Tip of My Iceberg

I am a naturally loud person. I speak loudly and laugh with enough decibels to be heard from a distance.

As a soccer nana, the grands now tell me what their parents once told me–they can hear me on the sidelines.

Two of my daughters coach high school soccer; one is rather soft-spoken, and the other takes more after me. After years of cheering for my kids from the sidelines and urging them to make good choices while at home or away with an emphatic and powerful tone, I’m louder than both of them.

They tease me about coming to practice, telling me what needs to be said, and allowing me to blare it to the team.

We all have a tendency to listen to the loudest voice, in the room or in our heads. Loud equates with insistent and important. When someone raises their voice above everyone else, it’s for a reason.

Even if we don’t understand that reason, our attention is captured and we listen.

Personally, I don’t always question if that loud voice is the correct voice. The louder the voice, the more aware I am of what’s being said.

Everyone has ongoing narratives that run through their minds as a result of their stories. Things we’re told when we’re young, reminders of what to do, encouragements to be what we can.

As well as our failures and mistakes that become more a part of who we are than we want to admit.

What’s easy to overlook is the truth about who we are, which can only be understood by listening to the One who made us and allowing Him to define us.

The world sees what it wants to see. Truth can be spun to look like whatever the speaker wants it to look like. We manage images on social media so we can be perceived the way we want to be perceived.

Truth cannot be so easily manipulated; it’s absolute.

Not everyone agrees with that. It’s assumed that our life circumstances shape our truth.

The reality is truth shapes how we deal with our life circumstances.

The way God views us comes from the heart of a loving Father. He celebrates us because He has made us in His image. He cherishes us because He longs for us to be in a relationship with Him. He has created us for a purpose, for good works, for hope, and a future that often escapes us when we get stuck in the loud lies we listen to.

There is an enemy of our souls who loves to fill our minds with lies and delusions. Satan will skew truth just enough to make it wrong, yet we listen because it’s what we’ve become used to hearing. A lie that has become a familiar tune.

We’ll always listen to the loudest voice in our heads, directing us and guiding our thoughts. What we forget is that it’s our choice who holds the megaphone.

God with His truth or the enemy with his lies. God’s hope or the destructive voice of the one who seeks to steal all our hope and joy from us.

I want my voice to be loud for truth.

I need to hear it first to reflect it.

Who holds your megaphone?