I am grateful to have overcome a miserable condition of chronic shyness. Extreme timidity continued from childhood into manhood. Shortly after I began to serve as First Reader in my branch church—a position which at first seemed impossible for me to fulfill due to this condition—the shyness began to fade away until it completely left me.
This happened, I feel, because of my determination to lose sight of a mortal selfhood opposed to God. I thereafter became outgoing and gained confidence, not in a mortal self, but in God and His perfect man. Business and social activities were undertaken with total ease. And as an entertainer, I played the piano before an audience of several hundred people with freedom and assurance. I knew that my ability was derived from God, that without Him, I could not lift a finger nor bring out the beautiful harmonies. As a result there were many fine reviews by well-known newspaper critics. I give God the full glory.
A longstanding tendency toward severe headaches that sometimes lasted for days also left me. This condition was permanently healed.
