How to Be Enough, When It Feels Like All Eyes Are On You

Sharon JaynesConfidence in Christ, Identity in Christ, Listening to God, Living Fully, Renewing your mind with the Truth, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Today’s the last day for the Launch Week Free Bonuses when you order Enough: Silencing the Lies that Steal Your Confidence. Scroll to the bottom to check it out. Now, let me share about the night God called me to step out beyond my greatest fears and into His amazing plan.

One evening, while on a getaway with my husband, Steve and I splurged at a fancy restaurant, complete with a four-man band playing music from the ’40s and ’50s. We had taken a few ballroom dance lessons, and Steve was itching to see if we could remember the foxtrot.

“Come on, Sharon,” he urged. “Let’s take a spin on the dance floor.”

“No way,” I said. “Nobody else is dancing.

I’m not going to be the only one out there with everyone staring at me. And suppose we mess up? I’d be embarrassed. It’s been a long time since we’ve practiced, and I don’t remember all the steps. Let’s wait until some other people are out there so we won’t be so conspicuous.”

After a few moments, the first couple took their place on the parquet. They squared their shoulders, pointed their toes, and framed their arms. In one fluid motion they graced the dance floor with perfect dips, sways, turns, and twirls. They looked good, and they knew it.

Nope. I was not going to embarrass myself. I hunkered down in my seat with renewed resolve. I was stuck there. I refused to budge.

Then couple number two joined couple number one. Their steps weren’t quite so perfect, but they looked pretty good too.

“Okay, I’ll go,” I said. “But let’s get in the back corner behind that big ficus tree so nobody can see us.”

Off we went to try to remember the slow-slow-quick-quick of the foxtrot. The whole time I was hoping all eyes were still mesmerized on the polished artistry of couple number one.

As I dared look at the crowd, I noticed they weren’t looking at couple number one, number two, or even wobbly kneed number three. All eyes were fixed on a fourth couple approaching the dance floor. The husband was in a wheelchair. He was a middle-aged, slightly balding, large-framed man with a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard.

His dapper attire included a crisp white shirt, a snappy bow tie, and a stylish tuxedo. On his left hand he wore a white glove—I guessed to cover a skin disease. With a smiling wife by his side, the couple approached the dance floor with a graceful confidence and fashionable flair.

Suddenly everyone else faded away, and they seemed to be the only two people in the room.

As the band churned out a peppy tune, the blithesome wife held her love’s healthy right hand and danced. He never rose from the wheelchair that had become his legs, but they didn’t seem to care. They came together and separated like expert dancers. He spun her around as she stooped low to conform to her husband’s seated position.

Lovingly, like a little fairy child, she danced around his chair while her laughter became the fifth instrument in the musical ensemble. Even though his feet never left their metal resting place, his shoulders swayed in perfect time and his eyes danced with hers.

My heart was so moved by this love story unfolding before my eyes that I had to turn my head and bury my face on Steve’s chest so no one would see the tears streaming down my cheeks. As I did, I saw person after person dabbing linen napkins to dewy eyes.

This portrait of love and devotion transfixed even the band members, now misty-eyed as well. Finally, the music slowed to a romantic melody. The wife pulled up a chair beside her husband’s wheelchair, but facing in the opposite direction. They held each other in a dancer’s embrace, closed their eyes, and swayed back and forth, cheek to cheek.

Surprisingly, I no longer worried about whether anyone was watching me.

I didn’t care if my steps weren’t perfect. I wasn’t even concerned about being compared to and falling short of perfect couple number one.

The Lord spoke to my heart in a powerful way. Sharon, I want you to notice who moved this crowd to tears, He seemed to say. Was it couple number one, with their perfect steps? Or was it the last couple that had no steps at all? No, My child, it was the display of love, not perfection, that moved the crowd. If you obey Me, if you do what I have called you to do, then I will do for you what that man’s wife did for him.

As Paul said, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

God isn’t looking for perfect people with perfect children, perfect marriages, and perfect lives. He is not searching for men and women with perfect steps to do great things for Him.

He is looking for courageous believers who will rely on His power to work in and through them to accomplish all He has planned for them to do. God is scouting for followers who will obey Him regardless of their present fears or past failures.

He is looking for men and women who know they are good enough because of His power working in them and through them.

Simply put, God had sent a lame man to teach me how to dance.

God chooses to do extraordinary work through ordinary people who will bring glory to His name.

Men and women who know they are not good enough in their own strength but are incredibly powerful in God’s strength slay the giants of this world.

Today, I’m thinking that’s you.

Today’s the last day to get the Launch Week Bonuses when you order your copy of Enough: Silencing the Lies that Steal Your Confidence. Here’s what you’ll receive FREE. To learn more or submit your receipt, click on www.enoughthebook.net.

 

 

 

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Comments 5

  1. Thanks for sharing this story. Wheat a powerful reminder of our need to fully grasp that with God front and center in our lives…He is enough. No matter our current circumstances, He will use us to help others see truth.
    Have a wonderful day!

  2. Thank you, Sharon, for this devotion that touched my heart deeply. I needed the encouragement as God has called me to birth a new mentoring ministry in my church. I have a tendency yo expect a lot of myself and your reminder that God doesn’t expect perfection is very helpful. Blessings to you, Chris

  3. this was wonderful and sent just for me. We left a church we had been at for 11 years in January. The Pastor ( who was supposed to be my pastor) and the deacons called us in a room and confronted us with several lies that were being told about us. Unfortunately the pastor had not cared if we they were true or not. God had been dealing with me for a month or more to move on but my husband kept hoping it would get better. After the pastor ask us 3 times are you sure this is not true.

    We shook their hands and told them all Goodbye. We are now serving in a very small church but one who needed musicians and I am still recovering from not being good enough.

    I love your devotions and encouragement daily. Our God is amazing and all I care about is pleasing Him.

  4. Sharon,
    Thank you for your beautifully written devotionals. This one is really special to me as The Lord told me to trust Him and start a little Christian sewing group 15 years ago. Recently; after a year of a painful health problem which baffled doctors, The Lord told me to QUIT. He said not to question Him, just quit and He would lead a replacement. That was 4 months ago. He has done all He promised for the sewing ministry and me, i am left wondering what He has in store and if He will heal me again. (He healed me 10 yrs ago after brain surgery. So i am trusting, and waiting wondering if at 71 He can still put me to work.

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