Okay, point of view: you move away from family and friends at 19, build a life in Texas for 15 years, then one day, out of the blue, standing in the kitchen, your husband asks, “Do you want to move back to Tennessee?” We remember the details a little differently, but I remember pausing for a minute and wondering how serious he was. I don’t remember giving an answer right away because I don’t think I wanted to get my hopes up. I think it was about a week or so later that he asked again, and I was like, okay he’s for real.
Fast forward, we move at the end of that school year we were serving in and completely start over - new state, new schools, new basketball team, new colleagues, new home…all. the. things. It didn’t take long for all the change to creep in and overwhelm me. I cried in traffic on the way home one night because I had started to feel ill-equipped with the new roles I was committing to, especially exploring opportunities to sing. But I committed that night to drown out the noise and trust that He would lead the way.
I wrote No Noise sitting on the living room floor of our rental home with tears running down my face. I had to become more intentional with my time and drown out the noise that prevented me from moving forward in new areas of my life. Noise includes anything that makes me feel like I’m not good enough or any lie from the enemy that ultimately keeps me from bringing glory to His name. Most noise right now is centered around this musical journey I’m on. I have really struggled agreeing to photo and video shoots, starting a blog to share my experiences, and especially creating posts and reels that feel “self-promoting.” Drowning out the noise means knowing that He has equipped me for what’s next. I may not see it – and usually I don’t because I choose panic first – but He always equips me when I say yes. It also means being aware of my words and actions and how they influence those around me and cleaning up my social media accounts so that when I do spend time scrolling – because we all do it – I'm feeding myself with positive, uplifting examples of other women who are going through real trials in life, like me.