Humility Vs. Self-Confidence
I titled it Part 1 because after studying several hours on this, I have this feeling I'm only part way up the mountain of what I will discover about myself, the Lord, and this topic all together.
Being Self-Confident to me is a good thing. I would say that I want my children to have self-confidence, as I relate this to being a leader rather than a follower, and feeling good about themselves. I had to look up the definition so that I could have complete understanding in my studying and found that the definition is much of what I thought it would be.
Self-Confidence: Realistic Confidence in one's own judgement, ability, power, etc. Belief in yourself & abilities. Freedom of DOUBT.
Wow! That last part is really interesting.......freedom of doubt????? I wonder what they are referring to? Self-doubt, doubting your abilities, doubting others abilities, doubt concerning your circumstances, doubt in THE LORD??? My own definition to the opposite of doubt would be FAITH, so does that mean that having Self-Confidence also mean that you have faith? (Notice, I'm following up with question marks because I don't know these answers......I'm not preaching to you, I'm opening this up for thought, even comments, I'd love to hear from you and your thoughts.......mine as I've mentioned before come from my bible study).
The Lord put the word "Humility and/or Humbleness" on my heart over a week ago, and I just can't stop thinking of it. I think it came some time around the blog post I did on Righteousness. Maybe it wasn't God after all, maybe it was the enemy trying to confuse me and make me think that it was impossible for me to have self-confidence and teach others all the while still remaining humble with humility. That is the honest truth of what has been going over and over in my head, and where did that lead me? It led me to doubt.......the opposite of faith......interesting!
The bible speaks a lot of Humility & Humbleness; in Proverbs 22:4 it says "Humility before the Lord brings wealth & honor". Well, I don't know about you but wealth and honor are two things that I wouldn't mind being privileged with, sounds like positive things to me.
The bible also says "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 1 Peter 5:5 OK, here's another one to ponder over: we have to distinguish the difference of being "proud" vs. "self-confident". Now proud is a tricky word. I would tend to think that its "OK, to be proud of yourself". When I talk to my children I'm sure I've said things like "I am so proud of you" or "You should be very proud of yourself". So I'm thinking that the Lord as our Heavenly Father also wants to be and is "Proud" of us as his children, and I believe he also wants us to be "self-confident" or "proud" of ourselves as well. Where the translation gets lost is the difference between this practical and positive "proud" vs. the "self-righteous pride" that I've talked about before, and is also mentioned in the bible. Pride is not a bad thing, just as worship is not a bad thing, however used in the wrong context it can be very harmful. Does this make sense? I'm starting to understand it better myself (the whole purpose of my blog, to learn myself through sharing with others!!) I think this applies to all sorts of things, you really need to go to the bible before you go to Webster, then in knowing the "worlds definition" and already knowing the "Lord's definition" you will be able to make sense of these things that approach us in life, or maybe these hurdles the enemy will throw in our way to confuse us......or give us.....doubt! :)
So the moral of the story so far is its OK to be self-confident. It takes self confident people to make the world go round, and definitely to spread the word of Jesus Christ, and just as I mentioned above God is our Father and he wants us to feel confident in not only ourselves, but more so in him.......just as we do for our children.
Now the next time I get that little feeling of "doubt" come into my mind, I can tell it to go away.....knowing that it is not coming from God, as it is the opposite of faith.
This seems so simple now, but look how complex I had made it to be!! It actually bothered me for over a week! I let the enemy actually let me go a week thinking that I couldn't be confident in the Lord and share his word, and yet be humble and obey God's word at the same time!! Seems silly now that I am seeing the words in front of me.
This may be a little un-related but at the same time I feel compelled to share this word with you today:
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers
of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands
FOREVER."
1 Peter 1:24-25
I suppose I was led to share this verse with you today because it does in fact go along with what I said above. Webster's dictionary, however helpful it may be......is just a book. In fact now with the invention of the Internet you can google to look up a definition and their are many out there all competing with Mr. Webster. However, as I said before first go to the bible to seek out your answers, then compare that with the word of the world. I did that, and look how easy it was for me to get my answer and how silly it seemed to me. Had I only of read Webster's answer I would never have been freed of my feelings of doubt. That is because the bible, the word of our savior, LIVES FOREVER!! It is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Unlike Webster's it does not have a new 2011 edition, adding all the new slang terms so we can understand each other......the bible is a living testimony and it remains strong and true!!
What a comforting thought to know that in this big messed up world there is one thing that through our generations, has and will remain the same and that is the word of our Lord. If you ever think you can't communicate with your spouse, your children or a loved one, have them turn to the bible because you will both find your common ground through our Father, our creator and our savior!!
Now that is something to be "Self-Confident" about today!!!
Have a good one everybody!!
I think that truely self confident people are automatically humble. They do not seek externat validation that they are "good" people, or doing the right thing. They have a good internal sense of who they are and what is right for them. Most truely self confident people wouldn't even think of it at all.....it is just who they are. Self confidence can be taught, but more often it is learned by experiences...both good and bad. Some people are born more in touch with who they are and start out with more self confidence than others but life experience can bring that to anyone who chooses to learn from experiences instead of shifting blame or responsibility to others. Self confidence is often quiet.....those who need to tell others how self confident they are, usually aren't. There are some people with true self confidence who are extroverts and can share with others thier experiences,feelings,and opinions in order to help or teach but typically they aren't giving credit to themselves at all. I think this is because truely self confident people are always in a state of flux, growth and change. This is why most self confident people are humble, they don't see themselves the way we do. They know they are constantly learning and changing so they see thier "weak spot" or challenges. Self confident people can be proud, but again, usually don't give themselves the credit....or if they do, it is downplayed by other factors involved, minimizing the credit. A good example of this is one you used, being proud of your kids. I am proud of my kids for who they are and how they have become, not for how "I raised them". Of course, we all have a huge impact on our kids but the credit is shifted to the child, not the parent. That shows both self confidence and humility, which brings me back to the point that true self confidence and humility are bed fellows. I really don't think you can have the one without the other. My 02 for the day. =0)
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