As I was growing up my mother was the person who had the greatest impact on my movie and television watching. For the most part I guess you could say, we watched what she wanted to watch.  This is the reason I developed a great love for musicals. She adored them. We would watch them often and she also had the 33′ long playing records for the most memorable ones, and we would listen to them for hours.  There is just something about a person running out on a hillside and bursting into song.  (Some may call this corny, but I happen to love it! :) )  Which brings me to one of my favorite movies of all time is “The Sound of Music”.  I remember the awe I felt as a little girl watching it for the first time. It was fantastic!!!

When Maria leaves the convent to go and work for the Von Trap Family, Maria sings as she travels the song, “I’ve got confidence.” She sings joyfully of how great she will be and how the children will respect her. As she sings her voice gets stronger and stronger and she gets more and more confident in herself and in her abilities.   Then she sees the house how large and looming it is and she stops completely in her tracts, and whispers a prayer,  “Oh, help!” When it was crunch time, she knew where she needed to go for her strength and comfort.

How often I feel that way myself. I find myself running along and thinking that I have the confidence I need to do the massive amount of things I have to do.  Too often the Lord has to stop me in my tracts and show me it is not about the confidence I have in myself, but the confidence I have in Him.  There have been many times lately when I my whispers of “Oh Help!” have resonated through my home, at work, and even at church.  I am thankful we have a God who is patient, kind, loving and especially patient with this child of His.  In my distress I know I am not alone.  He hears and answers my prayers though many times those prayers are prayers of desperation or confession of my own shortcomings that have placed me in the deperate circumstances in which I find myself entangled.

While having my devotions yesterday, I came across this verse in 1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”  When my confidence wavers, I can have confidence in him in all things.  He knows what I need and what is best for me, therefore I need to ask him what his will is for me every day.  God is the only one who is truly worthy to carry our confidence. Over and over He has proved himself true and faithful in my life. I can give him all my burdens and hurts and have confidence that He can carry them without any help from me. 

This is my Confidence Factor. I need not have confidence in any other.