exciting and trustworthy: an introduction to Jesus and Women from second-grade girls and Apples to Apples

I survived another Nutcracker.  [Insert applause.]  Ballerina-moms, you know exactly what I mean.  Everyone else, trust me on this one... It’s an honorable accomplishment.  My house has yet to recover, my kids don’t remember dinners that don’t include chicken nuggets, and my hot rollers (from Carson’s “Party Scene” hair) don’t know what hit them, but we all survived.  Seriously, it was a magical experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.  We love our community’s Foundation of Arts and the impact it’s made on our girls is a whole other blog post.

In order for Nutcracker to work, every mom has to volunteer at least eight hours.  Most volunteer about one hundred and eight.  (:  Well, this year, one of my assignments was chaperoning one of the dressing rooms one day for the school field-trip shows.  7:30am to 2:30pm.   One room.  Twenty flowerettes, bon-bons, and toy soldiers.  I.e., second-grade girls.

I know girls.  When you get them together, noise level only goes one direction: up.  Energy level only goes one direction: up.  By 10am, I had a headache, buns were falling down, and the pretend Nutcracker performance happening in our dressing room was stuck on Battle Scene.  Complete with balloon swords.  Things were getting out of hand.  So I pulled out my trusty Disney Apples to Apples.

First of all let me say that I've never played Apples to Apples with that many people before and it was a hoot.  Second of all let me say that I've certainly never played Apples to Apples with that many second-grade girls before...raises the hoot to a whole new level.

Mid-game, something thought-provoking happened.  Call me cheesy, but I just have NOT been able to get this out of mind since that day.  I hope I never will.

Now if you've never played Apples to Apples, a round basically goes like this:  The “judge” plays a card that has an adjective on it, like “Scary,” “Pretty,” “Magical,” “Messy,” or “Colorful.”  Then you select the card from your hand that you think is most like the card played by the judge.  If the judge picks your card, you win that round.  And everyone gets a chance to be the judge.  First person to win four rounds wins the game. With twenty second-grade girls, it takes eternity.

So we’re playing along, and the card "Exciting" comes up.  We all analyze our hands to select the perfect matching card. (We’re women, mind you.)  Luckily, so I thought, I had "Sword-fighting!" Woot woot.  Given that there were Nutcracker toy soldiers in the room who just fifteen minutes ago were dancing around jousting each other, I thought I was a shoe-in.

The judge carefully turned over all nineteen red apple cards, commenting sweetly on the validity of each player's efforts to match the word "Exciting."  …Roller coasters are very exciting... Ooo, and so are Birthdays.... Yes, Treasure chests are definitely exciting too… After deliberately turning over and reading all nineteen cards, she didn't hesitate a millisecond, but promptly held up the apparently obvious winner: "A date."

A date?? WHAT??  More exciting than Sword-fighting and Roller coasters?? Seriously??

Yes, seriously, A date.

My first inclination was to criticize modern media and it's incessant pressure on little girls to grow up too fast. But then I caught a glimpse of the "A date" card and saw that it was a picture of Cinderella and the Prince, not Troy and Gabriella... And I heard the innocence of this little girl's voice as she said, "A date will be soooooooooo exciting!!!"

So I set aside my jaded attitude, erased my scarred past, smiled and thought, I hope so.  I really, really hope so.

A few uneventful rounds went by, and then a girl drew the card “Trustworthy.”  For this, I had nothin.  Forced to decide between cards like “Dinner” and “Cruella deVil,” I chose “Dinner.”  And took the opportunity to check my twitter.  Well, as the judge flipped over card after card, I heard the word “Dads” come up.  I looked up from my phone, and wondered… How will this turn out?  Will there be a conversation about the trustworthiness of dads?  Will it be a debate?  (…Seeing as how I knew very little about these girls, their homes, or their experience as daughters for their eight short years on earth.)

Dads won.  Hands-down.  With no debate, no opposition, and extremely little analysis.  It was as if it was a given.  “Best friends,” “Piglet,” “the Fairy Godmother”… none held a candle to the standout candidate, “Dads.”

My first observation?  This is an anomalous circle of girls from healthy homes.  Wow.  Granted, there may have been a silent heartache in that round of cards.  But if so, she wasn’t jaded enough (yet) to argue.  It is the way it is supposed to be.  Trustworthy = Dads.  The way that went down, with twenty little dancers – women, mind you – in full agreement over that equation, made me want to raise my hands to heaven and shout, AMEN!!!!!!!!!

And indeed, as I heard Him whisper in my soul, That’s ME. 

I am the most exciting Lover, and the most trustworthy Father.  

A date was made to point to Me.  When I created the flowers, I had romance in mind.  Romance like that of yours and Dan’s, which grows deeper, more intimate, and more exciting year after year after year.  Romance like that of My own divine, wooing My church, My people, My bride, to oneness with Me.  

Dads were designed to point to Me.  When I created goodnight prayers, dancing on his toes, and butterfly kisses, I had trust in mind.  Trust like that of Camryn, Carson and Callie with Dan, which is unbroken, and lasts forever.   Trust like my own divine, as I lead you, provide for you, love you, enjoy you, care for you, even when you don’t understand.

Women, I urge you.  Set aside your jadedness.  As you open His Word and get to know Him, let Him erase your scarred past.  You have a love story waiting for you.  And it will be soooooooo exciting.  It really, really will. 

Trust Him.  He is altogether trustworthy.  He is strong enough to never leave you.   No matter what you ever do or say, He will never stop loving you.  He enjoys you.  You are not too much for Him.  He wants to provide for you so that you can be all that you were created to be… and that is so much more than you have ever, ever dreamed. 

Men, we need you to be like Jesus.  That’s all.  Don’t read more books about being a good husband or a great dad.  Read Jesus.  Don’t stress about being the leader you need to be.  All we need is you, who you are, following hard after Jesus.  You want to know how to treat a woman?  Read Jesus.  He ran into plenty of them.  He did life with a few of them.  Look at how He treated them.  Base your philosophy of manhood on that. 

That’s my soapbox for today.  I want to announce to anyone sweet enough to have read this far down this loooooong blog post that I am starting a new blog series, Jesus and Women.  I can’t promise the timeline of when posts will appear, but I’ve had it on my heart for two years to study the face-to-face encounters Jesus had with women, one by one.  I think it’d be fun to post an overview of each on the blog as I go.  Consider this an introduction.  We all need more Jesus.  I know I do.