I am a firm believer that we are all put here for a purpose.  A purpose that was designed by God especially for you.  Some people have more than one purpose, a few different things that they address over the span of their lives.  Others have one sole purpose that envelopes their entire existence.  The trouble, however, can be figuring out what the heck you were put on this planet for!

Some of you may know the feeling.  It’s a feeling of just drifting through life, waiting to get your stuff in gear while the rest of the world seems to have it all together.  Your friends and siblings seem to have an instinct as to what they are put here for, but not you.  You watch, happy for them, and yet feeling something is missing.  At some point you may have even cried out “Why, God?!  Why am I here?!”  It’s a sometimes depressing feeling.  Especially when God answers back “Go!  Find it!  I put it inside you!”

Grrr!  Can’t He be frustrating sometimes?  Yes, He can.  Rest assured it’s there, though.  Your purpose is inside of you waiting to be released.  The key is just finding it.

Maybe I can help you out a little bit.  Here’s a story for you.

Ever since he was a toddler, Baby Snarky has had a strong interest in ballet.  This is pretty unusual because there are absolutely no dancers in our family that I know of.  His sisters and brothers have never been in dance, The Pastor will jump around knocking over little old ladies during worship services, but that’s about it.  Personally, I can barely walk through a room without hurting myself or someone near me.

Grace and coordination are not strong attributes in this household.

Baby Snarky would watch his sisters’ Angelina The Ballerina movies.  He would dress up in their Tutus.  He would dance around the living room with a grace that made me question whether or not I was his mother.  All this time I just giggled and took pictures.  “Isn’t he just the cutest thing?” I would ask.

The answer there would be “Yes, yes he is the cutest thing.”

After a few years of this, he discovered Youtube.  Baby Snarky found some amazing male ballet dancers there.  His favorite is named Sergei Polunin.  You can watch Baby Snarky’s favorite Sergei Polunin video by clicking here.

One day, while watching this video, Baby Snarky said “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could do this?  I wish I could dance like that.”  These were words that changed Baby Snarky’s world.

You see, in our family wishing is a little bit dangerous.  The Pastor and I see wishes as simply dreams without action, and there is nothing worse than having a dream and not acting on it.  If our children have a dream, we teach them to take actions that will either show them that this is not actually their dream, or help them to achieve their dream.

While I admit that is it proof of how dense I am, it wasn’t until this moment that I realized that one of my children might actually be a dancer.  I discussed dancing with Baby Snarky.  We talked about how no one was just born knowing how to dance like that.  We talked about all of the years and hard work that dancers put in.  We even talked about how sometimes boys who are dancers are teased by people who don’t know much about dance.  After all of this, I asked him if he wanted to take ballet lessons.  He did.  He really did.

It took me about a year to find a dance class that fit all of my requirements.  It had to be close, the costumes had to be age appropriate, and it had to be cheap.  This was our first look into the world of dance.  I didn’t want it to cost me a lot of time or money if it turned out that Baby Snarky wasn’t really a dancer.  Also I didn’t want to support anyone who sexualized young children.

I finally found a little dance school that was only a fifteen minute drive from our house.  The website for this school showed artistic yet appropriate performances with cute costumes that didn’t imply that seven year old girls might also be hookers.  As a bonus, they offered a beginner class that was not only incredibly inexpensive, but that price also included shoes.  Shoes were something I had not even thought of.

We arrived on the first day with one very excited and nervous Baby Snarky.  We discovered, much to my delight that the class would be semi-private, only two other students.  Then came the challenging news for Baby Snarky.  These two other students were both three year old girls.  Baby Snarky is a seven year old boy who doesn’t really appreciate children younger than himself.  I looked at Baby Snarky and said “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes!”  he said with great resolve.  “I want to dance!”

The next challenge came when it was time to get his shoes.  The instructor went through all of her ballet and tap shoes but, since tall seven year old boys rarely took this beginner class, she didn’t have any black ballet shoes or boy’s tap shoes in his size.

Baby Snarky was obviously trying not to cry.  I knew he was thinking about how his brothers would react to him in pink ballet shoes.   “Are you sure you still want to do this?”  I asked him again.  This time I was half expecting him to ask to go home.

Instead, my little dancer blinked back his tears and selected a pair of light pink ballet slippers and mary-jane style tap shoes and said he was ready to start dancing.

This is when I knew.

I knew that being a dancer is part of my child’s destiny.  I know this now because he still has a passion for it.  Even when it’s hard.  Even when someone might make fun of it.  Even when it’s the last thing in the world anyone expected from him.  This doesn’t mean that there won’t be times when he wants to quit and needs to be pushed a little.  God’s requests of us don’t always come easy, but the longing to fulfill our destiny is always there.  Just below the surface.  Waiting to make you “Ah yes,  this is it!”

This week I will be calling the local ballet school.  It’s about an hour drive away.  It is not inexpensive.  It is also where ballet dreams come true, so we will find a way to make it work.

And this is how you know what your destiny is.  It is your dream.  Even when it is hard.  Even if others tell you it is ridiculous.  Even when it is the last thing anyone expects from you.

So please, stop wishing and start acting on your dream.  It will be hard, but now is the time to take the first step.  Put on those pink ballet shoes and start dancing.

The world is waiting for your amazingness.