have had the opportunity to public speak. 99% of those times have been in a church setting. I am grateful for how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints trains the youth, and I thought I would just share a little bit about that training.

The Church is set up by age groups. Primary age kids are 3 – 11 years old. Throughout their years in primary they are given opportunity to give little talks in primary, as well as share scriptures and prayers. This gives them their first taste of being up in front of others on a small scale. Some kids are super eager to get up in front of everyone, and some are extremely nervous in the beginning. Usually by the time they reach 11 they are at least more comfortable getting up and speaking, even if they don’t enjoy it.

When they reach the youth program, 11 – 18 years old, their responsibilities increase. They take charge of the youth program, conducting their meetings, learning how to teach lessons, learning how to plan activities, and speaking to the whole congregation during our Sunday Sacrament Meetings. They don’t have to speak long, usually 5 minutes or less, but they have that opportunity to speak several times throughout their youth years.

I have found over the years that, even though it is scary and they get nervous, when they have to speak in public in other settings they usually do pretty well. Over the years I have been grateful for the training I received through these programs growing up. Not only did I learn how to speak in public (even if I don’t always like to do it), but I also learned how to organize events and activities, how to allow others to help me (I like to do everything myself), and how to teach in a variety of settings both at Church and out in the community.

They say the 2 things people fear most are death and public speaking. Death, well that will come when it comes, but public speaking can be practiced. Anyone can become comfortable with public speaking, and learning from a young age to do so makes that process a lot easier as we get older.