Last night Greg and I had the pleasure of joining some special friends for a Swing Dance class followed by 2 hours of music and dancing.  Dancing well is not something Greg and I have shared in our 27 years of marriage.  Having been in our teens in the 1970’s our real experience with dancing came from dances and Proms where large groups gathered in rooms moving around independently to the sounds of rock music. A very different experience than what we were exposed to last night.

Swing Dancing is the synergy between partners where you have a point of connect at the hand but where the man leads and the woman follows his lead.  The teacher in the class brought out the differences in how we, as partners, respond to that structure, saying that it is hard for many women to “wait” until her male partner leads her to the next step in the dance.

This was so true!!  Greg would take steps for me to follow and since I thought I could anticipate what his next step would be I would simply move into a new move only to find that it was not the step he had chosen!  We experienced frustration as we both tried to “lead”. 🙂   As the evening went on we began to practice and navigate this new experience and managed to come away from the evening with our own “signature move” and a lot of fun and laughter.

Interestingly enough, this experience completely related to how I respond to my own life and the “steps” I take each day. I can start my day asking the Lord to lead and guide my steps; fully committing to wait for Him to lead me through the motions He would like me to take as I navigate the season I am in.  Often, I find myself down a trail or on a mission that He never led me to….I just anticipated that He was so I moved on ahead!! To learn to truly “WAIT” for Him to lead me in the same way I needed to “WAIT” for Greg’s steps to be the mirror for my own in our Swing Dance lesson takes real patience, real trust.

I am going to ponder that this week as I think about my day through the filter of my Swing Dance experience.  Isn’t funny how God can teach us about ourselves through these simple experiences?  I love how He does that!

Have a good week of “following His footsteps!”  🙂