Ready for Some Tenderness?

Your voice is the sound you are here on this earth to make. It is your best expression of you, where you demonstrate your value. It is the motivation behind your vision, the reason you identify and operate your vessel, and the purpose for which you drive your vehicle towards the future.

~Excerpt from "How to Crack your SistaCode" presented by ilooklikeLOVE

This is a passage from my profit's curriculum for our single moms. Over time, it has easily become my favorite to teach because it explores the importance of understanding and developing one's place in the world. Finding and embracing your voice lays the foundation for how you relate to others. Its where you find your rhythm with the world, and where the world can embrace the music that is you.

We remind them...

People don't miss noise, they miss music. Your music is your VOICE.

Have you ever had to work with, live with, or deal with someone who felt more like noise than music? Always having plenty to say with no purpose or substance? Someone who expects you to eventually bend under the unyielding weight of their agenda?

Ugh. Noise. Makes my ears ring just thinking about it.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ~1 Corinthians 13:1 New International Version

The Apostle Paul presents this text to demonstrate to the Corinthian church how we, the church, the body of Christ, should use our spiritual gifts in the context of God's sacrificing love versus our own self-righteousness.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way. ~1 Corinthians 12:31b NIV

God has called you to steward your time and your attention. If you don't take measures to own it someone else will. It is your responsibility to protect your purpose and your peace, to not allow the someone else's behavior or disrespect detract you from your pursuit of God's glory. So, ask yourself:

"Do the intentions of the people in my space look like love?"

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ~1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

"Is my time with them increasing or stunting my growth?"

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ~1 Corinthians 13:5 NIV

"Are they inclined to operate in truth or fiction?