Who Am I?

I was recently asked to write a one or two sentence bio to accompany a magazine article I had submitted for publication.  And I confess, those were two of the hardest sentences I have ever written!  How do I sum up who I am in just two sentences?  And who am I anyway?

You try it.  Write a two-sentence bio about yourself.  What would you say?  What would you consider most important?  What do you include and what do you leave out?

As I am typing these words, there's music running through my head.  "Who am I that you are thinking of me, that you hear me when I call.......I am a friend of God......."

So that answers the question.  That's who I am.  I am a friend of God.  I don't think I included that in the bio.  Maybe because it seemed pretty obvious from the piece I had written, the article that the bio would accompany.  But really, that's pretty much the core of who I am.  A friend of God, a follower of Jesus.  Saved by His grace.  That's me.

How do we answer the question?  Is who we are defined by what we do?  Is it defined by our relationships?  Is it defined by our hopes and dreams?  Is it defined by our education and degrees earned?

I have spent much of my life as a teacher.  In a public school classroom.  Beside a child at the piano.  As a homeschooling mom.  In a church setting.  I'm not now teaching in those arenas, yet I would still consider myself a teacher.  It's not so much what I do as it is who I am.  It's my gifting.  And, as I have heard said so often: once a teacher....always a teacher!

More specifically, I have spent many years as a Bible teacher.  I'm not currently standing each week in front of a classroom of students.  But it's still who I am.  There's a sense in which you could say that this blog has become my classroom.  Again, as in the teaching of English or the teaching of music, it's not so much what I do.  It's who I am.  It's at the center of what's important to me. 

So, to repeat myself.......I am a friend of God.  I am a follower of Jesus.  I am a student of and a teacher of His Word. 

"Oh, how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day."  (Psalm 119:97 ESV)

Who am I?  A friend of God, a follower of Jesus, a student, a teacher.  I'm a wife, a mom, a Nana.  I'm a sister, I'm an aunt, I'm a friend.  I'm a writer.  I'm a musician.  I'm a coffee drinker.  (A coffee snob, truth be told!)  I'm a reader, a lifelong learner.  I'm a woman.  An opinionated, not always patient, occasionally ill-tempered woman.  I was once a young woman, but now not so young and hopefully more mature. (See me smile!)

I love the mountains.  I love books.  I love pink and purple and blue.  Especially bright, jewel toned hues of those colors. Pastels, not as much.  I love Bach and Beethoven and Mozart and Chopin.  And I love the Gaither Vocal Band and David Phelps and Steve Green and Chris Tomlin.

I love my family.  I love my friends.  I love my dog.

I love people.  And I love solitude.  I'm a myriad of contradictions.

That's who I am. 

How, I ask you, can all that be condensed into 1 or 2 sentences!!!!

But it's who I am!  Who are you?

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  (Psalm 139:13 ESV)