Purpose over spotlight

Last month, my family and I visited the “most magical” place in the world…

Disney World!

My family and I enjoyed our vacation in Orlando, Florida! The idea of going to Disney is always exciting to me. Mickey Mouse is my favorite, like for real, for real. Ask my family they’ll tell you the same! From Mickey watches to Mickey blankets, pajamas, socks, and my personal favorite, my gold charm bracelet with the Mickey Mouse charm. It’s a big deal for me! (no judgement zone, right?)

At the Disney parks, Mickey Mouse is everywhere. From the entrance of the resort to the Mickey Mouse waffles you devour..I mean eat. Mickey Mouse is “the Man Mouse” on these Disney streets.

But it wasn’t until day 3 when we were exiting the Magic Kingdom when it hit me. 👀

Mickey Mouse is the face of Disney World, but he sure ain’t out here making dreams and memories come true by himself. He has a whole team with him!

There’s Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto and more! You know, you’ve seen all the Disney characters! While my family and I were enjoying a character dining experience, I

remember being so excited to finally see Mickey! I mean, I would finally get my picture with my favorite Disney character. (Checks item off of bucket list ✅). I was ready and smiling from ear to ear as the characters started making their rounds to each table.

BUT, before Mickey arrived, Daisy stopped by our table. Daisy is such a girly girl and might I add, quite the DIVA, and so photogenic. POSE, Daisy girl pose! That's literally what I was thinking while I was capturing a picture of her and Jeremy.

Then there was Goofy, as tall and silly as you could imagine. He was doing his thing, being all dramatic and cool.

Next there was “Thee Donald Duck”! I couldn’t wait to tell him that Daisy got a picture with MY man. You know I had to play get back! Donald and I had a photo date ourselves, you know…to get back at Jeremy & Daisy! We got ‘em Donald! 😉

Fun Memory Moment: Donald Duck is special to me because my daddy has the best voice enactment of Donald Duck. He can sound just like him! It’s a most cherishable kid memory. Most people wonder where I get my theatrical/expressive personality…lol my Daddy.

And then the man mouse of Disney World made his way to our table. All I could hear in my head was M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E…MICKEY MOUSE!!! I almost lost it! The 4 year old Whitney showed up all over again. This girl finally got her close up with Mickey!

Check us out:

Where’s Jeremiah?! Glad you asked! So while we (Jeremy and I) enjoyed taking pictures with Mickey and friends. Jeremiah made it clear early on that he wasn’t getting up to take pictures with the characters. If you know my Stank, you know he already had his mind made up and wasn’t changing it for nobody. I’ll share a few of his moments below:

This one was the cutest! ⬇️

The characters were very intentional about respecting Jeremiah’s boundaries.

💡 Mama tip: Kids have boundaries too.

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Fast forward, it’s Day 3 and we’re leaving the Magic Kingdom. I paused and looked at Jeremy and said:

You see, Mickey Mouse & friends are a team. You know like a “team, team” they work together to create the “magical experience”. This is far from a one man show. They’re a TEAM!!!

Let’s go deeper. Okay, so you may “see” Mickey everywhere with the magical wand, on the infamous statue with Walt Disney, headlining all of the things, but Mama let me tell you!

He-ain’t-a-one-man-show!

You remember the sequence of the characters I mentioned earlier right? First Daisy stopped by, then Donald, then Goofy, thennnn Mickey. It was definitely an anticipation builder.

Want to know what I thought? Here it goes…What if Daisy, Donald and Goofy were fixated on being in the spotlight? What if they were mad because they weren’t the grand finale or the fan favorite? What if they show up late to set/work with an attitude or interact poorly with guests all because…..they're not the face of ‘all the things’. What if?

SN: I don’t think it would have been magical or exciting at all, right!?

I was hype when I got this revelation. Not like hype in a physical sense because we were leaving the park and we were walking to our car. So physically, we were broke down, tired and felt like we had been run over by a MAC truck a few times. But my soul was on 1,000!!!

Mama, it was Daisy, Donald and Goofy for me!!! Why? Because, they know their roles and they know it well.

So you know I got a question for you, right?

Would you be okay if you weren’t the main attraction?👀

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.4.11-13.NIV

Let’s chat!

With Pace & Grace,

Whit