Overcoming Lack of Self Confidence

Self Confidence is probably one of the biggest struggles we as women have. Many women suffer from approval addiction, have a poor self image or simply don’t value themselves as a woman. Perhaps there has been some sort of abuse as a child that has caused this or someone told them once that they weren’t pretty or that they were stupid. Has this happened to you? I know for a fact that being sexually abused as a child destroyed my self esteem and it has followed me into my adult years.

Now that I am an adult, I have overcome many of my struggles with my self confidence, though some areas I’m still working on.

As a child, I was pretty shy and withdrawn because I didn’t want people to know what my step-dad was doing to me. I didn’t make friends easily, although I wanted to and didn’t feel shy inside. But, now, looking back, I can see the marks the sexual abuse left on me.

I also suffered a very poor self image. I always thought I was fat even though I when I graduated I only weighed 125 pounds which was a great weight for my height and stature. Friends also influenced the poor self image in me. My two best friends were thinner than I. One of them struggled to gain weight and the other worked out constantly and was very self conscious about her weight. If she gained 1 pound, she would be out running it off.

Lack of self confidence is not only an issue about how we look, but it also affects our speech, writing, how we present ourselves in social situations and other areas of life. So, how do we overcome a low self esteem or lack of self confidence?

I’m going to give you some of the tools I’ve used to help me over come my struggles with low self esteem and low self confidence.

The first one is God’s Word. The Scriptures are so full of God’s love for us and when we know how God views us and how much He loves us, we no longer need approval from humans. So start reading God’s Word daily and learn how he sees you. One amazing scripture to help you with this is the 139th Psalm. One of my daily devotions encourages women to read it everyday for a month and I want to encourage you to do the same. Doing this one simple act can really change the way you see yourself because you will begin to see yourself as God sees you.

The next tool is The Confident Woman by Joyce Meyer. In The Confident Woman, Joyce teaches us how to overcome low self confidence by using God’s Word.

Captivating by Staci and John Eldredge. When we understand why we are the way we are as women, we can overcome low self esteem and start viewing ourselves differently.

Start journaling your feelings and begin praying for God to reveal to you how he knows you and sees you. You can overcome low self esteem and low self confidence by placing your confidence in God and trusting in His love for you. It won’t happen overnight though. It will take work and diligence and you will probably have to refresh what you’ve learned once in a while.

I will be praying for each of the readers of this post. If you’d like personal prayer for overcoming lack of self confidence please leave your name and email in the comments and I or the other awesome women here at Women by Grace will be in touch with you to pray with you.

My Economic Plan for America

Recently President Obama presented his “Economic Plan for America.” His plan basically declares burdening America with heavy financial debt for years to come. While this is troubling for many obvious reasons, I am as equally disturbed at the way some people are looking to our new president and congress to “fix America.” While considering all this, I’ve come up with my own “Economic Plan for America.” Thank you for allowing me to share my proposal:

While government has it’s rightful place, the strength of America comes from it’s people.

Our government should tend only to the business it was created to do, which is to

• Promote justice
• Punish injustice
• Protect our rights
• Protect the ability of states and other social institutions to exercise their own authority

If we grow our government bigger and bigger to form more committees and design more programs all in an effort to “fix” America, we actually hinder what Americans have the right to do (and are truly capable of doing) for ourselves and each other! Dependence on government can only weaken us, it will never strengthen us. Government needs to get our of the way, and let Americans do what Americans do best: work, create, invent and prosper.

The solutions to our sluggish economy lie in empowering individual citizens to work, earn, save and spend our own money, not in looking to our government to “bail” us out! We don’t need government handling our money for us! That will never fix anything! (They haven’t proven themselves capable of doing so anyways – just look at how they “handle” our Social Security funds!)

Government must stop accumulating any further debt (and laying resultant tax burdens) on us.

These “bailouts” are disastrous, and must stop immediately. Where do we get all that money from, and how do we pay it back? What good can debt and borrowing from other countries possibly afford us? I for sure, don’t like being indebted to other countries – especially those who don’t have our best interests at heart. What lessons do our bailed-out companies learn in the meantime, and how will the problems (that caused these messes) ever be changed?

Government must be fiscally responsible with the tax money we pay them. Like any household on a budget, our state and federal governments should also have to live within their means. They must find ways to cut corners, pinch pennies, and downsize anywhere they can. And we should hold them accountable to it! A handful of governors, such as Mitch Daniels (R-Indiana) and Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) have worked hard to prove it can be done in their states; Why can’t the others?

We need to strengthen America from the inside out.

• To strengthen our economy, we must allow citizens to earn our own wages, and exercise our freedoms to save, spend and invest as we see fit. We don’t need government to do this for us! One of the foundational ways America prospers is due to the hard work and ingenuity of it’s citizens. The “capitalistic spirit” is one of our great constitutional privileges. We have the right to pursue jobs, to own businesses in the fields of our choice, and we have the right to be successful at earning (and keeping our) money.
• To strengthen our population, we need to stop killing ourselves. Every day we kill approximately how many American citizens before they even have the chance to leave their mother’s wombs? Abortion is murder, and should be outlawed everywhere. What other great country kills it’s own like we do?
• To strengthen America we also need to strengthen our military. Cutting corners here (expect for any wasteful spending) is never a safe or prudent idea.
• We also must do a better job of taking care of our Veterans. Medical care and benefits for our Veterans should be state-of-the-art and excellent.
• Securing our borders is a must.
• Illegal immigration must stop.
• America should not be struggling to “keep up” in our changing world. Our citizens should receive the best educations and be the most highly-trained in the world. Our entire educational system needs serious improvement, and it starts by allowing parents to decide where and how their own children will be educated. Our government has no business trying to decide that for us! Decades of our government designing more programs, building bigger buildings and throwing more money at public schools has not raised our test scores, or our percentages of high school graduates. (This shows yet another example of how ineffective government is at “fixing” our problems!)

A quick review of history reminds us how tenacious our American forefathers were. Men and women have worked hard and persevered through challenges and tough times since the days of the Pilgrims. That spirit hasn’t changed! Americans still have dreams and goals. We still work hard. We are still willing to sacrifice for what we believe in. Oh, that spirit might need to be revived in some of us. It needs to be instilled in our children. Some of us need to brush up on history to remember what our Constitution says, and what U.S. government is really supposed to be. We need to encourage each other.

Let’s not look to government to lead us in this. Let’s lead our government! If every one of us decides today to do our part to strengthen America – starting in our own homes, imagine what we could accomplish! That strength would flow from our homes into grass-roots operations in our communities; which would then affect our states. As states are strengthened, so is our Union. What if we banned together and forced our elected officials to behave responsibly? What if we showed by our words and our actions that we’re serious about turning this country back into the great nation it has always been?

I’m not alone in my opinions, many Americans believe this way! We’ve just been too quiet about it for too long! But now when some of our liberties are in jeopardy and government has saddled us, our children and grandchildren with more debt than we’ve ever known, can we admit that our federal government has gotten too big for it’s britches? Can we admit they’ve stepped over some lines where they don’t belong? Isn’t it time we let our voices be heard?

“Well,” you ask, “What can I do? What difference would it make anyways?” I would suggest doing your homework first: Familiarize yourself with our nation’s most important document, the Constitution. (If you don’t have one in your home, call the Heritage Foundation for a free copy: 1-800-544-4843.) Brush up on our American History. Then gather your family, friends and neighbors together to see what you can do to make a difference. Every community holds numerous opportunities:

• get involved in your school;
• join the school board, city council or county commissioners team;
• volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center;
• work with your church to start an adoption agency; food bank or soup kitchen;
• support our military with words and deeds;
• help a struggling family or a single mother to get up on their feet;
• learn who your local and state officials are, and keep an eye on what they’re doing; support their efforts, and let them know (respectfully) when you don’t agree with them;
• have friendly discussions with coworkers, family and friends about the advantages of citizens getting involved, and of the dangers of big, interfering government.

If you agree with me, you may also appreciate the efforts of:

• The Heritage Foundation @ www.heritage.org or www.askheritage.org
• Focus on the Family @ www.focusonthefamily.com
• Sean Hannity @ www.hannity.com

Let’s strengthen America from the inside out!

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