Dancing Through Life by Candace Cameron Bure, Erin Davis

thing about it.”
    Suddenly the crowd I had feared for days just melted away. Jesus was going to be in the audience when I danced as Ariel because He is always with me (Matt. 28:20). This wasn’t between me and my sister. It wasn’t between me and my Facebook followers. It wasn’t between me and Christian bloggers. This was a decision best made between me and Jesus.
    Fear of man had tripped me up and I wanted to be untethered! I needed to be reminded of my commitment to live for an audience of one. Once that switch had been flipped, I headed into my fitting with renewed confidence. I was pleasantly surprised by the designer’s creation. The green scale-like material of the mermaid skirt was so realistic and beautiful and the purple seashells were as big and blingy as they promised me they’d be! To my surprise, they added three to four inches of beaded fringe to the bottom of the top and raised the waist of the skirt above my bellybutton all the way around so that between the two modifications most of my midriff was covered. I was filled with gratitude toward the costume department for working so hard to create something that made me feel as beautiful as Ariel and as confident as I needed to be.
To help calm my nerves and stay focused before performances, Mark and I did deep-breathing exercises. We also did push-ups and plank holds to get our bodies warm and sweating so we didn’t go into the dance cold. FYI, I can out-plank Mark!
    My mood shifted from anxious back to excited. The costume was so much fun! There was nothing sexy about it. In fact, it was every little girl’s childhood dream come true! I texted my mom and sister and said, “I feel like a Disney princess!” Praise God I felt great freedom and relief and felt no hesitation wearing it, knowing exactly who would be sitting in the audience.
Costumes can make you sweat! My Ariel costume weighed seven pounds and my silver-beaded jive dress weighed in at ten pounds!
    Those emotions spilled out onto the dance floor because our “Under the Sea” routine received one 8 and three 9s. Donnie Osmond, who was guest judging that week, gave me the thumbs-up as I approached the judges’ table and said, “Candace, I know that being at the bottom of the leaderboard (from last week) is very discouraging. Don’t give up, because what I just saw was so promising. You were fantastic!” Carrie Ann went on to say, “You are one of my favorite movers on this season. I love watching you when you’re in the zone and feeling comfortable. I relate to the way you move. It’s so strong, so earthy, and so powerful. But you have another notch to you, and it’s just a mind game, because you are incredible, Candace!” All the kind words from the judges made me feel proud, but mostly I was proud of myself for sticking to my personal convictions, even when it required me to swim upstream.
    The Fight after the Fight
    I wish I could say that the fight over that mermaid costume ended when I exited the dance floor, but it didn’t. While many people wrote to me saying that this was their favorite dance of the season, there were also people who criticized my choices. Most of the negative chatter happened online through social media. While it was no fun to be the guinea pig, I’m grateful for the exposure that this situation gave me because it gives me the opportunity to address a growing challenge in the modern church and gives me some authority to ask this question: As Christians, how should we treat each other online?
    My Facebook ballooned to over 1 million followers during my time on DWTS and I gained somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million new Instagram and Twitter followers. I was obligated to post on social media as part of my DWTS experience, which I loved doing anyway, but the growth was so explosive that it took on a life of its own.
    Because so many celebs have “people” who run their social media for them, the question begs, who does mine? I mean, who actually