It's all in the Accessories...

Last night was the annual "Hanging of the Greens" at our church. The kids' choirs start the evening by leading us in a worship service, then there are fun arts and crafts, cookies, and even a live nativity or "n-activity" scene as whitt likes to call it. With these joyous festivities also came time for Mae's second choir performance. (For those of you new to our family blog, you can go back and read "Espionage" from April to get a little background on our sweet Mae's fear of stage performances.) Well, we came to the family decision that it was time to conquer this fear head-on and not let it dictate who was and wasn't able to come. A few weeks ago, we told Mae that all of us were coming to watch her, that it was going to be a full family event just like her soccer games, and more importantly a time of family worship where she was going to be leading the way for us. We prayed about it; we made "tickets" (complete with pink glitter hearts) that she then presented to each of us; and we made little smiley faces to hold up from the audience in case the doubt started to creep up again. All of that was fun and she seemed really excited, but I still had the sense that we weren't truly getting to the heart of the matter. Parenthood can be like going fishing sometimes; you keep throwing out different lines over and over and just sometimes with a little grace and patience, you are able to catch them. So over Thanksgiving holiday in Virginia, I must have read The Magic Locket by Elizabeth Koda-Callan to Mae at least ten times. We both just kept going back to it when it came time for stories. It is about a little girl who learns to believe in herself after her favorite aunt gives her a magic locket. She discovers that the magic in the locket is really her when she opens it and sees her reflection in the tiny mirror inside. (All my friends with girls, do yourself a favor and go buy Callan's series of books for your daughters-they are amazing, great Christmas gift!) Finally, on saturday it occured to me that my very fashion savy four year old who just loves to accessorize would delight in her very own locket. We got the locket and placed a tiny photo of Mae inside. She loved it and I could see in her face that we had finally broken through. Last night, she marched (and, I say march because she was definitely on a mission)down the very LONG aisle at our church, got on stage (front row/center), and sang her little heart out praising our God and knowing that she was leading her family in a precious time of worship. I, of course, delighted in the performance-lump in my throat, holding back the tears kind of delighting, but what was even more powerful to me was the look on her face when she joined us in the congregation right afterwards. Her eyes glistened with confidence and belief in herself; the inner beauty that comes when you challenge yourself and you rise to the occassion. So here's to my little stargazer-Way to go baby girl!