"You is kind. You is smart. You is important"

Something that a former teacher of mine once said has resonated in my mind lately....

You may be small, but YOU are mighty.

It's the tough times when quotes like these make an impact on your life. There is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself a lie: "You aren't good enough. You don't have what it takes. You're not pretty enough. Don't even try, it's not gonna get you anywhere" blah blah blah blah blah.

The lack of confidence and low self-esteem has always been a problem of mine. Didn't realize how much of a problem it really was until recently. I had ONE person give me their two sense, and I took it to be the end of the world and basically said to myself: "well, guess I'm really not good enough if people say so." I cannot believe how much power I gave to that one person.

Guess it took this situation for me to learn to not beat myself up over and over again. What's done is done. I did the best I could, and that's all that was asked of me.

My friends and family know exactly what this post is referring to, and have helped me so much with advice and a listening ear. I have bounced ideas off them and they keep saying the same thing, "you are more confident than you think." The good thing is-- I did take a stand today and I am not going to do the same thing I did in the past (which is wallow in my low self-confidence and low self-esteem).

I will end this post with a well-spoken quote:

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important." (from The Help)
Don't let others tell you differently

:::Let us rise up and be thankful:::

::::Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. ~Buddha::::

It has come to my attention that I complain A LOT! The things that I usually complain about are things that I can't even change (getting sick, not feeling pretty because of the pregnancy, having to work, etc), but the ONE thing I can change is my attitude. A former pastor (Chuck Swindoll) of mine says it best: “The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes." So with this said, I'm going to work on overlooking the mishaps in life and focus on the every day gifts God gives us. Along with trying to have a better attitude, I want to try something else--keeping a "Blessings Journal". Every night I will write in the journal about things that went well that day/things that I see as blessings. Hopefully this will help me to overlook the bad and focus on the good in my life.