If you’re stopping by a coffee shop or a mom & pop restaurant in the Northern Alabama area, you may see a little promo for my musical services of performing/accompanying/church musician subbing. Haven’t advertised like this before, so excited to see what opportunities it opens up to share my music and connect with others.

Leads me to thoughts on how people struggle with promoting themselves. On one hand, people try not to be prideful. Especially for Christians, we’re reminded to avoid arrogance and loftiness in our own abilities (this can lead to never feeling the need for the Savior to rescue us from our self destruction). HOWEVER, this often gets muddled up and confused with confidence, self-esteem, and valuing who God made you to be! The Lord gifts people and wants to see them soar for His glory!***

I remember in my early college days, I carried such doubts about my abilities, inflicting every recital, every performance, and the days leading up to it. Perhaps I thought I’d jinx myself if I believed it would go well. One day, I cornered myself and began a hard conversation. Went something like this-

Freshman Natalie vs. Inquisitive side of Natalie:

“I’m going to mess up and have a horrible performance.

“Are your performances horrible?

“No, but it’s just going to be awful. [Cry, cry, cry]

“Why can’t you have a good performance?

“Because…I just…can’t.

BOOM. I shocked myself. There was no real reason for the fear. Just an undiscovered (until then) lie that I simply CAN’T have a good performance.

From that point on, it was a beautiful process of growing confident, rooting myself in my identity of being a loved and valued child of God, and simply, performing (one might call it exposure therapy XD).

So here’s to new opportunities in life, chasing down unfounded lies we harbor, and more music to come!

***funny side story. You DO need to develop your talents. I had a piano student (the nonpracticing kind) come in for a lesson (the same one he’d been having for months), and when I questioned him how can he play the piece without practicing, he said, “Well, I just believe I can do it!” and proceeded to bumble out the piece. Thanks, Disney.