I have said that you are your own culprit. Your are the source of any complaints you have. This is nothing new, but have you recognized it yet?

Here are some things you can do to avoid opening yourself up to anyone's displeasure and your seeking another's approval. It begins with you, beloveds.

No longer feel a need to explain yourself. Explain no more. Why do you need to be explained? Explaining yourself is justifying or even apologizing, and too often you explain ahead of time. It is as if you are asking for permission to be who you are. For this you need no permission. To be yourself is a directive from Me.

You may need permission to walk on someone's property, true. But you are not someone's property. You belong to yourself and you belong to Me.

There is no need for you to explain every decision you make. You own your decisions. If you decide to move to Timbuktu, who has to approve your decision? Do you need your decision to be voted on? Who is it who decides whether you go somewhere or not?

And if you do not want to move to Timbuktu, that decision is also yours to make.

Get away from the idea that you owe people explanations. Talk something over with your wife or husband when your decision impacts them. Talk it over with your mother or father when you want to, yet know in your heart that you are free to make your own decisions. You are the one who buys the ticket. You are the one who travels there. You are the one who reaps the experience.

Away with the feeling that you must justify or prove anything! There is nothing to prove. You are a grown person who has decisions to make, and you make them. They are your decisions. Do not make decisions for others, and do not invite others to make yours. Is this not plain common sense?

As you grow more firmly planted in your own selfdom, others will look at you more confidently. They will not look for explanations from you. They will know that you are sovereign over your own life. It will not occur to them to ask you to justify yourself. They will see you as your own free being.

There is an added bonus to this. You will also be strengthening all those to whom you previously may have felt you had to offer explanations. Their shoulders will go back. They will have more confidence in themselves too. Confidence spreads like wildfire.

It is confidence that is the underlining of knowing you do not need to explain yourself. The confidence you used to put on others' opinions, you can now put on your own. What a savings of time and energy!

Confidence comes from knowing your worth. It's that simple. Know your own worth, and you will have confidence.

Beloveds, I have told you your worth, so now have confidence in Me and what I have told you. Become a chip off the old block!

Think of how you will walk when you have confidence! Think of the energy and light you will radiate! Think of how exuberantly happy you will be. Think of how glad I will be. I will say: "There go My sons and My daughters with confidence in their own Beingness. Glory be!"

You will not swagger. You will have no more need for swaggering than you do explaining. Swaggering and explaining are just two sides of the same coin. You are way above both.