You Have A Voice

You have a voice. I have a voice. We have voices.

I can’t tell you when you lost yours or who you let take it. When you traded your fins for legs. I can’t look at your life and pinpoint exact moments you began to lose it. Or abuse it? Sometimes things happen quickly. Sometimes they happen over periods of time. All of a sudden. Voice gone. Thoughts irrelevant. Opinions silenced. Shut your trap or else. One more word and they won’t like you anymore. Be silent, be liked?

I can’t say when you lost it. I just know it happened. Someone else’s voice loud like a megaphone and you turn your own volume down. Their voice so loud it still rings in your ears. Your voice so quiet it’s deafening. Loud voices bleeding over loud voices and yours stuck on mute. Never getting a chance to see if you still have it or not. Stop trying.

You open your mouth only to prompt more monologues from others, but never enough to recite yourself. You ask for more words from other mouths while never daring to share anything of your own deeper than surface level. But then again, they never ask your option or thoughts. They want to hear their own voices more than they want to hear yours. “How was your day?” never asked in return.

Their stories matter. Yours do not? False.

You still have a voice. But you have to use it. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Wise people use voices discerningly. Testing their voice with trusted people. Wading into the waters of vulnerability and trust. Crawling, walking, running. In that order. But always with purpose.

Wise people know how to listen and speak, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice. It just means they know how to use it. They understand the balance of speaking and really listening. Ears and heart open. To really listen it takes more than ears.

You have a voice to bless people. Rejoice in who you were made to be. Discuss what you believe. Articulate your hurts. Speak truth to life. Confront when wronged. Apologize when sorry. Ask for forgiveness. Whisper sweet nothings. Sing heart songs. Say I love you. Praise wildly the Lord. Affirm yourself. Affirm others. Lay out your intentions. Cheer on the passions inside.

You have a voice. I like your voice. 

I like your thoughts and opinions. Your songs and your sorrows. I like the way you raise your voice when you are excited or laughing. New ideas surging through your mind and our your mouth. And your heart. I like listening to you sort it all out. I like when you ask to hear mine. Your voice matters. It matters to me. Use your voice to help me find mine.

MY voice matters. It matters to me. I will use my voice. Change batteries in remote and take off mute. Stand firm in my cadence. Stand firm in what I know and what I do not know. Use voice already given. Learn how to use more voice as I grow. Strengthen my voice.

Practice your voice.

Use wisely the voice so uniquely given to you. Use wisely the ears so perfectly crafted to hear. Listen to speak. Speak to listen.

You have a voice.