I’m seeing A LOT of recommendations that people (especially women) should be themselves so I want to take just a couple of minutes and laugh about it.

If you are not being yourself, who are you being? Noah Webster? Donnie Osmond? The Queen of England? If you’re the Queen of England, don’t quit! I guarantee you’re living a better life than whatever ‘yourself’ would live. If you’re the Queen of England, don’t try to be yourself.

REALITY CHECK!!! Your problem is not that you aren’t being yourself. The problem is that you don’t like yourself so you’re swallowing the lie that the aggressive, bossy, difficult, awkward person in the mirror isn’t really you. ‘Yourself’ is not brave or strong enough to admit your flaws so you pretend those flaws are virtues.

You: “I’m not bossy!”

Me: “Sometimes you are.”

You: “Shut up! Go to your cubicle or I’ll have you fired!”

You talk endlessly about ‘not caring what others think’ and then spend every moment of your life trying to change the world’s opinion of you. The best part is that you aren’t even sure that you’re ‘yourself.’ You can’t know that my opinion is wrong about you unless you first know who you are! LOL!

You’re probably not going to take advice from me because you don’t like me and ‘yourself’ only tolerates people who manipulate you with flattery. But I am not going to shrink myself to make you happy. I’ve been told that I’m beautiful when I’m myself so here goes…

You are already yourself. All your ugly, selfish, repulsive, wicked attributes that others have tried to tell you about are real. The ‘self’ that you’re trying to sell me is a fake. It is no use pretending that the ‘real you’ is made entirely of goodness and light while your sin belongs to ‘somebody else.’ The only people you’re fooling are the other folks (especially women) who are just as confused as yourself.

There are many good reasons to not like yourself. Coming to grips with that harsh reality is what compels some people to become Christians. When your identity is found in Jesus, you become your true ‘self.’ Being a new creature in Christ is even better than being Queen of England.

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

(James 1:23)