{"id":244,"date":"2020-10-21T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T00:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=244"},"modified":"2020-12-06T20:20:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T01:20:51","slug":"the-healing-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/21\/the-healing-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Healing Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Maya Angelou\u2019s life did not have a hopeful beginning.
 
At the age of eight she was sexually abused and raped by her mother\u2019s boyfriend. 
 
Maya told her brother what had happened.  The boyfriend was apprehended.  Incredibly, he was jailed for only one day.  But four days after his release he was murdered, almost certainly by Maya\u2019s uncles.
 
The trauma of the rape now became the trauma of her voice. 
 
In her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings<\/em> she writes:  \u201cI thought, my voice killed him.  I killed that man, because I told his name.  And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone.\u201d
 
Angelou did not speak again until she was 13, except to her brother.  Imagine being mute for five years.
 
In a sense, the rest of Maya Angelou\u2019s life was a quest to find her voice.
 
And what a voice she turned out to have.
 
She became a dancer, Broadway stage performer, poet, author, and civil rights activist.  She traveled the world.  She won three Grammys, was nominated for both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  She was honored with more than 50 doctorates.
 
The voice she once feared could take life away became a voice of hope and inspiration for millions.
 
All of us stand at the same crossroads. 
 
Proverbs 12:18 tells us, \u201cReckless words pierce like a sword\u2026\u201d 
 
Our voices can kill.  Our reckless words can dash someone\u2019s dreams.  Our foolish attempts at humor can wound someone\u2019s spirit. Our angry outbursts can crush a child\u2019s confidence that the world is a safe place.
 
But there\u2019s a second part to Proverbs 12:18:  \u201c\u2026but the tongue of the wise brings healing.\u201d
 
Our voices can heal.  A kind word can reassure a colleague that her mistake isn\u2019t going to derail the whole team.  A word of appreciation can warm someone\u2019s heart on a chilly fall day.  \u201cI love you,\u201d \u201cI forgive you,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for you\u201d have the power to do what a hundred physicians can never do: restore a soul<\/em>.
 
Maya Angelou\u2019s voice finally became silent again in 2014.   
 
All of us, however, still have the amazing power and privilege of choosing what we will say today.
 
May God grant us the grace to speak healing words.      
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Maya Angelou\u2019s life did not have a hopeful beginning. At the age of eight she was sexually abused and raped by her mother\u2019s boyfriend.  Maya told her brother what had happened.  The boyfriend was apprehended.  Incredibly, he was jailed for only one day.  But four days after his release he was murdered, almost certainly by Maya\u2019s uncles. The trauma of the rape now… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79,18],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-encouragement","tag-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}