I'm the substitute soloist for my Christian Science branch church. One Sunday I was practicing my solo, when two people arrived very early for church. One was a very good friend of mine, and the other was someone I know and like a great deal. But I felt extremely nervous.
After I was finished, I asked my dad why I was incredibly nervous about a couple of friends of mine, who weren't even in the same room. He said that the false belief is that we get nervous when we perform in front of people. I thought that was a very stupid thing to believe, so I started to pray about it.
As the service began, the Reader announced the first hymn (No. 160 from the Christian Science Hymnal). I listened very closely and these words really stood out to me: "For storm or shine, pure peace is thine, /Whate'er betide." I prayed by thinking about this over and over. I especially liked the part "pure peace is thine." I thought that if pure peace was mine, then there was no need for me to be nervous. I prayed with this during the whole first part of the service. It made me feel relieved to know that pure peace is mine forever.
