For the past three years, our church has produced a summer youth musical.  My children adore the two weeks of rehearsals.  Over 100 students participate in our original musicals.   It’s exciting to walk through the church and see rooms of students intently focusing on their individual parts.  We have students from Kindergarten through 8th grade participating in various ways:  orchestra, choir, cast, singers, dancers … and an army of high school volunteers who are assisting with everything from dancing to make-up to costumes.

Growing up, I always wanted to be an actress.  As a young child, I was filled with excitement each year watching our high school musical, dreaming of the day when I would be old enough to participate.  As a teen, I attended theater camp for many years and loved being in shows.

Now my greatest role is my life.  A few months ago, when I was really struggling, I wrote in my journal about how I always wanted to be an actress, and how strangely, that desire has been oddly fulfilled as I feel that I am acting every day:  “watch Nancy ACT like everything is OK when she is crying inside.  Watch Nancy ACT happy and joyful when she’s filled with grief.”  But I also realized … the more I act like I am OK, the better I feel.  It’s amazing what control we really can have over our behavior.  There are so many days when I just want to cry and stay in bed.  But I don’t have that luxury … and I know that by simply doing the next thing, with a smile on my face, the help of the Holy Spirit, and a kind word to my neighbor, I am not only acting, but I am becoming the person whom I am seeking to portray.

I hope I win an Academy Award in heaven.

~ Nancy