God Is A Ballet Teacher

Imagine with me.

Your child goes to a ballet school. You, as the parent, pay for your child to learn ballet. You are also the ballet teacher.

After a while teaching, you go, as the parent, to your child’s first ballet performance. You are proud of your child for learning well. Others may think it’s not the greatest performance in the world, but you think it’s the best thing ever that they’re doing it in the first place! You taught your child this art, and they are showing it to the world. Even if they step wrong, you’re still proud of them for learning and doing their best to show the world what you have shown them. Because you love them and want the best for them.

God gives us things. Sometimes those things that come with Responsibility. And Responsibility means having to take care of those gifts correctly and using them to his purpose.

And… sometimes I forget it’s okay that I mess up.

Sometimes I also forget what kind of a good God he is, because he doesn’t care that sometimes I mess up. With the gifts he has given me, I am the steward he has chosen, not the one he looked at and decided to randomly give it to me just to stress me out.

My performance does not affect the Lord’s goodness. He’s happy with me whether or not I’m the best ballerina this world has ever seen. Whatever happens- whatever I do- the Lord is above it. I forget that easily and then overthink everything and subsequently stress myself out. What if I mess up? What if I ruin the path God has for this? What if I try my hardest and things still don’t turn out right? Why would God choose me if I still mess up the things he has put into my responsibility?

Sometimes we judge our ability to mess things up as greater than God’s power to fix it.

Performance on my behalf doesn’t dictate what God can or cannot do.

Or, really, his power to do anything. Humans, however, are significantly less powerful than God, and that’s easy to forget when you’re looking at the things God has given you and get stressed over the responsibilities that come with them.

I have recently found myself with the gift of being the steward of God’s words.

And LET ME TELL YOU IF THAT ISN’T A BIG JOB THEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS!

While that comes with a lot of grey area because not always am I good at hearing from the Lord, it’s easier when I remember that even if I do my very best, it’s not my job to worry about their reaction. Other people still have to take it back to the Lord. I am the messenger, not God himself. What he says, they hear, and it’s their job to ask him about it. It’s for his glory. And my job, having this kind of responsibility, is only to glorify him. Not to worry about doing it right. Because I am glorifying God, all the time every day.

People have started to ask me to ask God things, and tell them the answer, and I don’t know that I’ll always get it right. I don’t know that I will hear what the Lord is saying versus what my brain says, and I don’t know that the Lord will even give me an answer sometimes. But part of this is learning when to seek the Lord on someone else’s behalf and when to tell them to seek the Lord on their own.

The good thing is that the Lord is patient with me through this time. As the one who has given me this, he understands I need a time to learn how to do this. And also, I will never be perfect at it.

The bad thing is that that means I am the only person putting pressure on me to do this correctly. And also, I need to stop doing that.

But when I have a responsibility to do something and it’s given to me by the whole entire God of the Universe, I feel a little pressure to do it right!

But God doesn’t care if I get it wrong. Because he knows already that I’m going to mess it up. But he’s proud of me anyway.

I was going to write ‘God doesn’t care if I get it right’ but he does, so, chew on that. He will clap and cheer for me from the stands if I land an incredibly difficult ballet move. He does care if I get it right because then he’s proud of me. And he wants to be proud of me.

I think that another part of having a direct line to the Lord’s thoughts is that sometimes it’s hard to put them into the right words, so with this blog I hope I did okay.

The takeaway is to let God teach you. He knows the intricate ballet moves needed for the best performance. Even if I don’t learn that right away. For me that looks like… God teaching me the dance moves. Or me being a speaker but God is playing the music. Like that scene from Lilo and Stitch.

God is the gift. And I just get to use it in order to glorify him more. And in learning the correct ballet moves, I get to know him more as well.

And that’s something I’m still learning how to do well. Dancing, I mean, without stress. Because being in the kingdom of God involves not stressing about things. Especially not stressing about the things God has given you to glorify him.

It’s a process. Everything is. But bringing the Lord into the situation takes the stress away because he, fortunately, knows how to do everything.

And will often do it. Like fundraising. On my behalf. Because I don’t know how to do it other than asking people to ask the Lord if that’s something he’s looking at doing.

Isn’t that fun?

Matthew 7:7-8 – Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

That ranges everywhere from fundraising to asking him how to use your gifts properly. Ask the Lord to dance with you today, because it’s more fun and challenging than you’d think!

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