Who Am I?

A quick lesson in Radio 101: the little 20 to 30-second recordings you hear in a block of talk are called "promos" or in some cases "spots", but that's more in depth than we need to go. There is a promo that's been running on and off for the past few months that goes something like this: A wife. A mother. A lunch-maker. A chauffeur...

I can't remember the exact wording, but it basically lists a lot of the jobs and titles that we have as moms and ends with the line, Reminding you of your most important role: A child of God. Your Spirit FM. 

There are also complimentary promos for men and for children, all with the same final message.

Most of the promos we run are either written by Rob from our evening show or they are provided by an outside source. This one I wrote after some maternity leave inspiration.

We had a big staff meeting while I was out on maternity leave and my boss asked if I could come in. Besides the quick trip to the grocery store, this was going to be the longest I'd been away from my newborn as the meeting was going to be from 9-3 or so. It was late October, so Liam would've been about 6 or 7 weeks old.

Although I was tired and probably useless to the team that day it felt so great to be back to the old me, even if it was for only one day. On my drive home I rolled the windows down and turned up the radio and just sang along at the top of my lungs. I felt like Abby again! It almost brought me to tears. The person I had been for the past 7 weeks was so new and so foreign to me. My routine was completely different. My needs were completely different. My purpose was completely different. Or so I thought.

I found myself thinking, "Why does this feel like me but the person I'm about to turn back into does not? Is one more ME than the other?" So on that drive, I though of all the hats I would wear over the years as a mom. A tutor, nurse, chauffeur, mediator, chef... Some of the hats I would gladly sport while others I would don out of obligation. I think that as women we can go through an identity crisis. Who am I? Am I only a laundry-doer? Am I anybody but the person who birthed these children? It's like after you become a mom, the previous non-mom-you no longer exists. It can be pretty overwhelming.

No matter what the role of the hour is, one thing remains. Through all of it, I will always be a child of God. And the cherry on top is that I can never fail at that. I can be pretty lousy at the other jobs- get in an argument with my husband, not notice that the coffee table corner is about to make contact with a forehead or burn the toast, but I am a child of God without fail.

So in those moments that you might be going through an identity crisis and you find yourself saying, "Who am I?", go back to the basics and remember that while there is a long list of hats you wear, the most important one is actually not a hat at all, it's a crown!