Ahhh! A Bird!

Back when I was in high school (sounds like something my grandpa would say....anyways) I had a special....incident occur.  Picture your usual Mormon high school friend's birthday party.  Cake, balloons, silly games, and all sorts of immature things.  After we had our cake the friend decided he would show us all his bird.  He brought the bird out and a few of us decided to hold it.  Big mistake!

Instead of the usual holding-the-bird "awe, how sweet" type of moment everyone else seemed to have, mine went horribly awry.  The bird seemed to have drawn a target right on my face and flew straight at me.  Not only did it hit me square in the face a few hundred times (exaggeration), but it proceeded to get stuck in my hair.  Of course, this ended my bonding time with the bird.

Now, I'm an animal fan.  So I tried not to let this get the best of me.  But, this little incident didn't happen just once, or twice, but three times.  Ergo, I am now scared of birds.  Let me clarify this.  Wild birds are fine.  Pet's are......okay, if they are in the cage.  But, if they are free and flying in the house, my heart starts racing a bazillion times a minute.

This week I faced fear right in the face.  Alright, it snuck up on me.  Before I could say a word the person we were visiting asked "would you like to hold the parrot?" and proceeded to place it on my arm.  Was I ready?  Is Kermit magenta?  OF COURSE NOT!  But, I sucked it up and faced my fear.

As you can tell, I survived this experience.  Not only did I survive, but the parrot seemed to like me.  The only way I know this was that it did the motherly regurgitate action thing to tell me it did (learned this lovely fact from the owner of said parrot).  Tender right?

Undoubtedly, not everyone is afraid of birds.  This is probably a good thing.  But, we all have fear.  Fear is a natural human instinct.  What I know about fear is that we can all conquer it.  There isn't anything out there that cannot be overcome.  It's true. The Lord has said “1Fear not, for I am with thee.”  The scriptures also teach us that "2There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear."  Two wonderful promises from the Lord.  First, that He is always with us.  Second, as we try to have "perfect love", our fear will be gone.

I know that the Lord can help us with any fear.  Big or small.  With or without wings.  He is always there, giving us the strength to carry on.  So go out and face fear with your head held high!  (Especially if you are scared of heights.)