God’s Dictionary: Confidence

                                                                                               Confidence

                                                                                               con- = with
                                                                                                        +
                                                                                             -fidere = trust

Confidence is that elusive quality we all recognize in others, often seek for ourselves, and deeply wonder how to acquire. Confidence has a mystique around it. We can even smell it, and certainly we can sense when someone doesn’t have it.

Confidence is actually a mode of behavior. The word itself is a clue to the process of creating self-confidence. It requires that we behave with trust. Trust in what? Actually, the better question is: trust in whom? The answer is so obvious that it can whiff us.

The rabbis of old tell the story that each person carries a divine spark, an ember of G-d, within us. If we base our behavioral choices on the notion that we act with trust in the Divine Spark within us, we create self-confidence.

It has been said that “God don’t make junk.” If Divinity created all that is, this has to include you, too. All that’s required for confidence is trust in your Divine Spark. Ask: How can I act with trust in my own Divinity today?

Infinition:
Truly, a Divine Spark animates my very being. Starting right now, I take all my cues for behavior from that Spark, and I act with trust in myself.

reprinted from God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam 2002)

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