I found It and I’m No Longer Afraid to Use It

My VOICE that is!

Unfortunately I started having my unavoidable life confrontational experiences when I was a teenager and as with everyone they continued into adulthood. The sad thing was I didn’t rededicate my life to God until 2002 and at that time I just tried to not have any conversations with negative connotations, but when I did have to have them they didn’t go well. Finally, after much studying of God’s Word and reading “When a Woman Finds Her Voice” I have, at the age of 42, found my voice. Now I am not always perfect, but with God’s help my voice allows me to have both hard and blessed conversations with many people.

Since I have started using my voice in the correct ways, I have found my relationships becoming stronger. My husband and I can be honest with each other without having to worry about the anger because we know if one of us doesn’t agree with other it is okay, we are going to work through it. It may mean in the end, we agree to disagree, on that particular subject but we both have the freedom to express our feelings. This has been even more beneficial since my husband was injured in November and we have been together almost 24/7 and will be until at least March.
I am able to try and explain to my daughter now, how she can have the dreadful confrontations that sometimes have to take place on the set, with the director or producer, in the work place or in dealing with parents as she is coaching their children but yet do so in a God honoring, respectful way. She can also do this with her own teammates, the owner of the studio, the Athletic Director at the school, the parents at the school and the co-head coach. As I mentioned to her, it is much better to learn this at age 20 as supposed to age 42. It will allow her to cultivate many more relationships than to burn the bridges.

The best thing I have found in using my voice is a closer walk with God, I realized one of the first and most consistent things I must do each day to find my voice is renew my mind and to do that I had to catch every one of the thoughts that entered my mind. Each time a thought came in I had to determine if it was something God would want me to think, if not I had to replace it. If a scripture or another truth of God’s didn’t come to mind fast enough I had a five statement pledge of faith I had memorized from another popular Bible study teacher that I would say to myself and that way no matter where my focus it was put right back on God.

Please don’t feel like these were quick, easy tasks. If you decide to go down this path there will be times of heartache, frustration, tears and times when you just want to give up as you wonder why you decided to go this way, just remember the enemy only attacks those he is threatened by and sees is getting closer to Christ. In the midst of the hard times you will have times that are happy, joyous, peaceful and loving. Leaving you to wonder why you waited so long to start this and do this. In the end as I continue to work through all of this I just know that I wouldn’t want it any other way, even in the bad times I will talk with God, turn on worship music, write in my journal, call a friend and sometimes just have a good therapeutic cry. You can do this with God on your side, nothing is impossible, just keep using your voice.