Finding my voice

I had a friend send me a text after my last blog post. She said, “you have found your voice”. I have thought a lot since about that concept. 

I think my voice has evolved over the past couple of years. I think it has matured. I think it has strengthened. In ways it has mellowed. But I think it’s always been there. 

It isn’t so much that I have found my voice. It’s that I’m becoming less afraid to use my voice. It’s that all the things that have existed to mute my voice over my lifetime are starting to fall away. The heavy shroud of shame. The challenge of introversion. The internal voice that says who are you that someone would want to hear what you would have to say. The untrue but ingrained message that, as a woman, sometimes I should keep my opinion to myself. The innate peacekeeping personality that is afraid to make waves and ruffle feathers and cause discomfort and/or division. 

All those things still exist. I struggle against them each time I sit down to write. But each time it becomes easier to tune those things out and to concentrate instead on sharing the pieces of me that I believe God has led me to share. Each time someone tells me they were touched by something I have written, it becomes easier for me to write again. Even when it feels like I’m peeling strips of skin off myself to do so. 

So thank you to all of you who encouraged me to write. And who continue to encourage me. It’s been such a blessing. 

In what way do you need to be encouraged? What piece of you does God want you to share that you’re holding back because of fear or shame or insecurity? 

Find your voice. Dig it out from under the piles of stuff that have buried it for far too long. Your story, your voice, may well be exactly what someone else needs to hear to help them to heal.