When I ran track in High School, the parents and students would be in the bleachers cheering for their own kids or school. But there would only be one voice I was tuning in to hear, that voice of my dad. I can’t exactly explain how I could distinguish his voice above the hundreds others, but I strained to hear him all the same. I knew that when I heard him shouting, “run Joe, run, you can do it”, I found an extra gear, a desire to make my dad proud. That was more important to me than any ribbon, but it was only possible by responding to his voice alone.

We live in a world where we are bombarded by voices. There are the voices of a society telling us how to think, how to act, constantly challenging our moral compass or upbringing. There are critical voices of those Job-like friends from the Old Testament, telling us how many ways we are wrong. But I believe that the most damning voices are those of inner enemies engaging in warfare on the battlefield of our minds. I’m sure you’ve heard them too. They are easy to recognize:

”Don’t kid yourself, you will never amount to anything special.”

”Who are you fooling, you know you can’t do this. You will fail like always.”

”If they only knew your past like I do…”

”Stop trying so hard, you will never be good enough.”

Sadly, the voices that echo the loudest, tend to be the one we listen to and ultimately believe. After all, if they are saying the same things, they must be true. But are they?
In biblical times, whenever there was a large event, shepherds would corral their flocks with several theirs until the event ended. Then they would call their own flock out to journey back home. This was possible because each shepherd had a very distinct call that only his flock would respond to. In the course of a day the sheep would hear many calls, or voices, but would only respond to the one true voice of their shepherd. The sheep had to be trained and conditioned over time which voices to ignore and which one to follow. Just like my dad in the stands, I was conditioned to hear his voice over all others . Now I follow the voice of my Heavenly Father.

The truth of a voice is not relative to its volume. Don’t be taken in by loud liars. You are worthy-you are important-you are needed and loved-you are most certainly enough! Surround yourself with people who know you best and train yourself to listen for their voices when your enemy invades. Create a mental filter that detects spam before it is allowed through. Listen to the right voice!