Book Club Thursday-The Confident Woman Chp. 6

My family and the Weavers Labor Day weekend.

Chapter Six: Overcoming Self-Doubt

Take a peek at Suzette's blog to read her thoughts on the chapter too at http://godlyrose.blogspot.com

Hi friends! I really enjoyed this chapter as well! It is something all of us has struggled with. We've all doubted our abilities, talents, and strength to be able to accomplish little things and great things in our life. After reading this chapter the one thing that really stood out to me is that we can't let our emotions/feelings control us. We need to choose to believe in ourselves and the God-given abilities we have to accomplish each task that comes our way. Joyce says, "Self-doubt and confidence don't work together, they work against each other." She cries out, "You don't have to feel confident to be confident!"

In James 1:5-8 it teaches us about a double-minded person, and how God can't answer the prayers of someone who doesn't even believe in what he/she is saying. God wants us to have faith! This came true in my own heart and life at the tender age of 15. I was diagnosed with a giant cell tumor in the bone of my foot, and actually since I was an athlete, my podiatrist at first misdiagnosed me for several months and said I had tendinitis, but after months of no sleep because of severe pain, thank God, we sought a second opinion, got an MRI and my orthopedist saw the tumor growing aggressively and actually eating away the bone in my ankle. During this time I had to leave school for a semester, be home-schooled (best months of my life...all my teachers came to my house once a week and I took all the same tests as my friends...and received straight A's!!!) had to go to Sloan Kettering in NYC for surgery and then had to heal at home for the rest of my Sophomore year and summer. The tumor was benign. But because of the months of growth that the tumor had the doctors could not promise a total recovery, they said, maybe I could walk again...maybe. This was devastating news. Do you know what my first thoughts were? Noone will ever want me. I will never get married if I can't walk again. But, instead of moping and being negative, the Lord drew me so close to him. This was such a great time of closeness with the Lord, and guess what verse I claimed? Hebrews 11:1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.

Please listen closely, this doesn't mean that God doesn't say no to our prayers at times, but I am a firm believer that if you pray with faith, and are positive in your thinking even if God does say no to your prayer request (and mine was to be able to walk...run again) He will give you the grace to receive His answer. I still walked with a crutch the beginning of my Junior year, it wasn't til mid year that I was able to walk without it...but that was okay, you know why? God told me (in my heart) that I would walk again, that I would run again, and that I would find a husband some day! I didn't see it up ahead, but I had faith that God would heal and provide...and he did...as a matter of fact...my Junior year is the year John and I were in the same homeroom in high school because the two major HS merged together that year...now does God work miracles or what? LOL

But God taught me a major lesson about my faith in Him and my own confidence as a young woman. Even when we feel less than (and I surely did walking with a crutch) if we hold our head up high and walk in Christ...people forget all about our little insecurities. (It's funny because nobody from high school even remembers my foot surgery, or my crutch...it was as if it never even happened). It taught me that confidence comes from our attitude within. And Jesus gives us such confidence when we can just trust that whatever He is doing in our lives is for our own good and will make us into who He wants us to be.

"Self-doubt causes a person to shrink back in fear." God never wants us to be crippled by fear. He did not give us a spirit of fear! He gave us a spirit of power and strength because He is always with us! We need to have faith in God, His Word, and all His promises. I've found that reading the Psalms and the book of Isaiah really helps me to renew my strength...another verse God gave me during that difficult foot healing time was Isaiah 41: 10 Fear not, for I am with you, do not be dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." What a great promise! And that first day of school my Junior year was scary but God gave me the strength to walk with my head high and crutch in hand. I didn't let fear stop me from doing what I knew I had to do.

Joyce also says, "People who believe and are positive are much healthier than those who are filled with fear, doubt, and negativity." And I would add, they are so much nicer to be around! Have you ever been around a complaining, negative person? It is no fun! Have you ever been that person? Yup, we all have at times, I think! LOL We just need to see that God does have a plan for our lives, and trust His hand. And that is a choice.

Joshua 24:15 Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Make a choice not to let your feelings control you anymore...I have had to do this especially in the middle of the night, when lots of negative thoughts fill my head...I just say Lord, please take these thoughts away, and help me not even to allow them to enter my head and continue to think upon them. Then I pick up a good book and push those thoughts out, out, out...because negative thinking can affect you in the weirdest ways and at the weirdest times...I've even lost weight because my stomach was in knots over negative thinking. It is a struggle I really have had to ask God for major help. Joyce says, "You must believe what God's Word says about you more than you believe what others say or what your feelings or own mind says."

I love all of you! I know something good is going to happen to you today!