Tag: voices

Find Your Style

Jennifred Jones

We constantly have voices from our past telling us, reminding us, persuading us who we should be, what we should say, how we need to write.

Back in ye old English class, we learned all the correct phraseology, when to use this word and that comma, and don’t use contractions, it’s not formal, etc., etc., etc.

BUT as we adult on in life, we develop our own style to something that fits our personality, our family, our peoples.

I have to fight against those voices everytime I put hand to keyboard.

…what I should, how I should, would Mrs. Bach, my senior composition teacher, like me to write, vs what I want to convey.

My original goals for this blog were:

…be myself

…encourage people

…bring something good and uplifting

…cause people to think

…don’t sound religious

…don’t write like an English major

…not too many words

That’s my style so far.

What’s yours?

Voices in the Wilderness

Jennifred Jones

Have you ever had something you thought was important to say, that needed to be said, that no one else was saying, but needed to be heard?

It would help people if they could hear it, it could change the direction of their life, but they were nowhere near you, you didn’t even know who they were, you couldn’t summon them to hear your words, and frankly, they probably wouldn’t even recognize what you had to say was for them.

Just a voice…a voice out in the wilderness -being absorbed only by the mossy bark on the trees and getting soaked up by the fallen leaves and tramped on.

We live in a big wilderness it seems, yet there are many voices calling out to us.

Many of the voices are loud, clamoring, demanding for attention. They hackle, yell, demean, shame, put-down, confuse, conflict, and torment, and cause us to worry and fear. They even try to make us think bad thoughts about and hate other people-including ourselves!

But, if we keep walking, keep listening and get where it is quiet again, and really listen, we can hear a still small voice saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it’. It will be unassuming, patient, kind, gentle, leading, guiding, encouraging, hopeful, filled with wisdom; it might even be a gentle warning, but it will cause us to be at peace and rest– not filled with turmoil when we hear it. It will inspire us to do good and think good about other people.

I have heard all of these voices. I have heard the voice of fear and worry and shame and hate, but I have also heard the voice of kindness, grace, hope and peace. I hear them every day in my walk through the wilderness of life.

I know what each of them feels like and what it does to me when I pay heed.

The choice is mine, which voices I choose to listen to.

Some are so tempting and convincing — to entice me to worry and fret about something I have no control over—which is about everything.

I am choosing to listen to the quiet voice. I choose to listen for the voice that wants to give me hope and cause me to do good and noble things.  I choose that, although it is harder to hear and follow, that is what I choose. Sometimes I get off the path and start listening to the louder voices, but my quest is to listen for the still small voice in the wilderness…the one that will lead me through to the clearing on the other side.

Who knows, maybe someone else that I cannot see is behind me – lost in the wilderness – and cannot hear the still small voice — but will follow my footsteps and make it through.