Hey everyone it's Leslie Ludi host of the Side Apart Girl

podcast biblical encouragement for women of all ages.

This week I'm really excited to tackle a topic that so many of us struggle with, how to gain true confidence.

I've done some podcasts that kind of touch on the subject.

We're going to take a little different angle on this today.

When I was young, I was constantly being given tips

by well-meaning adults on how to be confident and how to feel good about myself.

And you may have heard me tell this story, but when I was about 12 and I went to a youth group, a youth leader one time told me or told all of us that we should go home,

look at our reflection in the mirror and say to our reflection, I love you. Now I don't think any one of us actually

did that because that would have been really awkward and

embarrassing but everywhere I turned at that age I was being told by

well-meaning adults and youth leaders and and counselors at school and

teachers that I should just learn how to love myself and

believe in myself and yet doing those things did not give me confidence no

matter how many times I said I'm wonderful the way I am I believe in myself I don't need a change I like myself just as I am etc.

I still wallowed in constant insecurity.

When I was young 12 or 13, I was always the object of ridicule

on the playground or on the school bus.

My family lived in a very wealthy area of the city.

We were just a regular middle class family, but a lot of the families that went to this school

district were very, very wealthy, and so if you did not have the exact right genes and the exact right backpack and

everything perfect on the outside you became you know the bottom of the totem pole

...