Confidence or Arrogance?

More and more, I am convinced that there is a serious difference between confidence and arrogance. I am even more convinced that we are confused about which is which.

For the purpose of this post, confidence is defined as "a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities." Some synonyms include self-assurance, assertiveness, and boldness. Arrogance is defined as "having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities." Some of the synonyms we can use for arrogance or arrogant include vain, pompous, or conceited.

I believe in a healthy amount of confidence. Some may refer to it as faith. Perhaps the two are very similar. Another definition, for the sake of clarity, offers an understanding of the difference between faith and confidence, which says faith is "complete trust or confidence." I would dare say that our trust or confidence should be placed very carefully, using wisdom and good common sense.

In my own humble opinion, it seems that arrogance is something that is out-of-control in this world. It seems that arrogance lacks humility,  which is a characteristic of modesty, something that is very hard to come by in this immodest culture in which we live. This culture tends to lean toward being very vain and egotistical. I am often overwhelmed by the narcissistic people I seem to encounter on a daily basis. I often wonder whatever happened to humility.

We need confidence. We must have confidence to live from day to day, even from one minute to the next. We must have the confidence to believe that the chair we sit in is going to hold us, or that the building we are in is going to remain standing, at least while we are in it. We must have confidence that the coffee maker will give us the fresh hot cup our mouths are craving, or that the vehicle that we are driving is going to get us where we are headed.

It appears that the culture is fascinated by people who are overly-confident, arrogant, narcissistic even, giving young people the impression that it is more advantageous to be this way rather than being humble and modest. I am convinced that it is this very thing we call arrogance that is contributing to this corrupt and nefarious society. I'll have more to say later.

The Blame Game

Seems to me like no one wants to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Could it be that we are so ugly towards persons who mess up?

Of course I am by no means a Donald Trump fan. But I think we have to let him off the hook even a little bit, especially because of his reputation to fire folk. If he did not fire the speech-writer who used the quotes from Michelle Obama's speech, I think it can prove to be a good lesson for us all that we have to let people off-the-hook when they mess up, because we need to better understand the nature of forgiveness.

We have all done something that offended somebody, even though we may not have realized it at the time, for which we probably need to be forgiven. I am convinced that most relationships need the forgiveness factor in order to be healthy and to be maintained. Forgiveness needs to be a part of every relationship, just as much as love and friendship. Each of our life experiences will cause us to need to have forgiveness and be forgiving in our hearts--people usually don't know what they are doing. How do I know?

First let me ask you not to wholesale, dismiss this claim because it comes from a place you may find offensive. I would have to ask what makes it offensive to you and do you have any idea why? And please find a fresh reason why, do not regurgitate what you have heard someone else say, unless you have thoroughly given great thought to your answer and you can summarily explain why you believe what you say you believe.

I have read, which for many is a story, about a man hanging from what is usually called a cross, where one of the first things he said from that position of pain was "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34, NIV, New Testament Bible). I am further convinced that the last part of that statement was more for the benefit of the hearers and readers because grammatically speaking, that part of the sentence was unnecessary. If any idea or idiom could be transcendent, certainly is the idea that we do not know what we are doing.

I believe so many relationships, organizations, and especially churches could do and be a lot better if we all understood that forgiveness, and  I mean the God-kind of forgiveness where we don't bring it up again and again, is a vital component in our relationships. I believe also, one of the main reasons the Church seems to have lost its appeal to so many is what is often interpreted as unloving, unkind and unforgiving treatments in Churches. I think what I heard a preacher say once is very, very true. "You have to catch a fish before you can clean it."

You should be fired!!!

I don't know that Donald Trump intended to be offensive, but I think it does go to show that he is a poor administrator or manager (which may be used interchangeably in this article), whichever makes sense to you. A good manager checks and is aware of possible sensitive areas that may possibly be offensive to certain people and/or groups. I thought that was basic training for managers and administrators. Or does Mr. Trump not care? And in spite of votes, does he not care that if he were to be elected, he would be every one's President? Not only Jewish people (and the last I heard, regardless of who she may or may not be, Jewish ethnicity is determined by the mother's ethnicity), but also African-Americans, Gay-Americans, etc. Perhaps he could use some sensitivity training. I believe this is something we should all give very careful consideration.

I am talking about the tweet that has been called antisemitic, that once again calls Hillary Clinton "crooked" (the pot calling the kettle). Apparently, the tweet used a six pointed star (often called the Star of David) that was subsequently changed to a circle, and included some negative and derogatory caption about Mrs. Clinton, his presumptive Democratic opponent in the race for President.

One response to the criticism brought up how the six pointed star is often used by Sheriff's Offices as their badge shape. I am presently married to a retired Sheriff's Deputy and the particular Sheriff's Office uses a seven pointed star. One reason I know this is because I made a computer generated version of the badge for something my husband needed to do once a long time ago before he retired, and he wanted the image of the Sheriff's star to be on the document. (The computer that image was designed on was destroyed in a flood a few years ago, so I no longer have the PC nor the software that designed it, nor the star itself. Not only that, but if memory serves me correctly, a similar image was included in a set of CD clip art I bought nearly 20 years ago.) In my mind, this seems to reflect a lack of attention, perhaps even a lack of knowledge of vital information, even important details, for such an important office.

I'll have more to say about this lack of knowledge, as well as lack of attention, in future articles.