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by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea

Someone called me Super Woman the other day and I received it. Practically caped it. It was completely undeserved and the cape altogether ill-fitting, and still: received it.

Just so’s you know though, anytime I’m acting like I have everything all together, feel free to remind me that sometimes I still sing the song to find my way to the book of Ezra (she said, trying to smooth out the cape-wrinkles).

I wonder if I’ve always been this…this…what’s the word? “Layered” maybe? Public me. Private me. Over-confident me and insecure me. Church me and WalMart me. Too many mes. It can get crowded up in here, what with me trying to be the me who may also be trying to be some other me.

Probably one of the best examples of layered self came from one of my favorite three-year-olds this week. She was having her ballerina dolly sing the books of the bible in monster voice. Talk about your layers. I almost kept it together—until I heard the ballet-monster sing, “…Leviticus, Numbers, Toot-around-a-me….” Because seriously, no matter which me I am, I’m going to laugh at that. All of the mes laughed in chorus.

You Be You Being You by @RhondaRhea on @BRMCWC #Writing #Writinglife #BRMCWC Share on X

I have some good news for all of us. All of the mes, and all of the yous. We have a heavenly Father who will never ask us to be anyone other than who we are. What a relief! We don’t have to sing every life-note perfectly to be accepted by Him. We don’t have to mask our weaknesses with assorted fake versions of ourselves.

My God knows the real me. He knows the real you. “Lord, you have searched me and known me…you are aware of all my ways” (Psalm 139:1, 3). He never asks you to put on a mask, or a cape, or anything phony that might give others an impression of a you that’s not really you. I believe He blesses every minute we’re not wasting with all the effort it takes to try to keep up appearances, and He gives us beautiful ways to redeem those minutes for His glory.

There is a happy freedom in being who you really are. It opens your eyes all the more to the unconditional love of a heavenly Father who knows you completely. Layers on layers of love and grace and freedom.

God made you, you. “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made” (Psalm 139:13-14).

He sees past any wanky capes or false layers, all the way to the heart of you. He calls you, the one He created and adores, to shrug out of those ill-fitting layers and embrace who you were made to be. He is the only one who can empower us to live satisfied in exactly who we are. And our omnipotent God empowers with realest power. 

So there actually are superpowers involved in all this. Just not mine. I’m singing an extra chorus of hallelujahs over that. Never mind what might be going on around-a-me.

Rhonda Rhea is an award-winning humor columnist for great magazines such as HomeLife, Leading Hearts, The Pathway, and many more. She is the author of 19 books, including the popular romantic comedies co-authored with her daughter Kaley Rhea, Off-Script & Over-Caffeinated and Turtles in the Road. Rhonda and Kaley have also teamed up with Bridges TV host Monica Schmelter for the Messy to Meaningful books and TV projects. Along with Beth Duewel, Rhonda writes the Fix Her Upper series, and she also co-authored Unruffled: Thriving in Chaos with Edie Melson. She speaks at conferences and events from coast to coast, serves on many boards and committees, and stays busy as a publishing consultant. Rhonda says you can find her living near St. Louis drinking too much coffee and snort-laughing with her pastor/husband, five grown children, and a growing collection of the most exceptional grandbabies.