Do you ever feel like you just can’t get anything right when it comes to parenting your kids? I’ve got news for you: You aren’t alone in that.
I was having a conversation with my 14 year old last night and he brought up “imposter syndrome.” We talked a little about the subject and then I said, “The thing about imposter syndrome is that people often think they’re the only one suffering from it.” What we all need to realize is that almost everyone (with the exception maybe of some narcissists) questions themselves. Everyone fails at times. No one lives up to their own expectations of themselves.
Look no further than the “heroes” of the Bible who were all very flawed. Murderers, liars, prostitutes, cheats, adulterers, cowards. The ranks of heroes in our faith are filled with such people. It’s not because of those characteristics that they are heroic, it’s in spite of them. God can use literally anyone He chooses. Even the biggest of failures.
What makes you so special? Why get down on yourself like you’re somehow worse than anyone else? We all have our moments of failure. We just have to make the decision to learn from failure and move forward rather than dwelling on where we dropped the ball.
Maybe the reason that men think we’re the only ones struggling with something is because we don’t tend to talk to each other about real issues in our lives. We assume that everyone else has their act together because we haven’t talked about anything on a deeper level than who got traded to what team before the deadline. That needs to change. I’m an open set of ears if you want to reach out to me by replying to this email or commenting on the post, but I also highly suggest you find a strong support system in your local church where you can talk about failures and struggles with someone who cares. You’re not alone.