overcome stage fright

WELL my mother and sister kind of threw it out there to my whole church that I am an “amazing singer”... The church I go to is new, and there aren’t a lot of people there yet… But I can’t even sing in front of THEM. The pastor said that it would be really good for the church if I sang every Sunday, and it would bring in more people and help it grow. So now I’m guilty. AND terrified. Ugh.

I have always been terrified of singing in front of people. The thing is, I CAN sing, very well. I know it, and a few other people know it, but they don’t know HOW well, because like I said, I’m too afraid to show them. When I was in 7th grade I was in a talent show, and I sang the song “Everything I do”... I thought I was going to puke the whole time, and I while I was on stage the only part of my body that moved at all was my mouth. I hit all the notes with my shaky little voice, and I tricked myself into believing I was satisfied with how well I did, because I really was too afraid to ever do it again. I was like “Now I can say that I have done it, and that’s all I wanted”... But that’s not all I want, I know that if I go through life without singing and sharing my music with people then I will be unhappy. Which leads me to another goal, actually finishing a whole song so I can sing it for people. But still for now, kareoke would do. I’ll tell you how that goes…