There’s something special about our voices—the inflection, the tones, how we draw out our words to how we put words together—how we communicate overall. There’s no voice that is exactly the same, but so often we try to change our voices to mimic those we feel communicate the best or the most profound. God never created us to mimic each other—He created us to complement each other.
It’s not for naught that God put the power of life and death within the connection of our words. Every phrase, every word spoken will always produce one or the other: life or death. And yet how often do we think about what our words are producing? How often do we wonder if what we said to someone either breathed life into the core of who they are or gave a hefty dose of deadly poison?
In the words of Stevie:
“Lately, I have had the strangest feeling
With no vivid reason here to find
Yet the thought of losing you’s been hanging
‘Round my mind…”
I’ve recently been trying to convince myself that a negative opinion of someone I admire is just that, an opinion. But in reality, those hurtful words began to push me back to a place of silence and allow my voice to be stolen away from me once again. I’ve been trying to convince myself that my words, whether profound or simple, are never worthless or pointless. Lately I’ve had the strangest feeling that my inability to finish this post was due to the fact that their opinion sank down as truth into my soul and the thought of not being able to express myself through writing or speaking was beginning to haunt and break my heart.
Surprisingly enough, I didn’t realize the weight I was carrying until I shared with my friend Desaree that I was having a difficult time completing this post about the significance of our voice. Her response was every bit of what I needed to hear and I’m going to share some of it with you in the hopes that it will heal and encourage any area you find yourself stuck in.
“… Your words are so powerful. Don’t ever disregard them.
Don’t ever discount them. … Do not compromise your voice. Your voice, the way that you approach things, the way that you say things…is unique and you need to stay the course and stay strong and not try and satisfy other people’s ideas of what you think you need to say or how you need to say it. Just say it. Don’t overthink it. Let it come from your heart… Don’t adapt your voice to someone else’s voice or their thought of what your voice should sound like because that’s how you…weaken your gift. You weaken the power of the message that God is trying to speak through to you.”
Can you see why I wanted to share that with you?
I’m learning that our gifts, whatever they may be, will always be on the “hit list” because they’re likely connected to our purpose. When our gifts are silenced, our purpose is that much harder to grasp and the fulfillment of the soul we experience—when boldly moving in our purpose—becomes a mere desperate desire to release the well within us. We can easily find ourselves flailing about, roaming the streets of dreams, wondering if we will ever find a road to call our own. The fact is we all have a road carved out for us and a gift, a voice and a purpose, we were born with to shine brightly alongside our fellow humans.
As much as those around us have the ability to speak life or death into our lives, we have that much more power to come into agreement with or counter and uproot anything that speaks against God’s promises and design for our lives. God always has the final say and He’s given us the power to speak in alignment with what His word says. Remember, your voice is valuable and needed and no one can ever silence you unless you allow it.
Related Article: Creative Creation: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Photo by matthew reyes on Unsplash
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