Lead and Follow
Ashlee Tomaro / Director of Women’s Ministry
“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
For years, my husband and I have taken various dance lessons to learn cha cha, lindy hop, swing, hustle and more. We love having the opportunity to spend this time with one another. We enjoy learning something new and challenging while also getting exercise.
Over the course of the years, we’ve learned and practiced the roles of social dancing, which is how to be a good lead and follow. As you can imagine, being a good lead and follow is difficult. Being a lead means planning and knowing what steps are next and effectively communicating it to your partner. The job as a follow is to trust your lead to communicate the next step and direction in the dance and then do it.
Another facet to dancing involves posture. Having the correct frame helps to effectively communicate with your partner. It’s easy to miss the smallest of signals if you’re posture and tone are slightly off.
Dancing can get messy and complicated in instances where the follow doesn’t wait for the lead and then jumps ahead anticipating the next steps. When this happens, it seems as if the follow doesn’t completely trust the lead to do their job. Or there may be times when the follow doesn’t feel like they are getting a clear direction of what to do next.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Can you relate? So much of dancing reminds me of my relationship with Christ. Our relationship mirrors that in which He is my lead, and my role is to follow Him.
I can’t tell you how many times I find myself anticipating what He’s planned next, so I just jump ahead. There are other times when I feel I don’t hear Him clearly, so I naturally feel the need to take charge. Sometimes my heart isn’t postured where it needs to be, so I miss out on the smallest cues He’s giving me. Our dance or relationship looks sloppy on my part. When that happens, things don’t tend to work out well.
Obviously, I don’t have the big picture and I need to wait, relax, and trust He will direct my next step. Dancing isn’t meant to be stressful; it’s meant to be fun and enjoyable. It’s about learning to communicate on a deeper level and to trust the next step. God never steps on my feet, so I need to stop stepping on His and let Him lead.
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| Photo by Dolo Iglesias on Unsplash |
“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
For years, my husband and I have taken various dance lessons to learn cha cha, lindy hop, swing, hustle and more. We love having the opportunity to spend this time with one another. We enjoy learning something new and challenging while also getting exercise.
Over the course of the years, we’ve learned and practiced the roles of social dancing, which is how to be a good lead and follow. As you can imagine, being a good lead and follow is difficult. Being a lead means planning and knowing what steps are next and effectively communicating it to your partner. The job as a follow is to trust your lead to communicate the next step and direction in the dance and then do it.
Another facet to dancing involves posture. Having the correct frame helps to effectively communicate with your partner. It’s easy to miss the smallest of signals if you’re posture and tone are slightly off.
Dancing can get messy and complicated in instances where the follow doesn’t wait for the lead and then jumps ahead anticipating the next steps. When this happens, it seems as if the follow doesn’t completely trust the lead to do their job. Or there may be times when the follow doesn’t feel like they are getting a clear direction of what to do next.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Can you relate? So much of dancing reminds me of my relationship with Christ. Our relationship mirrors that in which He is my lead, and my role is to follow Him.
I can’t tell you how many times I find myself anticipating what He’s planned next, so I just jump ahead. There are other times when I feel I don’t hear Him clearly, so I naturally feel the need to take charge. Sometimes my heart isn’t postured where it needs to be, so I miss out on the smallest cues He’s giving me. Our dance or relationship looks sloppy on my part. When that happens, things don’t tend to work out well.
Obviously, I don’t have the big picture and I need to wait, relax, and trust He will direct my next step. Dancing isn’t meant to be stressful; it’s meant to be fun and enjoyable. It’s about learning to communicate on a deeper level and to trust the next step. God never steps on my feet, so I need to stop stepping on His and let Him lead.