We can learn a lot from an imaginary superhero like Elastigirl.

“Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it.”

Superheroes don’t want people to know their true identity. Superman can’t reveal that he’s Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter. The Flash can’t admit to being Barry Allen, a forensic scientist. And Elastigirl can’t declare she’s Helen Parr.

Their identities are vital … precious … and they need to be protected because their identities make them vulnerable.

You and I are a lot like superheroes. 

Our identites are valuable … precious. We need to protect who we are — but not by hiding who we are from others. No. We need to know who we are and we need to know how to stand firm in that truth. And then we protect our identities by not allowing anyone else to force us to become someone we are not.

Sounds good, right?

But it’s not always easy to do.

We want to be loved, to be accepted.

And sometimes we exchange who we are for the chance to be liked, to be validated … and in doing so, we invalidate our identity — we don’t protect our most valuable posession. We give up a little of ourselves — or sometimes we sacrifice a lot of ourselves — in the hopes that we will be accepted. But really — the people we want to like us aren’t seeing the real us, are they? We’ve put on a mask or acted a part or said the expected things … 

It’s a case of personal identity theft — and we’ve stolen our own identities by exchanging the truth of who we are for a lie.

If we don’t protect our identities — then who will?

 

In Your Words: How’s your identity holding up? What are you doing to protect yourself from personal identity theft?

 

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