God is our leader in confidence. He made that clear in John 15:5, as he is the vine and we are the branches. And by being our leader, he will help us bear fruit, as long as we live in Him and He in us.
We are the champions, a la Queen, when we reside with God.
But how can we do that? Well, maybe by daily prayer, weekly Mass and monthly confession, to name a few ideas. They sometimes are hard habits to keep, but give it 21 days to form the new habit.
Lent starts on Feb. 13, so maybe that is a time start a plan to reside with God.
Again, I am behind. Life has still taken over, but I think the stress in my life is pushing me deeper down the hole of depression. I get distant from things I love or commitments (except for work) when I am depressed. So, here I am, slacking off from writing my blog.
Day 15 talks about finding our faults and not being afraid to admit them to God and others. It is hard for us to tell others our faults, especially if we want a job. But confessing our sins is a tenant of the Catholic faith and the ability to let go and let God. Joyce says to tell God your sins and you will feel better. This is why I love confession and the sacrament of it, even when it is hard for me to go.
Day 16: “I encourage you to be content with you you are.” This is what Joyce says in this day’s reading. She speaks about looking to others for examples, but to never go so far as to covet who they are or what they have. She says uniqueness is not a bad thing, and by loving ourselves, we will find more confidence.
Day 17: After a beautiful story, Joyce writes, “If you follow God’s plan for conquering fear, you will find one day that all the things that frightened you the most were really nothing at all.” Fear is not a big scary monster, it just roars like one. But we can defeat it and become more confident.
I am sorry I got so behind on my daily reflections. I decided to go to my parents for the weekend, and had planned on catching up on a few things but then didn’t.
Continuing on the theme of knowing your strengths, Joyce suggests making a list of what you are good at and reading aloud a few times a day until it sinks in to your conscious. She said this isn’t conceited; it is preparing yourself to do your job with confidence. God didn’t make junk, so we aren’t junk.
What are some of my strengths? Well, I love to write stories, which makes me a good journalist. I might not be able to draw, but I can come up with some creative ideas that others can do, who have those abilities. I am a good friend and a listener. I love to learn and share important information, whether in a formal or informal setting. I can cook and bake very well most of the time, and people enjoy my treats. I have a strong drive and determination, so even when I get off track, I can get back on. I have a big heart, which can get me in trouble sometimes (caring too much and getting burnt) but I think it is a strength.
Day 12 is about getting out of the boat of your past. Joyce said that you can’t enjoy your future or even your present if you are living in your past. I think I have accomplished most of this, luckily. I used to live in the past, and sometimes I do live in the little past moments (i.e. a get-together is going well and then I say something and it seems to change the mood. Sometimes I think it will affect the days to come with my friendship, when it really doesn’t.) Joyce said no one is going to get you out of this, get you out of this past boat, so you have to do it for yourself.
Day 13 is about not seeing setbacks as failures. Do you stop trying when something goes wrong, when you “fail”? Joyce said we do not fail because something did not work out; we only fail when we stop trying. These setbacks are learning curves; we recover and we learn from them.
Everyone, including myself, is worrying so much about the reception, the food, etc. And of course, the next worry will be my dress and what the rest of my bridal party will be wearing. But where is the importance? The ceremony at the church! I worry a lot, maybe not about food and clothing but in general.
Joyce said in this book: ” Once you allow the spirit of fear to take hold of your life, you open the door to other spirits that want to grip your heart and cause you to freeze up, unable to move forward in confidence and assurance.” AMEN! Yes, this happens to me. And Joyce makes another point that 80% of chronic worriers have poor self-image. That is me, right on the nose. If I have any key bad qualities, it is my ability to worry like no other. This is the fuel for my IBS. I KNOW I should not worry, and that God even in the Bible tells me not to. I need to trust in him to get this worrying out of my system.
Joyce said God is for us, so with him, we cannot lose. But he also is teaching us, here, to persevere when we know we are right. He is teaching us to fight for what is right, even when everyone is screaming “No!” at us.
Perseverance takes a lot of strength, a lot of confidence. And that is what Joyce is trying to teach us through this devotional.
So, before we get into today’s reading, I wanted to say I wasn’t much of a confident woman last night. I broke down, sobbing hard on my fiance’s shoulder. The wedding planning is getting too much for me, and I am just overwhelmed. Things just cost too much! So I cried my eyes out.
We must find strength in our weaknesses, using them to persevere and find our true way.
My weakness right now? Easily breaking down about this wedding crap. How can I fix it? By doing deep breaths when something freaks me out, instead of crying and screaming.
Taking care of yourself is the theme for today. As women, we seem to run our lives ragged, going from home to activities to work to a million other things we “need” to do.
Even if we accept Christ into our lives, it doesn’t mean we will have time for Him or our lives will get easier. The feeling that we need to take care of everyone doesn’t go away.
But we need to “do right in the eyes of the Lord,” as it is said in 1Kings 15 and this means taking care of ourselves to bring balance back into our lives. I am not saying be totally selfish, but how can a sick mom take care of her kids, her husband and the house, when she can barely stand up? This also goes for the mental aspect, too. Sometimes we need to just get away to bring back the equilibrium.
Happy Sunday! For Catholics, today is the Feast of the Epiphany, when the wise men visited baby Jesus.
Anyway, today we are back on confidence.
Joyce brings in a mentor from the Bible, Esther. She confidently stepped into the king’s inner circle and helped to save her people from perishing. Today, we are asked again to have confidence in the Lord and what he has planned for us.
“Fear brings a lack of confidence in God and in you,” Joyce says.
Let’s pray for confidence in the Lord, that he continues to guide us and we let go of our fear and our need to be in total control.