I consider this principle I will share today to be a prequel to all that I have talked about before, such as keeping commandments, overcoming fear, actively waiting, diligently going, extending, etc. It is a principle that, if disregarded, will render all other principles as failures.
I’ll introduce it with a tender mission story.
I was serving as district leader in Kellyville, a favorite area of mine. Every week we held a district meeting where I would lead my district of 8 missionaries in discussions and trainings involving our specific field of labor. I was preparing my final training of the transfer – which ended up being my final training since I was transferred that next week – and I felt strongly to discuss a specific topic: Confidence. I spent a large bulk of my study time for that entire week preparing this training. When it was delivered, I’m happy to say it was one of the best ones I’ve ever given. A special spirit was there. After the meeting, a sister in the district who had just barely come out on her mission came up to me and said, “Elder Simpson, I had been praying and asking about this very topic for this entire week. Your training seemed to answer all of my questions”. That experience humbled me and helped me appreciate the Spirit’s role in that training.
That experience also gave me a greater appreciation for the concept of confidence.
What is it? Where does it come from? Why do we need it? How do we get it?
Confidence is I struggled with as a teenager – in fact, I’m “confident” every teenager ever has struggled with confidence in some way. It’s part of life! The fact that we all struggle with it stands as proof of its profound importance in our lives.
It seems that confidence and faith are a tag team – they, along with trust, are all needed for faith to be complete and progressive. Confidence precedes any productive action. Faith is in part defined as “[having] confidence in something or someone”. (Bible Dictionary, faith) We need confidence in ourselves and in the situation to proceed effectively. We need confidence both to “wait” and to “go”. The scriptures teach to “cast not away… your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward” (Hebrews 10:35). They encourage us to allow our “confidence [to] wax strong” (Doc. And Cov. 121:45). And when we examine any scriptural or modern story of righteousness, commandment keeping, defeating evil, or overcoming fear, we see ample supplies of confidence reflected in the lives of the heroes. Indeed, no good thing can come into our lives without confidence.
So how then is it achieved? In thinking about my life, I find 3 main ways that I have earned confidence.
SKILL AND EXPERIENCE
Want to hear about a moment that changed my life? It happened on the frisbee field, March 2016. It was a sunny afternoon. My team, Break Force, was squaring up against Copper Hills, a respectable team but not an unbeatable one. We fought long and hard, and soon found ourselves one point away from winning the tough game. I had the disc on the sideline, about 50 yards from the end zone, when a zone surrounded me – 3 players standing about 10 feet away from me forming a circle, something we call a “cup”. I was a young player, skilled but inexperienced, and hesitant to make a throw through this zone. My teammate
Chase Smith, the legendary receiver, cut deep and found himself wide open down the field. I had a lane to throw to him, but all of the sudden I doubted my ability to do it. I hadn’t thrown long in a game too often. My coach ran down the sideline until he was near me, and I could hear him shouting “Adam, throw it! Throw it! THROW IT!” Now, with just one second left to throw before I was stalled out and had to turn the disc over, a wave of determination took over me and I let the disc fly – a beautiful forehand huck. It floated 50 yards down the field as if on the wings of an angel and landed easily in Chase’s hands for the winning score. I was ecstatic.
Experience, coupled with skill, gives us confidence in any one thing. Be it music, sports, school, a job, you name it, your confidence grows only as fast as these principles do. Consistently doing the small things, and then having opportunities to exercise those skills on a bigger stage, allows your confidence to wax strong. Is that not true in life as well? My band teacher certainly taught me that. When we care deeply about “practicing” – doing the small and simple things consistently – our performance will improve. We will have more joy. When we are more joyous in our performance, we gain more opportunities for experience. Thus, as our skill and experience grows, so too does our confidence, and, as Beethoven says, we are “raised to the Divine”.
KNOWLEDGE
Let’s dive deeper into Beethoven’s quote. He talks about learning something’s “secrets” – which I take to mean gaining skill and experience in it, as I talked about before – and then adds “for those (meaning the secrets) and knowledge can raise men to the divine”. And there we have our basic recipe! When we add knowledge to our skills and experience, we get our confidence.
Knowledge and experience are not the same thing. I equate knowledge to “book smart” and experience to “street smart” – both are important and unique. Learning everything we can about a certain subject, task or thing can allow us to view it at a deeper level of understanding, which in turn gives us greater confidence. Certainly, “knowledge is power”.
Elder Richard G. Scott said this:
“Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances. A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and compelling circumstances.”
An example of this is in my drumming. I played the drum set in the jazz band for 4 years in high school. I absolutely loved it. The common swing timing in a classic jazz tune is triplets – not 2 or 4 notes in a beat as is usually the case, but 3. It creates the “swing” feel that gives much of jazz its unique character. This was a principle that, once understood, could change my drumming. It took me a while to fully grasp that feeling of triplets, but once I did, there was a monumental leap in my skill. This took more than practice – it took intuition, gaining a piece of knowledge necessary to move on. As Elder Scott described, these true principles, which are found everywhere in our hobbies, relationships, jobs, and lives, can give us the confidence we need once we understand them. We must search actively for them.
SENSE OF THE DIVINE
Finally, I share the most important source of confidence. We try our very best to gain skills, experience and knowledge, but ultimately, our efforts are merely introductory to the grace we acquire from Jesus Christ. As I talked about last week, He is the reason we can change, improve, and become a better person – a more confident person if you will. Our own willpower can never do it on its own. We would do well to realize this.
It is a lesson every missionary has to learn. We try our very best, but God does the rest. It is His power that makes it all possible. A missionary can walk outside with confidence only as soon as he understands the role of grace in his life. Yes, you gain valuable skills and knowledge that enable you to function effectively, and that is necessary, but really that only creates a stronger connection to the divine.
Elder Renlund has taught that Christlike attributes are granted to us as we live the gospel. If we say that confidence is a Christlike attribute – which it is – then it must be earned in the same fashion.
Righteousness is the key.
As we do this, we will be more confident in EVERY facet of our lives, no matter what it is.
I would like to share Beethoven’s full quote now. I first heard it quoted in a video by The Piano Guys. I have that poster hanging in my room. It says this:
“Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.”
Not only in art, but in everything we do, we can delve deep into the “secrets” and discover more joy, more fulfillment, and more confidence. It drives me crazy when I see people throughout my life – whether in frisbee, drumming, missionary work, or anything else I have done – fail to discover the secrets I have discovered. They fail to practice as much as they should. They fail to study as much as they should. They fail to grasp how great it truly is. I look back at myself with despair sometimes and see that I failed to do it as well. There is greatness within everything we do. What a shame to pass it by.
This Christmas season, let’s not only remember Christ, but make His life meaningful by doing the best we can at all we do.
Adam Simpson
(Watch the Piano Guys video featuring this great quote. It's beautiful!)
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