It was a crazy, exciting, anxiety filled weekend at my house. My 14 year old freshman was preparing to attend her first homecoming dance along with 14 (or so, depending on the day), of her friends. These girls didn’t have dates, but decided to go together as a large group. There were other groups who went as friends as well. I find this to be a really cool trend among these kids; back when I was in high school, if you didn’t have a date, you didn’t get to go. Sometimes traditions change for the better.
We bought her dress over a month prior to the big event and had shoes and alterations done well in advance. Still, my daughter was very anxious. Would anyone ask her to dance? Was her dress as pretty as everyone else’s? How would she do her hair and make-up? While these are normal teenage anxieties, I found myself overwhelmed with my own. Would all of these girls be kind to one another (teenage girls sometimes aren’t). Would we have enough cars to drive all of these girls to the places they needed to go? Would the restaurant be able to handle such a large reservation on a UGA game day? There ended up being twenty kids.
I took a walk and prayed for God’s hand to be on the evening ahead. I prayed that he would touch all of the girls’ hearts and help them to be kind to others and each other. I prayed that he would give them courage to stand up for what is right. I prayed for everyone’s safety and I prayed that they would have a night filled with fun.
The evening went off without a hitch. The girls all got ready at one house and we heard lots of laughter from upstairs. Then we caravaned to a little farm with a pond and got some beautiful pictures, some of the entire group and some individuals and some in smaller groups. After that, three of us drove to a restaurant where they had dinner reservations and no, the reservation was not a problem. When I arrived at the restaurant, I realized I left my purse at the house where the girls got dressed. I prayed I wouldn’t get stopped by the police. I didn’t mind a ticket at this point, but I was on a mission to get these girls safely to the dance. The girls finished dinner and we were on our way.
We arrived without incident and I felt a little sigh of relief. I dropped them all out and told them I would return in a couple of hours and take them to another girl’s house so they could have a bonfire and spend the night. I retrieved my purse, went home for a little while and returned to the high school. The girls all came out laughing and with great stories. They had a blast. There had been an incident earlier in the evening with inappropriate dancing and quite a few kids left in protest to the administrations’ rules, but these girls stayed together and made some fun memories. I drove them on the last leg of our evening’s journey and helped them unpack their things. I bid them all goodnight, hugged my daughter and headed home.
It was 11:30 when I got home and I was exhausted. I slept in on Sunday and a friend brought her home. She had a great evening. They stayed up late watching movies and talking. She had great memories of her first dance. I was so thankful. I prayed little prayers of thanks all day long for God’s loving hand on the situation. My husband and I, went out later that afternoon to get groceries. We smelled coolant coming from the engine. We turned around and went home to check it out. The van was leaking coolant and was low on oil; it may have an oil leak too.
The hair stood up on the back of my neck and my eyes filled with tears as I thanked God once again for his hand on the events of the evening before. I had driven a van full of girls all over town, in traffic, then late at night. I drove home alone after the final drop off and not once did I have any indication that there was anything going on with my car. If the car would have stalled on the way to the dance, those girls would have been heartbroken, but it didn’t. I had prayed for God’s favor on the evening for the girls almost non-stop and he delivered as he so often does, in ways I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
I won’t know until sometime tomorrow what kind of repairs my van will require, but I will never forget the gratitude that I felt at the very moment I realized that so often when I pray blessings for someone else, God answers with blessings on me. I am just so thrilled that I had my eyes open wide enough to see it. I could have missed it being upset about the repairs that we will have to pay for, but not this time. This time I saw the blessing because this time I was really looking. How about you? Do you look for the blessings in every situation? How do you watch for God?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂