Scripture Lifeline:
Not Her!

by Shauna Hunsaker

Oh no! How could I call her? I wondered. Sure, she’d been in my classes at church since Star Bs, but I didn’t know her very well. She was popular at school and seemed to have everything going for her. I didn’t dare call her.

Sometimes I feel really inadequate around people. They often seem so much better than I am, and I have a hard time talking to them. When I was asked to be the group leader for our tent at girls’ camp and was assigned to call all our girls and let them know what we were supposed to do, I had no problem calling the girls who were my close friends. But there was one I just didn’t have the nerve to call.

Finally I did it. While talking to her, I stumbled over my words and nothing seemed to make sense. This is so dumb of me, I thought. Why am I such a nervous wreck? After I finished talking, I hung up, embarrassed. “I don’t even want to go to camp,” I said to myself.

The first day of camp I found a quiet spot and opened my scriptures. I came across Doctrine and Covenants 60:2 [D&C 60:2], which read, “But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man.”

That’s it! I thought. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to feel intimidated by other people. He loves each the same, and we are all his children. From then on I decided to be friendly and see what would happen.

As camp went on, we played games together and worked together. At night we sat in our tents talking and laughing together. It turned out to be one of the best years at camp I ever had.

The last night the girl I’d worried about bore her testimony and said that at first she hadn’t wanted to come to camp either because she felt that she wouldn’t have any friends to hang around with, but now she was glad she’d come. She’d made new friends. So had I. And we both learned so much.

Photography by Welden Andersen