Choosing Faith Instead Of Doubt

Halloween is this next Saturday! I can't believe how quickly it came! And I didn't do half of all the wonderful crafts I came across on various blogs, as I sifted among some most appealing posts in order to feature them on Motivating Monday! I really meant to, but I think it's just meant to be that if we make 50% of our goals in any given week, we are doing really well!

I focused on our yearly Children's Program at church. I am the songleader, responsible for teaching the kids approximately 8 songs to sing by memory for parents, friends, and lay members. It is one of the most well-attended events of the year and it was so cute to see a family with 3 little boys get out of their minivan. The boys, all decked out in white shirts and bow ties, paused to take a family photo and I thought, "this one is a keeper and will be for the scrapebooks and memories."

It had been a struggle trying to learn the songs, since I had only been in this position for about 2 and a half months and the process usually takes at least 8 months, learning one song per month. Before that, they had been without a songleader for a very long time. I ran into people telling me "this isn't how you're supposed to do it", or "that's wrong", or "they don't know that".  It's as if they still clung to the cute and very vivacious young mom, with the gorgeous singing voice, and visual aids that were works of art, who had previously been leading them. But she moved. They didn't want to let her go, and I certainly don't blame them. She is the standard for songleaders. But unless we had a holodek and could beam her back, she wasn't coming back. Am I her? No. But I had to remember that I have my own strengths, talents, and sense of what needs to happen in order to faciliate and bring out the best in these budding young choir members. I could either have faith in my own strengths or doubt myself. Either one of those attitudes would pay out dividends. I chose to have faith in myself. 

 
Finally the day came, everyone was nervous, I noticed that my hands were trembling as I stood the children up and led them in their first song. They did beautifully. The second song came and went, still doing well, and the third, 4th and 5th. The children didn't let me down. They did so well! My nervousness left me as I let the children do what they had been taught to do, what I had taught them to do! In that moment I knew that I was the one they needed all along. They didn't need anyone to come back. They trusted me. And I trusted them! And it worked! Here is one of the songs that we learned and was their favorite!