Dance In The Hallway

My friends and I have all been praying about wanting a mentor. We've had long discussions about what that would look like ideally and what the reality of it is for each of us. We've encouraged each other and, yes, even started eye-balling older women, considering whether or not they would want to mentor one of us.

Our dream? Well, I think it's safe to say we would ALL love it if Sally Clarkson called us up on the phone and invited us to a retreat in Colorado. {Ha!} But our reality is that we'd love any one person, a Christian mom who's walked the road we're on, to come beside us and just pour God's encouragement into us.

So we wait...

I wait...

But what am I supposed to do with this idle time? While I'm waiting for the perfect, Mary Poppins mentor to come down from heaven {read as, "not gonna happen like that"}, what am I supposed to do?

This question led me to thinking about a quote I have read at least 1,000 times; "Until God opens the next door for you, praise Him in the hallway". Praise Him...
My own version of this is "While you're waiting for God to open a door, dance in the hallway." It's the same thought, just more my style.

Praise Him...Dance...but what does that look like?

I began to pray "God, show me the dance. Teach me the words to the song I sing in praise. I don't want to wait idling and impatient. I want to MOVE."

And because He is faithful, these prayers led to a whisper in my heart "The Golden Rule". I ran to look that up in my Bible and came to Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law of the Prophets".

As a mom, I love this verse. I use it to help my little ones learn how to treat others. "Would you like it if she hit you? No? Then, you should not hit her." But this time, my Heavenly Father was using it to get my attention. Whatever I wish others would do to me...Well, I really wish someone would mentor me...

Oh...

I have to be the mentor? Yes, this was something I felt God pulling me to before but this scripture confirmed it for me. I do have to be the mentor.

While I'm waiting in the hallway? This is the dance.

I look around me. Who are the women I am to mentor when my arms are so full of my own children? Well, they're not women at all. They're the faces of young girls who are counting on me to teach them something...some way to be...some way to dress...some vote of confidence that comes from somewhere other than their Moms. Not to discount what moms do, but to nod "Yes" in agreement that moms are important but a mentor plays a different role.

I ask God to show me the faces of those I should mentor and I see 2 in my mind right away. Girls young enough to not yet be aged in the double digits, but old enough to be stretching their legs in the walk of independence. Since this time, I've been praying for these 2 and making sure that I'm living in a way that shines a light and gives encouragement.

I'm not sure where this dance will lead me, but I can tell you with all confidence, I'm so thrilled that God invited me to join Him in it. Yes, God. Let's dance this out together.

For this chapter of my life, I'm putting down my own desires and letting God lead me into mentorship His way.

Crazy? You betcha.

But also humbling. I don't have confidence on my own to do this, but I have confidence in Him.