Men Are From Mars (Time to Dance?)

by Dave Triggs (husband of Mentor Mom Diane Triggs)

There was a Fox News story this week about a study conducted in England that stated, “Humans may be born with a predisposition to dance.” They found that when babies in the womb are exposed to music that they have a tendency to move there arms and legs in rhythmic movements. Young children when exposed to music are often found jumping and dancing for joy with smiles on their faces.

In second Samuel chapter 6 verse 14 we find David the King of Israel “dancing before the Lord with all his might” and then in verse 16 we find “Michal the daughter of Saul (and wife of David) looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.”

I’m not sure what your philosophical position may be on dancing, but mine more often seems to take the same position of Michal where I despise it in my heart. I remember back when our children where younger, that quite often they would be “dancing” for joy with all of their might and I would be focused on trying to settle them down and get them to be quiet. I know there may be times were our children do need to be quiet and settle down. But I also think that sometimes I start feeling down about what happened that day, or yesterday or last week. Maybe words were exchanged with my spouse, or milked gets spilled, or I am just tired and worn out and discouraged and I want others to be down with me. So then when my kids are leaping and dancing before the Lord, I just can’t take it any more and I just want them to quiet down with me.

Life is hard. Bad things do happen. We do get tired. But maybe it is during these hardest and lowest times that we may just need to take a little time and dance. In Psalm 30:10-12 this same King David wrote “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me; O Lord, be Thou my helper. Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing; Thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; That my soul may sing your praise to Thee, and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to Thee forever.”

As King David said, as we cry out to God for help, God can turn our mourning into dancing …which can then turn our sorrow into gladness… and then can turn our grumblings into songs of praise and giving thanks to God for the blessings that we do have instead of focusing on hard things that are happening around us.

As the study stated before, maybe that’s what we were created to do. Today, take some time to cry out to God and dance with your children or with your spouse or both. It may change your life.