Saturday, February 21, 2015

Conversation with a tiny dancer...

Saturday's are awesome. Saturday mornings are my favorite thing in the world! I love sleeping late and spending an hour alone with some coffee and my bible. It refocuses me after a busy week and before a busy Sunday.

Saturday's are also awesome because Sarah gets to dance for 2 hours. During this season, Saturday's are for lyrical rehearsal. Nothing beats watching sweet little girls in black leotards, pink tights, and ballet buns! The only thing better is watching them float across the floor to princess music! It's precious! More precious than puppies and cupcakes!

But getting to dance on Saturdays is never my favorite part of the day simply because I try to eek out as much down time as I can before we kick it into get ready mode! I honestly usually wait until the last possible moment to get into the shower, leaving Sarah to be solely responsible for getting herself dressed.

Let me insert here that my mantra has always been "If you are old enough to ___________, then you are old enough to dress yourself and carry all your equipment to ____________".

Just ask the boys how many times Mom dressed them for baseball, soccer, lacrosse, etc.  Ask them how I used to preach this mantra when, as every other mom and dad carried baseball bags at Oregon Park in Marietta, I made them carry their own bags. 

I believe Sarah is more than capable of dressing herself for dance.

So as I'm rushing out the door pushing her to hurry so we aren't late, I notice she has not dressed herself correctly. Actually she has not taken off everything before putting on her tights and it's very obvious. We had to run back upstairs, take everything off and start over! This prompted quite the lecture on the way to dance about being responsible and thinking about what you are doing!

In addition to my "if you're old enough..." speech,  I'm often giving the reminders about being disciplined these days. It goes something like this:

"Sarah, dancers are disciplined. That means they do the hard things even when they don't want to. They rehearse when they would rather watch TV. They smile even when they are nervous. They joyfully and willingly dance their very best in the back even when they wish they had the solo! Discipline makes us smarter and stronger. You need to do the hard thing and just get dressed when I tell you to instead of playing til the last minute! You are a dancer so you must learn discipline!"

Yep, then it hit me right between the eyes! Wherever did she learn her "wait til the last minute" distracted ways? All too often I'm trying to do too many things at once and doing nothing well. All too often I'm trying to do what I think is fun rather than the more uncomfortable task to which God is calling me. I intend to follow Him, but just not immediately.

Gayla, you are an adult, so maybe it's time to grow up. You are a servant of The Living God. You need to be disciplined. You need to do the hard thing even when you don't want to. You will be so much happier when you obey joyfully and immediately! You need to choose the discipline of joy no matter what. You need to willingly do the hard thing especially when it's behind the scenes. You need to dance wherever He places you!

Sometimes God teaches Sarah, but usually He's teaching me so much more! 

"Help me to welcome whatever discipline You want to teach me, Lord. And thanks for giving me a tiny dancer as a teacher. Your merciful ways are always best! And also, thanks for Saturday's!"


1 comment:

Shauna said...

Good one, Sis! Hits me right between the eyes too!