Recently, I have felt that I am at full capacity, if not more. The last few Fridays I have come home from work to go straight to my bed and take a nap. I am exhausted!
My coworker emailed the other day asking how my coworker and I are managing to do all that has been assigned to us. I joked that we must have our Superwoman capes on.
Do you feel like you have a closet full of those Superwoman capes as well?
Dictionary.com defines a Superwoman as “a woman who copes successfully with the simultaneous demands of a career, marriage, and motherhood.”
The Superwoman Complex
There are only 24 hours in a day, of which eight should be spent sleeping. The margin to do things is slim. Often when you do want to go to sleep, you berate yourself for things that you weren’t able to accomplish and start to think about all of the things you have to do tomorrow. We can also compare ourselves to the other people in our lives who seem to get it all done with spare time.
Women have been told they can, and should be able to, do it all: the homemaker, the child-rearer, the career woman, the social queen, the romancer. So, like me, many women put on their invisible superwoman cape at the expense of their mental, physical and spiritual health.
But a Superwoman’s value only comes from successfully accomplishing all these things that serve a worldly sense of worth. We can think we are a failure if we aren’t able to flawlessly complete the endless lists of things in our day, leaving little room for God’s grace or a biblical understanding that our worth does not come from what we did or did not accomplish in a day.
How to Practice Humility
When you try to be Superwoman there is no room left for God. Pride tells us that we can live beyond our human limits and become God ourselves. We feel the immense weight of anxiety that comes along with doing more than God intended for us to do.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without Me.” John 15:5.
The beautiful thing about humility is that it frees us from the cycle of stress and the “can do it all” attitude. It makes us realize that we can do nothing apart from God.
Jesus Is With You
Jesus knows what it feels like to be us. He humbly embraced these same human limitations when He came to live here on earth. He added the weakness, dependency, and limitations to His divinity. Just like you and me, Jesus was emotional, relationally and physically limited.
“Who, though he [Jesus] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:6-7.
However, when confronted with limitations, He leaned on the Father and prayed with full faith. Ultimately, Jesus’ humility frees us from our desire to be God.
“To reclaim humility, Jesus embraced human limits. To restore humanity, Jesus revealed the goodness of being bound in space and time.” Hannah Anderson, Humble Roots.
Acknowledge God
God’s all-encompassing power is magnified when we realize that we cannot do it all. By recognizing our limits, we allow ourselves to acknowledge God and become more dependent on Him.
“Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:38.
God is God and you are not. When you are at max capacity, you must seek God. Human limitations should remind you to pray as well as worship Him because He made us for His glory.
If you are feeling discouraged and hopeless, turn to God for help. There you will find that He calls us to rely on Him and humbly submit ourselves to His authority.
He is our rock and our comforter. Without His care, His love, and His provision, we could do nothing. Let Him save the day!
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