When I was a little girl, I went to church 3 times a week.  And Bible School.  And Sunday school.  I loved Bible School.  There were projects to do, pop cycle sticks to glue into stick people, boxes, whatever.  But the thing I loved best were the colored cards with ten scriptures on them.  If you memorized them all, you got another card.  It was like Bible baseball cards.  I wanted them all.

So every day I would memorize all ten scriptures so I could get another card the next day.  For two weeks of Bible School.  100 scriptures every summer for years and years.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.

I took elocution from the time I was 6 until I think I was 10.  My teacher made me stand straight and recite poetry (from memory) with the correct facial and body presentation.  "Make it interesting to the listener," she would say.  When I finally got it like she wanted it, I got a sticker--a bird, dog, flower, whatever, on the poem.  The only thing I cared about was the sticker.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.

I have been teaching Bible since I was l7.  The teacher kicked me out of class because I talked too much.  The pastor started me out teaching 9 year old girls.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.  Since then, there has been almost 60 years of studying the Bible in order to teach others.

What I am trying to say is that when you learn to do something well, who knows what God will do with it.  I am never afraid to speak.  To 10 or a thousand.  I know how to do that because I took elocution.  And when I speak, I have something to say because I have scripture in my memory.

And it is never too late.  My friend Carolyn who is 74 just started taking piano lessons.  "I always wanted to know how to play."  Learn something God can use.  Keep learning.