5. Confidence

First, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

From looking at the title of this post, you're probably thinking, "How does confidence fit under a series with a theme of sailing on a boat, on God's quest?" and especially in the holiday season.

This year has been one of the most life-changing years I've had in my life–scratch that–the most life changing year. And I thought senior year of high school was the point at which everything would slow down in climax and start to calm down, but I was so very wrong. The transition from being dependent minor to becoming an "adult" is an rough one and an important one. For many people, it's the start of the college years (like myself), living away from home, or earning money for themselves (possibly all three). Whichever the case, you are becoming more individualistic and choosing what your ideal lifestyle. You can stay up as late as you like, eat your favorite dish everyday if you want, and travel wherever you'd like without having to rest the ultimate decision to your parents. Any decision now is based on what you bank your confidence in, which can lead to many mistakes.

It's kinda interesting, the whole notion of the word confidence. Based on a person's appearance or actions we say, "she has so much confidence" or "he's so confident". The pressure that something good will come out of having confidence makes it seem as though it's an object that can be placed in our hands. I wouldn't want to be responsible for holding onto my own confidence, at the rate I lose my phone on the daily, my confidence would go missing every hour! This now leads me into what true confidence is and what it should be.

Confidence = Trusting in the truths of what Lord has done, is doing presently in your life, and the greatness of all He will do through His will.

It's not by chance that I bolded the words "His will". If we don't place our confidence in God, then it's through our own will, our desires and intentions that may not be what's best. I want to be confident in what is true and just all the time, and God is the one who has always been there, Jesus as the living proof of his love and the glory of the works he does in each of our lives when we are confident in him. That is when no matter the storm our vessel is sailing through, we have confidence in our destination, our mission, and purpose–to serve the eternal King!