To empower a voice, you first have to find the voice - your voice. Once you find your voice, you must make a choice - a choice for life or death. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. As a child, I talked a lot but I had no voice. No voice means I wasn’t heard to whom it mattered, where it mattered nor when it mattered. A voice isn’t necessarily talking per se…but it does embody a sound- a sound through which we communicate and are understood.

Everything in life has a sound…but it must be honed to know exactly what it is. It’s not noise. Noise is busyness, chaos, disruption, interference, untuned frequency and so forth. But a sound is distinct, clear, authentic, pure, and certain. Pianos, horns, string instruments, child’s laughter, tires screeching, bells ringing, whistles blowing, etc…are all sounds that we can definitively distinguish from all other sounds. So, it is with your sound.

Your voice is a sound accompanied with a language. Language is dialect pertaining to specific criterion. It is more about where you are than who you are. Race, gender, height, weight, finances, education don’t necessarily determine it. It is often cultivated where you live. There are people all over the world that may look like you but speak totally different. It’s called the native language - a language of your origin. Surely, one can learn several different languages. That’s fascinating, right…but they can only produce one sound. That sound gives credence to your voice. When someone is mute, they can open his/her mouth and there is no sound or in some instances they can make a noise but there is no clear audible sound.

Your voice is giving sound to that thing that pushes you to no longer stand by and be silent - a cause. It’s what you champion. It is your purpose. Those who have been in a similar environment are your people. You have the same language and so you understand one another when it may be foreign to others. It’s what you’re passionate about. It’s what you get up with and what you lay down with. When expressing it to others of a different language, you have to find a common ground on which there must be some agreement. Oftentimes our personal struggles are where we can find common ground because although our struggles may have been different, struggle has the same characteristics. That helps us better in interpreting one another’s voice.

No one may never know about the statistics of breast cancer if you didn’t give your voice to it. Together you’re making a sound that vibrates through every living thing. It bounces off walls, penetrates barriers, etc. It is a sound heard all over the world. It’s a compilation of all your individual voices combined. What good is a sound, if you won’t lend it your voice? Maya Angelou stopped speaking because of what tragically happened in her life. The sound was still there but she gave it no voice. When she finally released the sound, she gave a voice to the things that were unjust.

That’s why I wrote “The Fearfully & Wonderfully Made Series.” I found my voice, I made my choice, I found my cause and I’m releasing my sound thereby empowering others to do the same. I write to teach, heal and to empower. This series is about a little girl who finds that she is unique. She realizes that through the construction of a paper doll created by her mother that she, herself was lovingly created by God. She may have been torn and tattered at the hands of some and belittled by the words of others, but she was always valuable and precious to her Creator. Just like the trash the paper doll was made from didn’t lessen the valuable love and lessons that remains and sustains me today, neither was my value - my worth minimized by the circumstances of my life. I am her - I am the little girl. My mother created something out of nothing. My mother delivered something out of nothing. I have had to fight through many things in life to find my voice - a voice that the devil has tried to shut down and did so for a long while. That was until I connected with my Creator and realized that although I was fashioned out of dirt that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. I was accepted by Him. I was loved. I am loved. That’s the sound that was always there, I just had to release it.