To Cheer or Not to Cheer

I was a cheerleader. Back in the day when I was shallow, judgmental and God was merely someone to plead with on the several occasions I nearly got myself killed by poor choices I had made.

In the last 14 plus years of walking with the Lord and being a mom, cheerleading was a no-no. I decided that no daughter of mine was going to be a shallow, hip shaking, stuck up cheerleader. It is just so .....worldy.....and, honestly, does it have value in God's Kingdom? Then, one day God asked if I thought soccer had value in His kingdom....what about PTO? I'm not preaching to anyone at these activities so what puts them in the acceptable category and cheerleading in the taboo column?

The funny thing was that here is my precious daughter, a gift from God who can light up the room with her smile, and He gave her the gift to be a good, even great cheerleader and I was saying no way. Why? Because of my own experience and what other Christians have said about the topic.

Long story short (those of you that know me are like,"Yeah right!") I signed her up and even though it is her first year and she is the youngest girl, she made the older squad. Her coach said to me the other day that she can't believe she is only in third grade, that she is such a good cheerleader! Let me take this opportunity to explain the types of parents that are in cheerleading and help coach. They are not very friendly, they curse, many of them smoke and one pulled away the other day with a lovely bumper sticker joking about a male body part. Uh huh. God, what have I done? But, He reminded me that they need the love of Christ to be demonstrated and this is one of those times that we may just end up getting our hands dirty, but He has given #2 favor and abilities to draw them to her. We cannot look at them through judgmental eyes. And, really when they are with the kids they do a good job encouraging and keeping their 4-letter words to themselves!

It has certainly taken me out of my comfort zone, but #2 really enjoys it!