Hold Your Head Up!

     From the kitchen my ears over heard a voice from an episode of Top Shot Season Two (my husband & boys love this show):  "...What can really ruin a marksman is overconfidence." Which spun my cogs to thinking, "what can really ruin a _______ is under-confidence (which by the way is not an actual word), so what I should be thinking is "lack of confidence".  The word over- as a prefix to a word carries the meanings; so as to exceed or surpass, excessive, to an excessive degree, says Merriam-Webster.  Below or short of some quantity, level or limit is their definition for the word under when used in combinations with words such as underachieve. 

     Welcome to my own personal struggle.  Not being overconfident.  Proud, yes.  But not in that "be true to your school" kind of proud, the ugly pride kind.  I somehow lack a healthy quota of confidence.  I know that I am important, have self worth and am a contributing member of society, yet there go I with my head sometimes hanging low.  I'm well adept at hiding this flaw to those outside of my immediate family. 

     I find myself competing with and comparing myself to every other woman, wife, mother.  Sometimes I just can't stack up.  (We are supposed to compliment one another in the body of Christ, not compete...)  How exhausting this can be.  The past four years I have packed on some pounds and struggled to take them off, then put them back on.  It seems to be the plight of many a woman.  My home doesn't reflect the hours I've spent watching HGTV or reading The Fly Lady.  Though I have poured over "How to Be the Best Parent Ever" kind of books, I'm flailing some days at how to get through the day.  Don't get me started on being a wife.  I began counseling this year for that.  That is a whole different post.  :-)

     I have been trying to teach the principle of "others first" to my children.  Serving others before yourself, thinking of others before yourself and the like.  Somewhere on my life journey I forgot to care about myself.  Somewhere in those sleepy-eyed nursing years of when have I eaten or showered days of Motherhood 101 I lost it.  I haven't gotten "it" back. 

     So, if you're sitting there saying, "yeah, me too"... then be encouraged that you and I can be redeemed from this mess we find ourselves in.  The redeeming is from our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  He created us for grand and beautiful things.  Not to be over-confident and ruin our marksmanship (remember sin means to miss the mark), but to be confident knowing we are heirs with Christ.  Confindent that God's promises are for us and have a real impact on our everyday living.  I have found the times that I am struggling to make God my priority, everything else crumbles.  My confidence has crumbled because I fail to have my heart and head guarded by God's word.  Join me in making that the priority.  Join me in holding your head high as a member of God's family.  As one Pastor I heard once say, "As a daughter of the King".

^{Romans 15}

⁴ For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. ⁵ Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, ⁶ that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been listening online to Chip Ingram (Living on the Edge) and here are some links that go along with the prioritizing... 
Balancing Life's Demands (scroll down to find mp3)
Message Notes, part 1
Message Notes, part 2
Message Notes, part 3
Message Notes, part 4