I wish I could remember how I found Susanna Foth Aughtmon’s blog. (If you could see my Google Reader, you’d understand.) But I’m sure it had something to do with it’s title: Confessions of a Tired Supergirl. I’m know for certain that the name alone grabbed my attention right away, because — hey, *I* am a tired supergirl! And once I started reading the content of the blog, I was hooked. This supergirl knows her stuff! Bonus!
I love Sue’s description of a tired supergirl from her blog’s “About Me” page:
“To be more than…
To be unique…
To be excellent in some way….
Able to leap tall laundry in a single bound….
Able to wipe out the forces of evil and keep my house clean…
Able to become the person God created me to be compared to the person I actually am….”
So with that, I became a fan. Because, really . . . that sums up my life’s To Do list — right down to that mountain of laundry! Susanna’s writing is honest and vulnerable and FUNNY. When you read her words, it’s like having a face to face conversation with one of your best friends. In light of that fact, I was even more delighted to discover that this fellow tired supergirl was also a published author of not one, but two books!
Susanna’s second book, My Bangs Look Good and Other Lies I Tell Myself, has just hit the shelves . . . and I am honored to be a part of her Blog Tour!! (Does that make me a groupie? A roadie? A stalker?? Call me what you will — I’m still super excited to be able to participate!)
When the book arrived on my doorstep, all you-know-what was just starting to break loose around here. I *almost* wrote Susanna an email telling her that I wouldn’t be able to participate. But over the weekend, in the thick of my father-in-law’s funeral services — when I felt drained and empty and sad and defeated and overextended (and did you SEE that pile of laundry in my basement?!), I curled up on the couch and read the whole book. It was as if one of my besties stopped in and said, “You look like you need to talk.”
My Bangs Look Good and Other Lies I Tell Myself was that conversation. All of my doubts and perceived shortcomings refuted by Susanna’s clearly written, humorous and Bible-backed truths. The Liar is busy polluting my thoughts and notions, but have no fear, God is here!
“Looking at the raw material God has to work with in my life, I’m not sure that God could really use me. I know myself too well. I am overflowing with mediocrity,” writes Susanna. Yes! Yes!!! That’s me!!! Wait, what?? God doesn’t mind that I’m imperfect? Majorly flawed? And he still has a use for me? I just need to be ready and willing? Well, huh. [Truth #6]
“We tired supergirls feel things all the time. We feel sad. We feel lonely. We feel underappreciated. We feel stressed out. We feel hurt. We feel angry. We feel misunderstood. Sometimes life seems to layer itself so heavily that we can’ get out from all these feelings,” Susanna says, as if she’s hiding behind the curtains, spying on me. Amen, sister! No one but us tired supergirls can possibly understand that! Oh . . . yeah . . . God sent his Son to earth to experience all of those things, and I can, at any time, give up every one of those feelings to Him and He will take that burden from me. [Truth #13]
“In case you haven’t noticed, we tired supergirls are a bit worn out from serving. We serve on committees. We serve our bosses who needed those reports yesterday. We serve our kids’ teachers by driving second graders on class field trips. We serve our children breakfast, lunch, and dinner, not to mention snacks, and then we serve them by washing their plates. A whole lot of serving is going on, except for the part where people serve us.” Susanna took the words right out of my mouth! I’m just going to go crawl into bed and wait for someone to bring me a hot cup of coffee, a doily-covered dish of dark chocolate truffles, and a big stack of magazines. Maybe I’ll resurface after a long nap. Ugh . . . that’s not how it works, is it? “When we serve our friends, our coworkers, and our families, we are showing them the extent of Jesus’ love — a Creator God humbling himself to serve his creation,” Susanna gently reminds me. Serve with joy, Leslie . . . serve with joy! [Truth #19]
I love this book so much. In fact, I am going to read it again, starting tonight, to make sure it all truly sinks in. I am going to highlight, flag, note, and bookmark it’s contents — and I know it is going to be heavily marked up because so much of it spoke to me! Thanks, Susanna, for sitting down and speaking those truths to me when I really needed them!
My Bangs Look Good and Other Lies I Tell Myself is available now at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
