Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I’m not a good speaker. . . . I speak slowly, and I become tongue-tied easily.” The Lord asked him, “Who gave humans their mouths? Who makes humans unable to talk or hear? . . . Now go, and I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Exodus 4:10–12
Shyness is never an excuse for sin. Just because you don’t feel capable of reaching out to love and serve others doesn’t mean you can disobey God’s call. Nothing should keep you from reaching out to the world around you—not your tendency to fear rejection or to assume they all hate you, and not your fear of social situations—nothing is bigger than the God who commands you to go.
This should be good news to the shy girl, not something that freaks you out. It means that contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be controlled by your shyness. You don’t have to panic or be afraid of people, because God promises to help you do the things he tells you to do. God’s people are called to have compassion and empathy, to treat others as we would want to be treated, to teach, to preach, and to share truth with others—yes, even with strangers. That means that if shyness is getting in the way of these commands on your life, then it is leading you to sin, and so it must not be obeyed. You’re a God Girl—you serve the one true God and not the god of fear. There is your freedom!
The cure for your fear is the love of the Father. When God’s will is your will, nothing anyone says or does can hurt you, and that’s the source of your confidence. You are truly free when you label yourself a God Girl instead of a shy girl and when you choose his will over your own!