So, you think you can DANCE?

Last night I met with a dear friend and she shared with me a wonderful story and revelation the Lord showed her this last month.  To set the stage a little, in her personal story, her husband chose to not work on the marriage so they have been divorced for about 3 years.  During these last few year she has allowed the Lord to be her teacher, husband, friend and companion and she has grown in leaps and bounds in her walk with the Lord and in her healing.  It has been such an honor and privilege to walk along side of her and watch her grow :)  

Anyway, she recently had an opportunity to take a "Swing dancing" class, and despite her "Baptist" upbringing and feelings that she might be doing something "wrong"... she went ahead and gave it a try.  She LOVED it and is now HOOKED on dancing :)  So, the story she relayed to me last night was; during the classes, the instructor was telling the lady's that in order for them to know what the "leader" wanted them to do, they had to "press in" to the leaders hands (the visual would be, hands up to about chest level, face to face, hand to hand, with the man leading with his hands) and if the dance required his arms on her back, she was to lean back into his hand on her back to get the signals.  The instructor also said that they needed to "relax" and TRUST that the leader is directing them correctly, and at one point even had them close their eyes so they could learn to "feel" the leading and the signals without trying to anticipate or try to lead themselves.  She said the instructor mentioned that if you don't press in, relax and trust your partner, you will end up with a lot of "miss steps" and eventually end up doing your own dance and even stepping on and hurting your partner...  (Can you see where this is leading??)  In the dance classes, she is learning how to relax and trust her partner and she said it was the most amazing and "freeing" experience she has ever felt!  To just "relax" and let HIM lead made the dance so much easier and so much more fun!! So, my friend said that God gave her a huge revelation of how she messed up in her marriage in this regard...  She said that, FIRST OF ALL, her first dance partner was GOD, and that in His dance with her, He was leading her away from the guy that she wanted to marry but instead of relaxing and trusting Him with leading the dance, she went off and started another dance all her own.  And, once she was married, she lost confidence in her husbands ability to lead so she started leading the dance herself...  and once again ended up dancing alone.

I just LOVE this analogy!!  The "pressing in" to God first to get your instructions from Him and then... press into your husband and allow him to lead... no matter what decisions he makes (which can be REALLY hard and scary sometimes!!  This is when I say, don't trust your husband so much as trust GOD with your husband!), and lean into him and allow him to lead the dance.  I know this sounds very "simplistic" and I would have to agree... but at the same time, I believe we can ALL glean something from this analogy and her revelation.  I pray that we all will allow God to speak to our hearts and see if we can relate and apply some of this to our own walk with the Lord and marriages.

I think our first and foremost miss-step is always not allowing GOD to lead us in the dance of our lives to begin with... not wanting to WAIT on HIM and His timing and His choices for us.  We always think we know so much better what we need and want than He does!  But... He created us and knows every hair on our head and HE knit us together in our mothers womb... How can He NOT know our hearts and what is best for us!?  Lord, please forgive us for not trusting You to lead us in the dance of our lives!  Help us Lord to PRESS IN to YOU so that we can feel Your leading and Your directional signals for each day of our lives... not only in our marriages but in our jobs, as parents, as servants...  Thank you Lord for being "The LORD of the DANCE"!!  

(I have attached the link to the song "Lord of the Dance" by Steven Curtis Chapman that I thought would be a great ending to this blog :):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_MnQxAd16k

With much love and prayer,

Your fellow servant and dancer,

Linda :)