Finding My Voice

Hi everyone,

Wow, the summer seems to be flying by and with the passage of time I am also finding other areas of my life beginning to take flight.  It’s amazing how often times dreams that we once held dear, dreams that we once thought were lost can suddenly appear on the horizon.  

The impact can be just as breathtaking as a rainbow after a storm, just as calming as the sound of mourning doves in the morning.  The last time I wrote it was about crying out to the Lord, but time and again I have found throughout life that He so often answers prayers that maybe we only acknowledged within our souls and never to anyone else.  This timing for this post is a perfect example of that. 

Many, many moons ago I use to sing in choir and at choral competitions.  I also had a Minnie Pearl skit that I would perform for functions as well.  But time and life got in the way and after college this was an area of my life that I never thought I would revisit. However, God’s plans and timing are often so very different from our own. 

I have felt for several years that I wanted to sing again; that I was meant to do something with my voice.  So one Wednesday night after church I asked Octavia, who is our Worship Leader at church and a PHENOMINAL artist, if she would listen to me.  It had been over 30 years, maybe the internal nudging for me to sing was nothing more than a 50 year old woman trying to reclaim her youth or maybe this was something that my internal GPS was on course with.

So in a little room, on a summer evening, I sang Amazing Grace.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.  And it was in that moment, when Octavia suggested that I take some voice lessons to polish up what I had put aside for so many years, that I realized I was finally finding my voice.  Octavia suggested Laine Miller, an INCREDIBLE voice teacher, performer & director of musical theater. 

My voice lessons have become such an outlet for me.  And an added God Wink was when Laine gave me the piece New Life from Jekyll & Hyde to sing.  It is so fitting for this time in my life.  

Preparing to sing this song takes patience, perseverance, and practice.  These same elements are also very important in my writing and really when I create anything.  However, when I am patient, when I persevere, and when I practice the task that I am working on then I will find my voice, either in song or on paper. 

We all have a voice that we can use in some way.  We all have some gift or gifts that God has given us and when we use them we are then letting the world see the beauty that He has placed in all of us.  We are using our voice, whether spoken or through our actions to show the world Him through us.

And in a world that is turned upside down; in a world that seems to have lost the song in its heart, maybe it is time we all look within to find the beautiful voice that He has given us and sing to bring comfort to this heartbroken world.  May each of us use this week to seek the voice that He has placed inside of us to help comfort those around us.