Our Duty

I remember how it was to be little and look up to the big girls at my dance studio. I loved to get their autographs and take pictures with them at show time. I loved when they'd take the time to stoop to my level and talk to me and I loved to watch them twirl around in tutus on their tippy toes. I longed for the day when that would be me. Now today, It is.

I vividly remember experiences I had during our last performance. While at the theater during the last couple rehearsals, I got some time in between to hang out with my friends in the auditorium. The littler girls followed us around everywhere. Whenever we would sit down, they'd come over and take a seat in our laps. I remember one of them timidly coming up to me and saying hi. She blushed when I bent down to her level and told her I loved her costume. When it was time for me to get backstage, she said she wanted to come watch me dance. I told her she could see me from backstage while I did my dance and so she wrapped her little hand around mine and I took her with me. After my scene was over, she clapped for me and told me I did a good job in my "big pretty shoes". (pointe shoes :) She was adorable. Various times she would ask to try them on, and I would half to tell her that one day she would be old enough to have her own pair, but until then, her feet would hurt really, really bad if she tried them. She told me she couldn't wait to be a ballerina like me someday and wear shoes like mine.

A couple of months later, I helped out with a play for the younger girls of the drama program I am a part of. During a rehearsal, a girl named Grace came up to me and told me I was just like "a mini woman". I felt greatly honored.

On Valentine's Day this year, I was given a paper heart from a little girl at dance.

You see, I often forget about who's watching me.

Little girls take everything in. They watch us and whatever they see, they go and do themselves. So they copy us. I want little girls to take good things away when they observe me. I want them to take away Godly advice every single time.

Girls, this is our duty. It is our duty to set a better example for all those little girls than what the world is telling them today, what the world is trying telling all of us girls: You can only be beautiful if you...

a. wear a certain shirt
b. don't have acne
c. wear eyeliner
d. have a boyfriend
etc.
You get my point.

We've got a job to do, sistas. It may not seem that important right now, but it is. We have a bigger impact on them than we think we do. I remember being that little at one time and taking everything they did and said in, took it all to heart.

Remember that next time you coat on the eyeliner or go around cussing while there is a little girl in pigtails standing in the same isle as you. She's listening. She's watching.

You don't have to wear pointe shoes to be a big girl. You just have to be a light to them. There's always someone younger than you.

hugs and kisses.

hannah