"Thrown together as children, by the Soviet regime, and told to skate for the good of the state, Sergei Grinkov and Katia Gordeeva became the most celebrated pairs skaters in the world--falling madly in love, marrying, and having a beautiful baby daughter. But after winning two Olympic gold medals and four World Championships, Katia's world collapsed when Sergei suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 28." (quote taken from a website doing a book review of "My Sergei" a biography by Katia Gordeeva.
Some of you may have remembered this pairs figure skater tragedy. It happened about 2 hours north of my home, up in Lake Placid. They were my favorite Russian pairs skaters. I was saddened to hear that Katia had lost her beloved Sergei and they would no longer be synchronized together in figure skating!
I loved that they were so perfectly synchronized. They moved together with grace and beautifully fluid motions. Elegant.
On Monday evening, after a half hour of vocal coaching, I had a half hour break and then had to lead a devotional group for the 2nd/3rd graders of the HizKidz Praise! ministry at my church. For those of you who read here regularly, you know that my youngest daughter, Claire, who is a ballet student, is involved in this ministry as a singer and dancer. This new semester of rehearsals began 2 weeks ago to prep for our upcoming Spring Musical. Each week, the director of the ministry gives the children a 45 minute rehearsal, followed by a 15 min. Breakout Time (devotions) which is then followed by another half hour rehearsal. The devotionals are prepared ahead of time by a parent volunteer. I lead the youngest group of cast members. It is a pleasure to serve in this ministry.
This week, one part of the devotional was a game in which the children (I have 12 in my group) had to take off their shoes and use paper plates as "figure skates". They practiced individually for a few seconds and then I had them choose a partner. They had to "skate" together, without taking their feet off the plates and without communicating with speech. They could communicate with their hands, bodies, head but no words were to come out of their mouths. I had them do this for about 3 minutes. They loved it! They had to work together.
Then, we sat in a circle, I read the Bible verse that went with the game and we discussed what was difficult, what was easy, their feelings about it, etc. I then compared this to how God wants to be synchronized with us. He wants to guide us and lead us but we have to allow Him to do that! I talked a bit about real figure skaters and how they have to work together and cooperate to stay synchronized with each other. I asked the children to share with me various ways that God walks with us. I was surprised by some of their answers....they were all really into this lesson! And I wondered just how well do I allow God to be in step with me???
Do I take His Hand daily and synchronize my plans with His plans for me that day?
Do I willingly walk with Him and watch the various ways He is trying to guide me?
I loved how each pair of children were so different. Some just grabbed hands and glided together like they had been doing this forever! Some pairs definitely had one who was the "leader" and the other child simply held hands and allowed herself to be pulled. Some really worked at communicating with hand gestures and you could tell that both wanted to be "the leader". The important point was that they understand that they had to glide together. Synchronized. (I had to define that word for them before beginning the game).
Are you allowing God to synchronize your life with His plan for you??
Are you willing to hold God's Hand and be in step with Him?
Let's move with our Lord as He walks us through our journey of life.
"In his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps."
Proverbs 16:9
Some of you may have remembered this pairs figure skater tragedy. It happened about 2 hours north of my home, up in Lake Placid. They were my favorite Russian pairs skaters. I was saddened to hear that Katia had lost her beloved Sergei and they would no longer be synchronized together in figure skating!
I loved that they were so perfectly synchronized. They moved together with grace and beautifully fluid motions. Elegant.
On Monday evening, after a half hour of vocal coaching, I had a half hour break and then had to lead a devotional group for the 2nd/3rd graders of the HizKidz Praise! ministry at my church. For those of you who read here regularly, you know that my youngest daughter, Claire, who is a ballet student, is involved in this ministry as a singer and dancer. This new semester of rehearsals began 2 weeks ago to prep for our upcoming Spring Musical. Each week, the director of the ministry gives the children a 45 minute rehearsal, followed by a 15 min. Breakout Time (devotions) which is then followed by another half hour rehearsal. The devotionals are prepared ahead of time by a parent volunteer. I lead the youngest group of cast members. It is a pleasure to serve in this ministry.
This week, one part of the devotional was a game in which the children (I have 12 in my group) had to take off their shoes and use paper plates as "figure skates". They practiced individually for a few seconds and then I had them choose a partner. They had to "skate" together, without taking their feet off the plates and without communicating with speech. They could communicate with their hands, bodies, head but no words were to come out of their mouths. I had them do this for about 3 minutes. They loved it! They had to work together.
Then, we sat in a circle, I read the Bible verse that went with the game and we discussed what was difficult, what was easy, their feelings about it, etc. I then compared this to how God wants to be synchronized with us. He wants to guide us and lead us but we have to allow Him to do that! I talked a bit about real figure skaters and how they have to work together and cooperate to stay synchronized with each other. I asked the children to share with me various ways that God walks with us. I was surprised by some of their answers....they were all really into this lesson! And I wondered just how well do I allow God to be in step with me???
Do I take His Hand daily and synchronize my plans with His plans for me that day?
Do I willingly walk with Him and watch the various ways He is trying to guide me?
I loved how each pair of children were so different. Some just grabbed hands and glided together like they had been doing this forever! Some pairs definitely had one who was the "leader" and the other child simply held hands and allowed herself to be pulled. Some really worked at communicating with hand gestures and you could tell that both wanted to be "the leader". The important point was that they understand that they had to glide together. Synchronized. (I had to define that word for them before beginning the game).
Are you allowing God to synchronize your life with His plan for you??
Are you willing to hold God's Hand and be in step with Him?
Let's move with our Lord as He walks us through our journey of life.
"In his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps."
Proverbs 16:9
5 comments:
Faith, awesome post.
Great thoughts!: )
Such a great post.
I was a huge fan of Sergei and Ekaterina as well. I remember he died right after I had my oldest, and coupled with post-partum and the news . . . I cried like a baby for their loss.
This post was beautiful, Faith.
What a wonderful post, Faith. I definitely need to synchronize and flow together with the Lord more.
I've read that book and they were my favorites too.
What a great activity with the kids at church. I may have to use your idea with my Girls Alive class....is it copyrighted? :)
Amen to Proverbs 16:9
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