I Am Who You Say I Am
I Am Who You Say I Am
My daughter was in hysterical sobs when I collected her from school yesterday. She managed to keep everything together until she opened the car door, and then she melted into tears the moment she knew she was safe.
“Mum, I am not good enough,” she howled in desperate agony. “I am a ‘C Team’ player and every other girl in my class is in the ‘A Team’. They are a gang of sporty girls. And I am on the outside. I am just not good enough. I don’t measure up. I try so hard but never seem to get anywhere.”
Her pain rang a dagger right through my heart. Here was this child who, in my eyes, is sheer perfection. She is gifted with remarkable talents outside the sporting arena which will take her way further in life. And yet here she was berating herself and challenging her own worth based on her (lack of) sporting prowess.
How many of us are judging ourselves on one area of our lives in which we don’t quite measure up and applying that pecking order to the rest of our lives? Your marriage hasn’t worked out, so you must be a failure. You haven’t cracked it at work, so you must be a failure. You don’t have the looks, so you must be a failure. You are feeling lost and purposeless, so you must be a failure. Your finances are in a mess, so you must be a failure. Your kids have been rebellious, you are a hopeless parent and you feel like – yup you guessed it – a failure.
