Stacey Stone “I Finally Figured It Out”

I eat blueberries for breakfast. It’s brain food, blah, blah, blah. One morning I was sitting at the dining room table eating my breakfast. My Bible was open, but my brain was not there. The view out the window is spectacular but I was not focused there either. And for those of you that know how much I love my dogs and husband, something was still missing. The ache of loneliness after leaving Christian radio and moving was the only thing on my mind. At one point, I picked up one of the deformed blueberries on my plate and held a full conversation with him. I told him that he was still beautiful, that God had created Mr. Blueberry and that Jesus loves him (I don’t know why I made him male.) I then took it back to the refrigerator and put him back in with the other blueberries. I probably ate him the next morning but that is not the point of the story.

I turned from the fridge and immediately asked Alexa to play WGTS 91.9. I had a physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional need to hear the voices of my friends Becky and Spencer (yes, I’m retired. I get up that late.) In that moment, nothing mattered except for the comfort I was going to receive from that station. You might be thinking, “well, of course they are your friends. You worked with them for almost nine years.” True, but your listeners feel exactly the same way about you when they don’t know where else to turn. Over these many months, several of your voices have filled that void that was built by leaving our friends and our radio family. The reasons that your listeners feel that way are many more than that.

So, here are the three points that I have finally figured out:

1. You can learn every technique, go to every training, bring on every consultant but sometimes it is as simple as they just need to hear your voice. Your voice is the soundtrack to their lives and, if you are not there, their heart will notice. I listened to Stevens and Pruitt in high school, and I can still remember how sad I was when they went to Houston. That was way before apps and 40 years ago so imagine someone remembering you and your voice that many years from now.

2. The world can create hundreds of thousands of platforms to reach people for Christ, but he gave you that very distinctive voice that no one else has. It is like your fingerprint, and you are one of the very few people who get to say those call letters each shift. Add it up at your station. You will be surprised. You are made in the image of God, and your voice is a reflection of that.

3. And finally, I gave because you asked me to. You. Yes, I went to Johnny, told him what the Holy Spirit had placed in my heart as you spoke and we prayed about it. But you were the one that caused me to pay attention to that prompting and I want to help you the same way you have helped me. Forget about making them feel like a hero or twisting their emotions to the point of submission. There are millions of “me” across this beautiful country, and they need you to remind them with your voice those moments when they needed the station the most.

We have received incredible support from our friends and family. These adjustments were God’s ideas so don’t think that this is an invitation to my pity party. I realized that if I had figured this out years ago, I could have kept things much simpler. It’s your voice, what you have to say about Jesus and you asking them to give that provides comfort, the peace that Jesus promised and that sense of community that so many are missing.

Just go tell them with your voice!

Stacey Stone serves God by loving her husband, Johnny Stone, and her family and friends, along with her little dogs. She spent over 26 years in Christian Radio including WGTS/Wash DC, Family Life Radio/Tucson, & WAWZ/NYC. She is a licensed professional counselor with a private practice, a public speaker, and the author of The Rescued Breed: When Jesus Shows Up And Transforms Your Pack. She can be reached HERE.