I Tried To Lead And Stepped On Her Foot

This episode was originally broadcast in the midst of Covid on  May 20, 2020,  The Pandemic is gone but these truths still speak to us.  Enjoy!

One awkward ballroom dance lesson exposed a problem I didn’t want to admit: I don’t just like having a plan, I like being the one in charge. My wife and I showed up nervous but hopeful, learned the basic steps, and then the music started. Within seconds I’m stepping on her foot, wobbling through the rhythm, and feeling that familiar tension rise when two people try to lead at the same time.

That small moment opens a bigger question: who is leading my life? Proverbs 16:9 says we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. I talk through what that looks like when our sense of control gets shaken, when timing feels off, and when the “next step” isn’t obvious. It’s a short Christian devotional built for real mornings, where faith has to meet calendars, relationships, and the pressure to figure everything out.

If this encourages you, subscribe for more daily starts, share it with a friend who’s feeling stuck, and leave a review. What area of your life is hardest to surrender right now?

Transcript

Ballroom Dance Nerves And Missteps

Who Leads In Life With God

When Plans Collapse We Need Guidance

Trust God To Determine Your Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. My wife and I decided that it might be fun to learn the ballroom dance. So we talked with some friends and they decided to join us. We arrived at our first lesson and we were all a bit nervous. I gotta tell you though that the women were much more excited than the men were, but we all hoped that we would learn something. None of us had any clue about what we were doing or what was going to happen, but we were going to give it a shot. Well the first lesson it started off well. We watched the instructor show us the proper way to hold her partner, you know, elbows up, not too close, stand straight. I nailed that part. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I figured I had this. Then our teacher showed us the dance steps with her partner, and they moved quite elegantly around the floor and they made it look incredibly easy. So now it was our turn to try the steps in time with the music. First we tried it without a partner. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow, slow. Those are the rudimentary steps. Piece of cake, my confidence was growing by the minute I had this. Then we were instructed to dance with our partners. And so I held my wife in our dance posture and the music started. I immediately stepped on her foot and she screamed. Now, fortunately we were among friends, so we both laughed, embarrassed. But my wife has this ability to speak very clearly with her eyes, and she said very distinctly to me, with her eyes, do not do that again. So we tried it again, and I immediately stepped on her foot again, and then I almost tripped and fell over her, and it sort of just all went downhill from there. It wasn't long before I recognized what at least part of the problem was. We were both trying to lead. Now we all know that theoretically the man is supposed to lead when dancing. However, my wife has a degree in music, and she felt that my sense of rhythm was not correct for the music. So every time we started to dance, she was correcting my timing and my steps. The tension trying to decide who should lead, it it took away the fun for us, and we completed our four weeks of lessons, but there was always this tension about who would lead. Proverbs 16, verse 9 says, We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. There's a constant struggle in our walk with God about who's going to be in charge and who's going to lead your life. Who's going to be the one that's going to set the direction and choose the steps that we are to take to live our lives and the rhythm in which we are to live our lives? We all want to be in charge, and it's it's very frustrating right now that we can't make plans and we can't make decisions about things right now. It's the time of year when we would look forward to summer and summer plans, but we can't do those things that we normally would in summer. We can't plan summer vacations and those normal kinds of things right now. School plans are canceled, graduation ceremonies are canceled. Virtually everything has come to a stop. We are not in control. So we need someone to lead us and guide us through this time particularly, someone we can trust who knows how to lead and knows the steps that we need to take to keep us in line with the purpose. There is only one plan that we have that will work. It is to let God have his plan in our lives. Proverbs reminds us that the Lord determines our steps, and right now the Lord knows the steps for you and your future. He has known all along what your steps should be. And we can trust him with that. His ways are not our ways. His plans are not necessarily our plans, but when we trust him with our days, with our family, with our finances, and with our future, he will determine our steps and help us to get to where we need to be. And we can do it with the confidence that comes that knowing the Almighty God has his hand on us, and he is leading our steps and keeping us in rhythm with his plan.