September is Deaf Awareness month. One of my passions is to help others understand disabilities and the ones who live with them and who loves those who do.

I didn’t start out deaf but I was not very old when people began noticing that I was not responding to things I should and not hearing the way I needed to.

My hearing loss was affirmed and by the age of 9, I had my first hearing aid. Share on X

From then on my hearing progressively became worse. One of my worst drops was the year I graduated from High School.

It was scary hearing some things one day and without even a warning, not being able to hear it another day.

One thing I have loved learning along my walk with Jesus is how to hear God's voice. Share on X

He does speak to us still. He speaks in different ways and, sometimes in very unique ways with each person.

I love that my clearest times of interaction with God, hearing Him has been when my cochlear implants are off, and there is complete silence, in ways a hearing person can never understand.

I used to think the silence I heard when my hearing aids were off was the same silence that a hearing person experienced, but it really isn’t. When I have my cochlear implants off, and I am home alone in the quiet, it is a very different sound.

I never realized silence was a sound itself really. Share on X

There have been seasons in my life where God seemed silent. I used to think that it was because He was not there anymore or He had walked away from me, but that is not true.

He is like the refrigerator. Even in the quiet, it is in the background still running. It is a very soft background noise, but it hasn’t stopped working. I am thankful for that truth.

Sometimes God comes in a firm, loud voice. Other times it is a thought or a person brought to my mind or heart. Sometimes His quiet whisper is hard to hear. We have to allow the other voices around us to be tuned out to be able to hear His voice clearly.

I go to hearing therapy every other week. One of my hearing goals is to learn how to hear in noise. I have been practicing listening to podcasts in the car. The hardest times to understand are when I am driving on the highway. My brain has had to learn how to focus on the podcast.

I began to practice doing this. Each time I was in the car I put on a podcast. I would focus my attention on the podcast. I noticed as I did this, soon the podcast voices became louder and the road and car noises became softer.

It was amazing to me how my brain could do that. We can do this as we are listening to God’s voice too. We have to seek Him and focus on hearing His voice above the other voices all around us. When we zoom in on His, eventually we will hear His voice, and the others will be tuned out.

I want to clarify by saying God does give us voices of wisdom in our lives, but there are also lots of clamoring noises in different forms. When we zoom on His voice, He will give us the discernment to know which voices have His wisdom there.

I am continuing to grow and learn in this hearing and listening journey of mine and in my journey of hearing God’s voice. I am so thankful my physical deafness does not keep me from hearing God.

I pray we are all focused on His voice above all others. May God tune out every voice that is not from Him. May we hear with His ears today, whether you hear typically or if you are deaf like me. Share on X