facing fears.

So today I went ice skating with my youth group and it was pretty scary. I'm scared of falling, especially on hard ice with a bunch of people skating around me who could potentially run into me or something, so I usually cling to the wall because I'm scared to death to move. And I don't really know why but I'm just scared of falling so it made it kind of difficult to ice skate. But my friends there really encouraged me. They made me take "baby steps" to some-what learn how to skate. They would make me let go of the wall for so far and "march" to the wall where they would let me touch and they would have me grab their hands and go out and "skate" with them. And it really helped that they were encouraging me saying I'm doing good and stuff. And I finally was some-what skating without them holding me. It was cool, but scary. I feel very accomplished. I don't know why but I've always been scared of falling. A few years ago during my freshman year we went on a retreat to Camp Fuji and we did the marine obstacle course. I was so scared to do it. It was so challenging too. But I made it through. I had my friends around me encouraging me and it was great. I was stuck at the top of these two parallel poles for about 20 minutes because I had to jump down and I was scared of falling. The marines were at the bottom telling me that they'd catch me but I was still scared. But I did finally jump...but the marines didn't catch me. oops. But I did it! It was so amazing. I get so scared when I face a fear but it feels great when I face it. And I'm so thankful for the friends that God has given me who encourage me.