The Sling Diaries, Volume VII. A photo-documentary chronicling the art of baby wearing in the lives of families around the world. Over the course of six months, Sling Diarists will create their own Sling Diary though a series of diary entries interpreting a unique theme given to them each month.
Meet all of our Sling Diarists here.
ON VOICE
One of the greatest lies we believe is that we don’t have a voice, and this lie is caging and silencing a generation of people who have to potential to be catalysts of change and freedom.
Our silence is usually a subconscious agreement with the lie that we don’t have a voice. Perhaps we believe that we have nothing important to say, or, that no one really cares about what we have to say. Maybe we think that we will say the wrong thing, or that we will hurt others with our words, or that others will hurt us with their words. We conclude we don’t know enough, we aren’t smart enough and that our words can’t change anything.
We silence our voice in fear.
I remember there was a time when I was around 11; I was in a class with a group of girls who for some reason choose me as their target to silence. I couldn’t understand why, but every time I would speak they would mock me to the point of silence. I would be working at my desk, and they would crawl around on the floor, come under my desk, and mock me. If I had to speak to the class for a project, they would sit in their seats and fake cough over their mocks. If I would try and start a conversation with someone they would appear with their mocks to silence me.
Whether I consciously made a choice or not, I can’t really remember, but I know from that point on I had a fear of using my voice. There have been times when I let that fear dictate my voice, and other times when I have fought passed the point of fear because I believed that what was burning in my heart was more important than riding the wave of fear. Now more than ever, I am consciously choosing to break agreement with the lie that my voice needs to be silenced. Being a part of the sling dairies, speaking in front of groups, praying out loud, even having Instagram (as lame as that may sound) are all choices I make to disagree with any old habit to be silent. I make deliberate decisions to believe the truth of what God says over any experience I have had or will have.
Unraveling in me is a deep-set conviction that my voice is important, and not only my voice, but that YOUR VOICE is important and needed.
Our VOICE releases what is burning in our heart.
What is burning in your heart has the potential to shape history. You have a story, a history filled with moments and seasons that have shaped your passions. The things that make you ecstatic and the things that make you rage, the victories you have enjoyed and the valleys you’ve survived all become the voice in your heart.
Your heart is laced with wisdom and freedom for the one beside you who sits caged. Your heart knows exactly what key it takes to be set free from grief in a pure way. Your heart knows what key it takes to unlock the cage to understand and experience love when you never knew it your whole childhood. Your heart knows what it takes to forgive the least deserving. Your heart knows what it is to wait, to withstand and to bear. Let the overflow of your heart speak. Let YOUR VOICE be heard.
Your voice isn’t a volume, your voice isn’t found in agreement. Your story will become the voice that brings others freedom and hope. Your voice is a catalyst. What is in your heart? What experiences have shaped you to your core? What burns in you? Let the message that overflows from you heart out, let your mouth speak.
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