I am a wife. I am a mother. I am daughter, sister, aunt, friend, homemaker, employee, coworker, mentor, and volunteer. I wear lots of hats. If I were a real juggler in a circus, I could be the star attraction. I would have a marvelous costume. It would be leopard print because leopard print is marvelous, and my hair and makeup would be flawless.

With a drum roll, I would begin. In short order, I would wow the crowds with my ability to keep it all in the air. The audience would sit on the edge of its seats, fearing that I would lose it all. Only I wouldn’t, because I am that good.

Or am I?

As long as I can keep up a brave face, no one has to know that my act is struggling or even worse, that some of my balls lay strewn on the ground at my feet, right?

It’s a problem, this act we put on. I say we, because maybe you do it, too. Perhaps you perform in the center ring of your own circus.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with all we have to do. As women, there seems to be this piece of us that just has to take it all on. I can remember an Enjoli commercial when I was growing up about a woman who could do it all.

She could bring home the bacon (She could work and make money).

She could fry it up in the pan. (She could be a successful homemaker.)

She could never let him forget he’s a man. (I was little, so I pictured a woman saying to her husband, “You are a man. You are a man.” I grew a little older before I understood what the commercial was implying.)

The point of the advertisement was to imply that women could do it all. It aired during a time when women from all walks of life were heading into the workforce en mass. They needed someone to tell them they could do it all.

Why? Because we are women and we just can. We don’t have to say yes to some things and no to others. We can do it all and we can have it all.

But forget about women as a whole unit for a minute and take a minute to think about yourself. One woman. You. Because deep down, you know the truth. You know it as surely as I do. The truth is, that none of us can do it all. We know our limits, and we generally wave to them as we pass them right by. We usually know when we’ve gone too far.

The problem is, most of us don’t want to think about the fact that we can’t do everything.

But here’s the truth about that.

We weren’t meant to do everything. We run ourselves ragged trying to be all things to all people when no one ever asked us to be.

Wonder Woman doesn’t exist. She never did. God did not create woman because man needed a super human mate. God created woman to fulfill a singular role that was lacking in the universe.

Each of us is created on purpose to fulfill a purpose. Too often, we run around, willy-nilly, unable to find that purpose because we keep grasping at what everyone else tells us our purpose is.

When I get to the point of tears and exasperation, because I have tried once again to be super human in my obligations, my husband will usually call me Wonder Woman and pull me into his lap. If I were really Wonder Woman, I wouldn’t need him to pull me into his lap. I’d be pulling on red go-go boots, heading to my invisible plane to jet off and save the day again.

As I sink into his lap, he reminds me that I am, in fact, not Wonder Woman… Except to him… and that’s none of your business.

Moving on, let’s say my life is a pie chart.

I am first and foremost, a daughter of the King. That’s the biggest slice of the pie, or it should be. Then I am wife to Matthew and mother to Landon, Ryan, Laura, and Evan… all fairly big pieces of my pie. Most of my pie chart has been colored in with just those. It’s the remaining pieces of the pie that can tend to get out of control and cause me to feel overwhelmed. And it’s usually when I begin to let other people color in my pie for me that I begin to feel the pressure of an overloaded pie.

When this happens, I’m only a little girl, running around in a Wonder Woman costume. I’m trying to be something I never was made to be. When that happens, it can be hard being me.

It can be hard being you, too. I know. I don’t have the corner on this market of being all things to all people. I bet you do it, too. It might just be time to re-slice that pie. What do you say, Wonder Woman?

(Today’s Blog art by Brooke Benson)