Each March our stake organizes a culture event for the youth which culminates in a single Saturday night performance. Typically this process takes a month's worth of Wednesday activities to pull off. However, much to Jacob's relief, the youth were asked instead to spend one long day learning a dance routine to be performed that night. Not being much of a performer, Jacob was hesitant to attend. We dropped him off at 9:00 a.m. with a cell phone and the instructions, "call us if it gets really bad." Needless to say, we were relieved that the phone never rang and dutifully showed up at 7:00 p.m. for the performance. The emcees announced that the first number would be Deacons & Beehives. We watched the first group run onto the stage. No sign of Jacob. Honestly, at that moment, I thought he'd jumped ship and was hiding somewhere in the building with his friends. Luckily David noticed there was a second group of Deacon's/Beehives further down in the program, so we relaxed again for a minute or two. While good, the first number was not something I thought Jacob would enjoy so I began to worry. Did he have fun? Would he even participate tonight? And I felt for him because the first number was so definitely out of Jacob's comfort zone, I was sure we'd hear about how much he hated the whole experience later that night.
Luckily, someone up above (or a really great youth leader!) must have been watching out for Jacob, because he ran onto the stage in a cowboy hat and danced to music which included lyrics like, "my baby smells so pretty" combined with holding their noses, etc. Perfect lyrics & perfect actions for 12-year-old boys. We watched in amazement as our usually shy son performed like he'd been on stage all of his life and smiled while doing it. He had fun performing and we had fun watching him. And I said a silent prayer of gratitude yet again for the amazing youth program at church.
Jacob and Caleb . . . the other kid we thought would bolt :)
didn't they do such a great job? that was fun to watch. :)
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