With three daughters in dance, you can imagine how hectic recital week can be – and we’re in the middle of it. I’m a rookie in this. I’ve come into this life – the life of having kids in dance – with all of my organizational skills, all of my firm beliefs when it comes to punctuality and professionalism, but I’m realizing how much work God still has on His agenda when it comes to yours truly. Convicted is a pretty accurate word for what I’m experiencing, but it’s so much more than that. I’m convinced.
I’ve struggled with the Christian dance studio we’re in for a few professional reasons, but somewhere along the way, the lines between professional and personal became a bit blurred. Classes wouldn’t start on time, they started letting out a bit later, and there was no communication for either of those situations. About 90% of the time, it didn’t bother me, but as soon as the 10% nudged its way in, I found myself irritated… offended. And I recently recognized that I was feeling a bit angry at the owner/instructor. It went from professional to personal.
If you’re alive and breathing, I bet you’ve been irritated and offended a time or two. Some of the offenses that come our way are pretty easy to shrug off, but sometimes they can hit hard. As the dance season progressed, I found that the little irritations started to become little offenses… and they were starting to build up.
Arteries are usually clogged over time, pipes typically have the gradual build-up, and I’m learning that it’s the same process with offenses. Some small irritation, if not dealt with, can become a huge issue.
I found that I was starting to feel offended for other people, too. Couple that with the small irritations that kept building up and I was ready to write a one-star review. I was just waiting till after recital week was over.
But then I tuned in to God’s voice. I know He was talking to me the whole time – nudging me to pay attention to how He wanted me to respond to the person who I felt was at the center of my irritation. I didn’t intentionally tune into Him. No, I was just quiet enough for a moment to hear Him.
All of the parents had arrived for picking kids up from class and the owner/instructor came out to give some final instructions before rehearsals started at the main auditorium for the coming recital days. As she was praising the hard work of the kids, expressing gratitude to the parents, and encouraging us to pray over our kids concerning the show, she started choking up with emotion. I’m enough of an empath that this about did me in, but I managed to hold it together. And then I felt God speak to me.
Pray for her.
That’s it. Nothing steeped in theology or doctrine. Nothing super deep or hard to decipher. Just three little words: pray for her.
And my initial response? I wish I could tell you that my thoughts were jumping to obey, but they weren’t. No, it was more along the lines of, Really, God? Pray for her? Yes. But why, God, why?
As soon as it registered – my knee-jerk reaction to those three little words – I started seeing how the lines had gotten so very blurred. It went from a small irritation… to venting about that irritation… all the way to bringing it up every time there was a similar irritation. The build-up had slowly accumulated, and the heart attack was only a beat away.
I know this may come as a surprise to some of you, but I’m not perfect. And I really hope that everyone who read that understands that I’m being more than a bit sarcastic. I know I’m not perfect, I’ll never be perfect, and I certainly don’t know everything. What I’m slowly learning is that so much can be missed when we’re approaching life with an air of superiority… or even inferiority for that matter.
How many times have I not stepped forward because I believed it to be beneath me? Or too hard? Or maybe because I simply didn’t like how someone else was doing things? I’ve judged without having all the information, I’ve been critical without seeing the big picture, and I was ready to wash my hands of someone who’s heart is for God and sharing the good news about Jesus through her Christian dance studio.
Pray for her… yes, I think I will. It’s the least I can do. It’s what I should have been doing all along.
As soon as this directive was administered – and I stopped questioning it, I felt my heart beating in a healthier rhythm. And God did that in less than a day! I’m not sure why I was so surprised by this.
With three little words, God changed my heart towards someone that I was ready to be done with. She didn’t run things the way I would, so in my arrogance, I was ready to not be part of her mission. But now I’m ready to sign my kids up for the next season.
Every week, she and her staff pour into their dance students with their knowledge of dance, but also spiritually. Everything with their studio points back to Jesus. Before rehearsals start, they pray over the evening. They pray over the seniors who will be dancing in their last recital this weekend. They pray over the nine-year-olds who carry the heavy weight of closing the show because their dance is a message of grace and redemption.
Pray for her.
I am certainly praying for her… but more than that, what I’m realizing is that I could have completely missed the opportunity to be a spiritual support for the girls and women who will be a part of this recital. I’m so glad that I get a second chance to be a part of the mission, and not just the person who missed it because I chose to be so critical. God is so very good!
As much as I hate sharing my failures with the vastness of the internet, it’s now a part of my testimony. It’s a way that God has impacted my life – and it might just be what someone else needs to hear. I hope that you’ll take some time to think about who you might need to pray for. Maybe it’s more than one someone… maybe it’s someone who is especially difficult to pray for. But I will say this:
Pray for them.