Music has always hit me on a soul level. For years, I listened to everything, sad songs, angry songs, music that reinforced the bad decisions I was making. At the time, I didn’t realize it was shaping me. The more I listened, the more it seemed to fuel the choices I already regretted.
I didn’t know it then, but my ears were a gate, and what I let in was shaping who I was becoming.
Eventually, I started paying attention. When I shifted from that cycle to listening to worship music, something changed. My soul felt freer. It was like my heart finally had space to breathe again.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
— Romans 10:17
That’s when I realized: what comes through my ears has the power to either weigh me down or lift me into freedom. The ear is a gate into the soul.
Trauma Echoes in Our Ears
I grew up in a household full of negativity. Words were sharp, critical, and heavy, and over time, those words became my own inner voice. I didn’t need anyone else to tear me down; my thoughts did it for me.
That’s one of the hardest parts of trauma: it takes someone else’s voice and plants it inside of you. You start to hear it even in the quiet. Undoing that inner critic takes intentional work, replacing lies with truth, and asking God to re-teach me how to hear His voice above the old ones.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
— Proverbs 18:21
It’s true, life and death are in the power of the tongue. And sometimes, the tongue that wounds us most is our own.
And while trauma shaped my inner voice, noise often tries to drown out God’s voice.
Noise, Silence, and the Scroll
When I’m overstimulated, I crave silence. But here’s the thing: that’s also when I tend to doom scroll. Instead of finding quiet, I fill my ears with more noise, podcasts, videos, endless clips.
And yet, the quiet I’m running from is the exact place my soul needs to heal. Stillness isn’t always comfortable, but it’s where God’s voice becomes clearer than the world’s.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
— John 10:27
Jesus said His sheep know His voice, but I can’t hear His whisper if I’m drowning in noise.
The Weight of What We Hear
News is a big one for me. Social media is saturated with it, one heartbreaking headline after another. Stories of children mistreated cut me especially deep. They hit me both as a mother, desperate to protect my own kids, and as my inner child, who remembers what it felt like to be unsafe.
Those moments remind me: I can’t always control what happens in the world, but I can control what I allow into my ears. Not because I want to live unaware, but because I know how quickly the weight of the world can drown out the hope I need to hold onto.
Guarding the Ear Gate
Just like the eyes, our ears are doorways that need guarding. For me, that looks like:
Choosing music wisely. If it fuels old patterns, I turn it off. If it stirs faith, I turn it up. Replacing lies with truth. I speak Scripture out loud to retrain my inner voice. Creating intentional silence. Instead of filling every gap with noise, I let stillness settle in so I can hear God’s whisper. Limiting the headlines. I stay informed, but I set boundaries around how much bad news I consume.
A Final Word of Hope
Trauma may have trained our ears to expect criticism, chaos, or pain, but that’s not the final word. God is patient to re-tune our hearing. His Spirit reminds us that life, not death, can be spoken over us.
“Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.”
— Isaiah 55:3
God’s invitation is clear: incline your ear to Him, and your soul will live. Trauma may have shaped our hearing, but His voice still calls us into life.
Friend, your ears are a gateway to your healing. Guard them tenderly. Pay attention to what lifts you and what weighs you down. I’m learning to choose the sounds of life, and I hope you’ll join me in that too.
Reflection Prompt
Take a few minutes today to notice what you’ve been listening to.
Music: How does it affect your mood afterward? Voices: Whose words echo in your head most often? Noise: Do you turn to noise when your soul really needs stillness?
Ask God to show you one small way to guard your ear gate this week. Maybe it’s a playlist shift, a news break, or simply five minutes of quiet. Whatever it is, let it be a step toward filling your soul with the sounds of life.