Confidence

When I think of the best of any and everything, music, art, business, photography, and sports, I think of people who act with confidence.  It isn’t that life is stress free, the individuals at the top of their game often have as many or more trials as those around them.  It isn’t that everything goes well, there are as many obstacles and difficulties in their life as yours and mine.  The confidence we see on the outside is only part of the story; the butterflies are there.  The difference is simply focus, will, and the desire to be the best.
 
If I could give a gift to those around me, it would be confidence.  Confidence comes when one sees one’s self inside and out, the good and bad, with the knowledge that we are all equal except for the choices we make.  Confidence allows one to act with an assurance that truth travelling with love will always take care of those it touches.  Confidence uses life’s experiences to learn, grow, and become more than what was.
 
The contrast is a twisted form of paralysis and excuses.  When “a voice says, ‘Shout!’
 
I said, ‘What shall I shout?  These people are nothing but grass, their love fragile as wildflowers.  The grass withers, the wildflowers fade, if God so much as puffs on them.  Aren't these people just so much grass?’”  (Isaiah 40.6, 7) 
 
Hope says others are thirsting to know and experience truth.  Faith stands up early to present truth in all in colors, textures, and dimensions.  Confidence’s foundation is hope, its strength is faith, and its dress is love.
 
When you see confidence in action, you can feel it.  When you feel confidence, you experience a renewed sense of better future.  When you hear confidence, the empowerment begins from the inside.
 
Resolutions are great, but they need an anchor.  Desires are fine, yet they cannot travel on their own.  Dreams are fantastic; however, they are about tomorrow.  You and I live in the moment at hand.  God’s gifts today include Hope, Faith, and Love; our confidence.