Reclaim Your Voice that Still Lives Inside You—Because No Shame Can Silence What God Has Spoken.
- Sista' Joy

- Jun 27
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 4

There are moments from our youth that leave lasting echoes—words spoken, laughter shared, or wounds we never quite named. I carried one of those moments for years, silently. But through my walk with the I AM, I discovered a truth deeper than shame and stronger than memory. This is not just my story—it’s for anyone who has ever hidden their light, silenced their voice, or believed they weren’t enough. May it help you remember who you are.
I was a teenage girl in West Virginia, full of dreams, questions, and a quiet longing to be seen for something more than where I came from.
One warm afternoon, I was chatting with a group of neighborhood teens on a porch
next door—laughing, talking, sharing the little things that felt big in those days.
Then, one boy—someone I’d known all my life—pointed at my house and said with a smirk, “Clean up. Fix up. Paint up.”
It was a line from a popular paint commercial at the time, a catchy jingle meant to
inspire home improvement. But in that moment, it wasn’t inspiration—it was humiliation.
And oh, how the others laughed.
I laughed too… not because it was funny, but because I didn’t know what else to do.
But something inside me—soft, sacred, and still forming—collapsed in silence.
It wasn’t just about the house. It was about how I was seen.
And though I never told a soul…I carried that shame with me for years.
I tried to rise above it. To prove I was more than where I came from. To stay quiet
unless I had something polished to say. To keep my voice small, just in case it drew
the wrong kind of attention.
That’s what shame does. It convinces you to dim your light before someone else does.
But the Voice within me never stopped whispering. And neither did the pull of Spirit.
Years later, as a Student of the I AM, I came face to face with a truth that
freed me:
I am not my past. I am not my pain. I AM the Living Temple of the Most High God.
And baby, when I remembered who I truly was—I rose.
I told my stories. I sang my songs.
Not to prove anything—but to shine anyway.
Now, I speak for every teenage girl who has ever sat in silence after being laughed at, mocked, overlooked, or judged.
For every soul who swallowed their brilliance just to feel safe in a world that didn’t
yet know how to see them.
If that’s you…hear me now:
You are not what they said. You are not your house. You are not your shame.
You are sacred. You are chosen. You are whole.
And your voice? It never left you.
It’s just waiting for the moment you decide to rise again—and speak.




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