Approval

We met up with some home school friends today. When we arrived, it was beginning to rain and we saw a teen (tween? whatever.) boy in the yard spinning in circles shouting “I love the rain! I love the rain!” My girls were giggling at his delight and wanted to join in.

That moment has stuck with me all day. I am pretty sure I would NEVER have done that as a teenager. I cared too much about what other people thought of me. I was too insecure. I was craving the approval of others and never wanted to get negative attention for my behavior. Even if I felt like dancing in the rain, I wouldn’t have, unless I knew the others would approve.

I’ve always been somewhat of a free spirit and that was hard, not fitting in. Not being the same as the others. Not liking the same things. I also wanted to do things my way and that was hard too, when others wouldn’t cave to my will.

I would be myself only within a certain range, only when I was pretty sure it would meet someone else in my peer group’s standard for my behavior.
What a gift that mom is giving her son. To give him the confidence to dance in the rain, to be who he is, to be how he wants to be, to be crazy and silly in front of his peers, to play.
Thankfully, I’ve outgrown that and now dance and sing in the rain and don’t care who’s watching.

One thought on “Approval

  1. Love this post! We should ALL get to a place where we can dance in the rain without a care 🙂 I, like you, am a free spirit too & growing up it was hard b/c I didn't always see things as others did but sometimes I'd keep quiet or go with the flow just to keep "friends" or so I wouldn't stick out. How thankful I am that I learned the valuable lesson that you have to be true to yourself first, then the ones that come alongside of you & accept you for who you are – they are the ones worth keeping around, encouraging you to be yourself (hey, they'll probably dance with you!) GREAT POST 🙂

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