Inside my four-year-old son, Kenny, lives the heart of a superhero. Superman, to be precise. Kenny has two pairs of Superman jammies—long ones for winter, and short ones for summer. Each set of jammies comes with a cape that I velcro to the little spots on the shoulders of his pajama top. With this addition of this cape, Kenny becomes Super Kenny. He can run really fast, and he can even fly with his arms straight out in front of him, just like Superman (if we hold him up). Super Kenny has the biggest, proudest grin you’ve ever seen.
Without the cape, though, he’s just a little boy in a pair of jammies that’s missing something.
I found this out one night when Kenny was getting ready for bed. He came into the room where I was, wearing his pajamas. “You’re Super Kenny!” I said.
“No,” he said sadly, gazing toward the floor. “I can’t find my cape.”
“You can be Super Kenny even without your cape,” I said.
“No,” he repeated. “I have to have my cape.”
“Go look again where your jammies are,” I suggested.
Kenny left silently. He returned less than a minute later, holding the beloved red polyester rectangle. “I found it!” he said excitedly.
I quickly attached it to his shoulders, and Kenny turned to face me, his grin lighting up his whole face. “Now I’m Super Kenny!” he said proudly.
I knew that he’d been Super Kenny all along. But Kenny didn’t know it. He thought he needed that piece of fabric to complete his identity and transform him from a regular boy into someone spectacular. What he didn’t realize was that he’d been spectacular all along.
Kenny’s status as someone truly marvelous never depended on what he wore. God has declared him to be fearfully and wonderfully made, and that right there is enough to bestow upon him “super” status. I knew that Kenny was just as super no matter what he was wearing, or what he possessed. But he thought that in order to be truly spectacular, he needed something more than himself.
Precious mommy friend, do you ever find yourself thinking the same thing about yourself? That if you had something more—if you just dressed better, or looked prettier, or were smarter—you could be truly spectacular?
For many years of my life, I bought into Satan’s lie that if I were just prettier or more popular, I would be more special. I spent years trying to improve myself in these areas so that I could be something remarkable, all the while failing to realize that I already was.
How I wish I had realized much sooner that I was already super because God said so, and if He said so, that made it true. My status as marvelously unique and wonderful didn’t depend at all on what anybody else thought, or even on what I thought of myself. It depended then, and depends now, solely on what God declares to be true of me.
Can you empathize with me? Do you wish you could change one or more areas of your life so that you could finally feel like you really are super? It’s understandable. The devil is an expert liar and deceiver, and he is very skilled in hitting us where it hurts: our sense of ourselves. Instead of valuable and special, he wants us to see ourselves as worthless and common.
I don’t know the circumstances of your life, or why you feel that you aren’t very special. I do know that you can do the same thing I did after many years and much pain (though I hope it won’t take you nearly as long as it took me): you can choose to believe God.
It’s that simple. Simple, but not easy. I know it’s not. Remember, I’ve been there, and I stayed there for awhile. But what it all comes down to is this: will we choose to believe what God declares to be true about us, or will we find our sense of value in the things we possess or in what other people tell us about ourselves?
God has declared you to be His wonderful creation. You can choose to believe that, or not. You can count the opinions of other finite human beings as more valuable than His. But oh, friend, if you acknowledge that what He says about you is true, even if it doesn’t feel true, that’s the first step in truly coming to believe in the depths of your soul that you are marvelous and precious.
Take that first step. Declare that you believe God and want to take Him at His word, and He will meet you there at your point of need. He will clothe you not with a red polyester cape, but with every spiritual blessing that you need in order to realize that you are His beloved, amazing child.
Of course, if you don’t know God, the first thing you need to do is get to know Him. If you’re not sure how, check out the How to Know God section of this website, or ask a family member, friend, or pastor. Don’t miss out on knowing a God who knows you completely (because He made you) and loves you so deeply that He sent His son Jesus to die on a cross, taking the punishment for your sins so that you could then draw close to Him. He loves you that much.
You can trust a God like that. Do it, and choose to believe His opinion over anyone else’s, including your own. After all, His is really the only one that matters.
Psalm 139:14—I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.