Staying confident? What do/would you do?


MormonGuitarGirl
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Hi guys,

Sometimes I lack confidence in my talents and it makes me feel really stupid. It's like, I know what they are in my heart, but I just feel sometimes like maybe I'm totally wrong about them. I know I'm right, as I've had so many confirmations of them over the years, and I cannot deny them, yet I can't shake the feeling that I'm wrong.

I'm afraid Heavenly Father's disappointed in me for doubting after He's given me all these confirmations and all this help.

How do you stay confident in your talents? What should I do to feel better? I don't want to waste my gifts.

Thanks so much. :)

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To put it bluntly, you need to get out of your own way.

 

"As a man thinketh, so is (s)he" 

"What you focus on gets bigger"

 

Keep your attention on what you want and not on what you don't.  If you want to be more confident tell yourself you are (ie fake it till you make it).  Thoughts are powerful and are the first part of creating your experience.  

 

Aside from the above, watch these (multiple times if necessary):

 

http://thecarolblog.com/mini-healing-session-with-carol-clearing-the-hidden-feelings-of-inadequacy-and-insecurity/

http://thecarolblog.com/how-not-to-second-guess-your-next-decision/

http://thecarolblog.com/2-vital-things-you-need-to-achieve-any-goal/

 

One other idea - post sticky notes in strategic places (I can do this, I am talented, I'm blessed to know my talents, etc)

 

hth

Edited by notquiteperfect
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Stop obsessing about your nerves and insecurity so much. Stop telling people you're nervous and insecure. It's a trick my sister (a professional musician taught me). Like the "fake it til you make it" principle. The more you keep talking about being nervous and insecure, the more you feed those thoughts and train your mind to believe them. If you talk and act like it's no big deal and you're confident and prepared, your mind will follow suit. 

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God gave us talents, or rather gifts, in order to serve others and in effect, serve Him. His work (and His glory) is advanced when we minister to others and lift them up just as Christ will minister to us and lift us up. Nephi taught us that when we receive the Holy Ghost, it will show us "all things what [we] should do." (2 Ne 32:3)

 

If you want to be confident in your service to the Lord, exercise the same faith that Nephi exercised when he was given the various tasks while in the wilderness. We are all wandering through a spiritual wilderness. Without the Holy Ghost, or rather the words of Christ to guide us, we cannot be confident as Nephi was confident in obeying the Lord (going back for the brass plates, going back for Ishmael's family, going to the top of a mountain to find food after breaking his bow, building a ship, making two sets of records, etc). We need to connect with the Lord (2 Ne. 32:6).

 

In the Lectures on Faith, we read in the sixth lecture:

 

2...An actual knowledge to any person that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God, without which no person can obtain eternal life. It was this that enabled the ancient saints to endure all their afflictions and persecutions, and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing, (not believing merely,) that they had a more enduring substance...

 

This kind of knowledge comes from learning to connect with God as others have connected with Him.

 

4 Such was and always will be the situation of the saints of God, that unless they have an actual knowledge that the course that they are pursuing is according to the will of God, they will grow weary in their minds and faint; for such has been and always will be the opposition in the hearts of unbelievers and those that know not God...

 

Most LDS do not know God. Most of the world does not know God. There is a difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Without the kind of faith that brings us to know God as Moses did, as Enoch did, as Isaiah did, as Nephi did, as the bro. of Jared did, as Joseph Smith did, etc, we grow weary in our minds and faint. Nephi taught us to pray always and not faint (2 Ne. 32:8-9). And so Nephi did throughout this course in the wilderness and in the promised land. He used all the talents/gifts to serve his family and his people. 

 

But one must first "enter in at the way," or in other words, be baptized by water and by fire. You've entered in. Now what?

 

2 Nephi 32:8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.

 

 
Do I faint? Do I give up? Or do I continue to pray? Am I continually drawn out in prayer? Do I fast? What lack I yet? 
 

D&C 101:81 Now, unto what shall I liken the children of Zion? I will liken them unto the parable of the woman and the unjust judge, for men ought always to pray and not to faint, which saith—

82 There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man.

83 And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying: Avenge me of mine adversary.

84 And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself: Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

85 Thus will I liken the children of Zion.

86 Let them importune at the feet of the judge

 

 
Pray always? As in all the time? You mean like constantly? What does the word Importune mean? 
 
Lecture on Faith 2, Question 146:
 

Question: How do men obtain a knowledge of the glory of God, his perfections and attributes?

 

Answer: By devoting themselves to his service, through prayer and supplication incessantly, strengthening their faith in him, until like Enoch, the brother of Jared, and Moses, they obtain a manifestation of God to themselves.

 

 

Lecture 2:55 Let us here observe, that after any portion of the human family are made acquainted with the important fact that there is a God who has created and does uphold all things, the extent of their knowledge, respecting his character and glory, will depend upon their diligence and faithfulness in seeking after him, until like Enoch the brother of Jared, and Moses, they shall obtain faith in God, and power with him to behold him face to face.

 
Devotion. Service. Diligence. Faithfulness. Praying. Supplication. Always. Incessantly. Importune...Are we doing these things? If so, one begins to understand what it takes to wax confident before the Lord. And along the way, you discover that what He has asked you to do, as with many of His other servants, which I have mentioned, is to serve others. It's the how that will be the trial of your faith. It's the how that will humble you and also instill upon you the confidence of Moses and of Nephi and many others. 
 

 

 

5 For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, requires more than mere belief, or supposition that he is doing the will of God, but actual knowledge: realizing, that when these sufferings are ended he will enter into eternal rest; and be a partaker of the glory of God...
7 Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation...
8 It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them, who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they in like manner offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of him.

 

 

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The purpose of life isn't to have you excel and perform at something you're already good at, its to have you STRETCH and become better.  Because we're not all gifted "it", we have to work harder to "get it", and there in is the perfect nature of life... that you must work to achieve.  Its not easy, otherwise it won't be worth it.

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