Prom Season

By Estey Silva

Question

It’s prom season, and I haven’t been asked to the dance. I’m feeling down. What can I do, and how do I pray?

Answer

There is an answer. I know. It’s happened to me. Prom was approaching, and no one had asked me to the dance. I was just feeling incredibly lousy, sad, and inadequate. After stewing about it and feeling sorry for myself for way too long, I finally realized that I needed to snap out of it.

Instead of waiting for someone to ask me to the dance, I decided to have a giving spirit. So I asked one of my guy friends to the dance. He was thrilled, and we both had an amazing time dancing the night away without any pressure to make it a romantic occasion.

God changed my heart from a selfish, uncomfortable one to a giving, selfless, happy one. I’m so grateful!

Throughout the years, I’ve learned a lot about turning to God to help me get out of the rut of negativity. So many of us struggle with feelings of inadequacy—whether it’s feeling like we’re not good-looking enough, not smart enough, not agile enough.

I often turn to my Bible. One of my favorite verses that has been helpful to me in my search for self-acceptance is, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Ps 134:14 KJV).

I’ve found that just reading the verse doesn’t do as much as when I actually pray and think about it, smile, and say, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made! I’m one of God’s works, so I’m marvelous! I know it’s true!”

And this is true for dealing with the prom issue. Whenever we feel self-conscious, we can think about how to open our hearts so that we feel wonderful about giving to others. When we serve others and give, we discover a universal truth—that giving makes us happy!