A Note from Mary Margaret West: This is part two in our series Enhancing Your Time with Jesus. Our goal is to give you some tools to help specific groups of girls in your life, based on their interests and gifts. We hope that these posts are helpful to you!
The first post of this series gave ideas for Girls who Write
Girls Who Perform
Our immeasurably creative God made us unique, but gave us each a specific creative form of expression. Today’s post is geared specifically toward girls who perform publicly: musicians, artists, actresses, dancers, and more. Those girls are sometimes hard to spot: they can be the most dramatic (“all eyes on me!”), the most confident (“I know I can do this one thing well”) or even the most outcast (if others from their creative tribe are not in your youth group). Even well-known performers have a reputation for being incredibly introverted, but they come alive when the spotlight is switched on.
Sometimes the girls who create are also the girls who write (see last week’s post!) but not always.
Identify your Girls who Perform by asking:
- Who doesn’t mind being in the spotlight?
- Who likes public speaking or singing or letting others see your creation?
- Who turns every idea into a song, a play, dance, or a work of art?
- Has God ever entered your mind while performing?
- When you see others perform, do you sometimes yearn to do that very thing?
- If you had $100 to spend on yourself, who would go to a performance of some kind?
For any of your girls who raise their hands to these prompts, challenge them to enhance their time with Jesus in the following ways:
Turn your quiet time into a performance. If you compose music, turn your daily Bible study into a song. If you create art, turn it into a work and find a place to display it. If you act, consider how you might develop it into a character or a soliloquy. If you dance, move to worship music. It’s not required that it becomes a public performance, but allow the God who made you into a performer to transform your brain and heart with His Word.
Use your practice time as meditation time. Ask God to give you one word or verse or truth to carry with you as you close your Bible each morning. As you act or paint or sing or dance that afternoon, ask God to bring His word to the front of your mind. Let it inspire you; let it turn into an image or focus that guides your practice.
Ask God to help you minister to others in your group. Musicians, artists, and actors seem to flock together; you find strength and camaraderie in your tribe. Don’t think that God put you with these other artists just so you can belong: He gave you to them to be a blessing, to show the love of Jesus, and to reveal Him to groups that never hear the Bible.
Consider how your art reflects God.
God is musical: He sings over us and the very heavens are full of music.
God is artistic: the colors He chooses, the shapes and textures He combines, and the mediums in nature point to His amazing eye and heart.
God is the best storyteller: His one story of creation and redemption eternity are interwoven together, from the Bible until us today.
Pray as you perform. Ask God to make you more creative, more interpretive, more instinctive, more compassionate, and more convincing in your art. Trust that the passions in your heart are for His glory and seek different ways to point others to Him.
Find a Christian mentor in your field. Often, artists feel they are dropped into an anti-God world; look deeper. There are believers in every field, and the arts are no different. Ask God to find you a godly mentor to challenge you spiritually, shape you Biblically, and give you courage to perform in His name.
Add drama, music, movement, or art to your church. Talk to your youth minister, children’s minister, or music minister to see if you can help creatively. Ask God to give you great ideas in leading groups in your church to creative prayer, beautiful displays of worship, or expressive arts.
Start and end with prayer and the Bible. Whether alone or with some from your group, make prayer and Bible reading a regular practice when performing and practicing. Seek God’s face in your creativity and watch how He brings glory to Himself.
God is with us in all we do, particularly when we create. Praise Him as you live the passions He placed in your mind and heart.
Leslie Hudson is a Renaissance woman, coffee roaster/connoisseur/addict, volunteer Girls Ministry leader, and teacher of God’s Word.
[…] The first two posts of this series gave ideas for Girls who Write and Girls who Perform. […]