{"id":1377,"date":"2012-06-08T10:53:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T14:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2012-06-09T16:28:57","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T20:28:57","slug":"dancing-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/dancing-girls.html","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

These little girls all attend my church.\u00a0 Most of them have been in my Sunday School class at some point in time.\u00a0 It’s amazing for me to watch them as they grow in their own relationships with Jesus.\u00a0 Some think the children go up front to “play” rather than worship.\u00a0 I’m sure there are a few that do.\u00a0 But, most of these children really want to learn how to worship God with their whole being.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some dance, some sing, some wave flags, some hold banners, and some just goof off (mostly the boys).\u00a0 Many of these girls belong to our dance troupe called, “Stepping Stones”.\u00a0 They are taught the choreography to many of the songs we sing during worship.\u00a0 They are trained by our adult dancers.<\/p>\n

We cannot judge the hearts of these children.\u00a0 Look on their little faces and you will surely see their motivation.\u00a0 The eyes really are the windows to the soul.\u00a0 You can\u00a0tell by the expressions on their faces what their reason is for dancing.\u00a0 It thrills my heart to see the adoration of Jesus in their eyes, or the joy of the Lord on their faces.\u00a0 They worship with a pure heart because they have such a simple faith.<\/p>\n

As we grow older, we tend to be more skeptical of people and things.\u00a0 We wonder if we are doing things just right or what our friends might think of how we worship.\u00a0 These children just want to enjoy their time with Jesus and worship Him any way they can.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if they grab the wrong color of scarf or if they jump a little too high, they just want to please Jesus.<\/p>\n

Oh, that we could return to such days of innocence; that we could worship with such freedom; that we could be so consumed with our love of God that nothing else matters.\u00a0 In truth we can. We only need to allow ourselves to be overcome by Jesus.\u00a0 We need to narrow our focus on The Master.\u00a0 We need to walk in simple faith and love with an undying love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These little girls all attend my church.\u00a0 Most of them have been in my Sunday School class at some point in time.\u00a0 It’s amazing for me to watch them as they grow in their own relationships with Jesus.\u00a0 Some think the children go up front to “play” rather than worship.\u00a0 I’m sure there are a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[25,71],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-children","tag-worship-dance"],"yoast_head":"\nDancing Girls - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/dancing-girls.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dancing Girls - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These little girls all attend my church.\u00a0 Most of them have been in my Sunday School class at some point in time.\u00a0 It’s amazing for me to watch them as they grow in their own relationships with Jesus.\u00a0 Some think the children go up front to “play” rather than worship.\u00a0 I’m sure there are a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/dancing-girls.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-08T14:53:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-09T20:28:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_0740.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dancing Girls - 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