AND A TIME TO DANCE

Let me tell you this girl loves Pinterest. Haha what a way to start a blog 🙂

Over a year ago, my thumb was just scrolling through and a certain post caught my eye. It said “dance with Jesus – not the world”. In all honesty, I had no clue what the heck that meant but sounded cute:) I saved it to my Pinterest board. I even ended up writing it on the first page of my bible.

While on Work Crew this last summer, one of my favorite parts was sitting on the Sassy deck early in the morning. I would spend plenty of time praising God alongside my Work Crew besties but this was time I tried to intentionally spend alone with the Lord at the start of my day. I wouldn’t call it my quiet time because it wasn’t very quiet. It was a constant conversation with the Lord where His presence and voice were so prevalent. I was learning how to listen and not interrupt – leaving space for Him to meet me there and show me what He was stirring up in my life.

It was very obvious that He was sitting right next to me. He spoke and I wrote down what He was saying. I never wanted to forget His words. At this moment, there was a fire breaking out within me. World Race continued to come up in conversation with God and even in conversations with friends. I’m not joking when I say that happy tears flooded from my eyes when I was just thinking about WRGY – but that doesn’t mean the enemy wasn’t trying everything he could to divert me from listening to God’s voice and direction. I could have told you a million different reasons why I wasn’t going to be “good” for WRGY. (hear me say that the enemy didn’t just go away with the snap of a finger, I am still having to throw lies and insecurity in the fire and lay them down at his feet DAILY – but Jesus has already won the battle.)

I have all of these letters from the Lord written in my journal and He ended each one by saying, “My daughter, come dance with me”. He was awakening me to His plan over my life.

Cue the tears.

First of all, I am a daughter. Above all else, that is who the Lord has created me to be. I could end the blog there. That alone will make my eyes weep in pure thankfulness.

But here’s what I love about Him saying “dance with me”.

The image of the Father dancing with His daughter is so sweet to me. We stand on the feet of Jesus as He guides us through the moves. We stand on the wounds of the nails through Jesus’ feet from His death on the cross. We hold His pierced hands. To dance with Him, we have to touch His wounds. We don’t have to be scared. We get to dance on those wounds with Jesus. He won. He knew when He was on that cross that He was making a way for us to dance with Him. He knew that no matter how bad He was physically hurt on that cross, it would never damage His ability to dance with each and every one of us.

Jesus makes all the moves. He knows the dance better than I do. No matter where Jesus moves, I move with Him when I remain standing on His feet and being guided by His hands. Even if the dance changes completely, I follow His steps. We take each step together, never will my feet touch the ground where His haven’t already gone before me.

There is security when we stand on the feet of Jesus and DANCE. There is no security when we dance with the world. We get easily swayed and thrown off by the world’s dance. The moves change too fast and we would spend the rest of our lives trying to keep up. This world isn’t eternal. There is an end. There is no end to Jesus for He is eternal. It’s an eternal dance.

I also love that God created us to still be able to dance in the midst of a storm. Our bodies have the ability to cry and dance at the same time. That’s beautiful.

Pslams 30:11 says, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” amen.

Get this one. Jeremiah 31:12-13 says, “They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”

Ecclesiastes 3:4 says “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”

I am stoked to dance with Jesus around the world and into eternity with Him.

So I am selling T-shirts to help fundraise that say “and a time to dance”!!!! And they have dancing mannequins on them that remind me of my elementary school art classes:) These have been in the works for a long time and I am so excited to finally be able to share them with you!

I am so blessed to say that I am so close to being fully funded for my trip! These t-shirts are a part of a few final fundraisers I have planned to help reach my goal of being fully funded before September!! I would appreciate it if you’d consider buying a shirt to help me reach that goal!!

They are $25 each and that price includes shipping if needed! I have sizes small through 4XL in blue, green, black, and white! You can pay me directly through venmo and paypal @laynatolton or cash/check. Make sure to send me your size, the color you want, and your shipping address:) They will only be available for the next TWO WEEKS so make sure you get yours fast! All profits will go towards my World Race and other travel expenses. Let me know if you have any questions!

MY GOAL IS TO SELL 75 T-SHIRTS!!

Thank you thank you thank you!!