I’m currently in the process of preparing for a dance recital and as it approaches I find myself Thanking God more and more for my gifts. If it weren’t for Him and dance there’s no telling where I’d be right now. Many of you have heard me tell the story about how I was dancing around the house when I was 4 and two weeks later I found myself in my first dance class. To this very day, my mom says that she wanted to “nourish my gift” but I think she was just trying to get a free Saturday. Whatever her reasons were, I am so thankful she saw and fed my gift. I can’t think of a time in my life when I wasn’t doing some form of dance; be it an actual dance class, school step team, cheerleading, or simply making up dances with my cousins; I had to dance. In all honesty I think dance helped keep me focused. I knew that if I’d brought home a B (yes a B, my mom didn’t play) I wasn’t going to be able to go to practice. So my desire to dance, fed my desire to learn, and ultimately allowed me to graduate from both high school and college with distinction. Dance has without a shadow of a doubt been my distraction from destruction.

I used to say if I could just touch one young person I’d be pleased with myself. Well bright and early every Saturday I get to share my love of dance with 11 beautiful souls that love dance as much as I do. They’ve danced their ways right into my heart. This past year was a very trying one for not only me personally, but the dance ministry as a whole; three of the dancers in particular. They had some serious issues going on at home, but not once did they miss a practice. Not once did the use their family situation as a reason not to come to rehearsal. In fact, they danced harder. Talk about dedication. Some adults I know would have given up, but here were babies essentially, dealing with real world issues, dancing their way right on through them.  I’m sure there were times in which they wanted to quit, but they pressed on which in turn inspired me to press on. One of the girls came up to me one day after practice and said “You know what Danielle, dancing makes the pain go away. Thank you for helping me get through the pain.” Of course, I tried to remain composed, but ya’ll know I broke as soon as I got in the car. It was at that moment I realized, I had to keep teaching. It was at the moment that I felt like the sacrifices I’d made were well worth it. No longer did sleeping in on Saturdays matter to me. Just thinking about that moment still gives me chills.

Ok Ok Ok I don’t want to get too emotional on you. So I’ll end with this…I’ve found my passion, my calling, the reason God blessed this earth with my presence 🙂 (Sorry I couldn’t resist) So many people ask the question “What’s your anti drug?” So I would like to pose that very question to you today, what’s your anti drug? What gifts have God blessed you with? What has been your distraction from destruction? Now, are you using it to give back, or are you selfishly keeping it to yourself? Someone could be waiting on you (the God in you) to help make their pain go away. Are you going to help?

~Rachelle Danielle~