A New Color!

As excited as I would be over a new color for a wall in my house, this new color isn't for me. This time it's for Joy, and although she does want a new look for her room, this isn't even for her bedroom. This new color is found around her waist!

Let me back up to late September a minute. A taekwondo school was coming to one of our gym days to perform a demo for our group. One of our very own members was participating. On the way that day, Joy was a little disappointed that she wasn't going to be playing with friends like a "normal gym day". I told her she would love it and that she was so young at the time, she didn't remember her brother's days of performing and competing in takewondo; but it was really interesting and lots of fun to watch. Within minutes of the demo beginning, it had completely captivated her (actually the entire gym was so quiet...watching every move). After a few more minutes into it, she leaned over to me and said, "Mom, you've GOT to sign me up for this." She's very into dance (ballet, tap & jazz), so I was very doubtful as to this fitting into our schedule (and being affordable).

Because of the flexibility of the program (which we love), we were able to get her signed up. This school is a Christ-centered martial arts system that incorporates the fruits of the Spirit. Each belt level represents a fruit...white-love, yellow-joy, orange-peace, green-patience, blue-kindness, purple-goodness, brown-faithfulness, red-gentleness, 1st to 2nd degree black-self control, 2nd to 3rd degree black-walk in truth, 3rd to 4th degree black-servant's heart, and 4th to 5th black-true discipleship.

There are no contracts - you may come as often or as little as you like (and progress at your own speed) - with the cost of a suggested donation. Every effort was made in this system to accomodate anyone interested. I think that's great!

So..Joy began the very tail end of September. She has since progressed two levels. In November, she tested for her yellow belt (joy) and moved from white to yellow.







In December, she tested for her orange belt (peace). She progressed from yellow to orange. This now makes her part of the "advanced" class.







Each level requires learning stances, kicks, punches, blocks, forms, and self defense sets. At the advanced ranks (orange belt and up), weapons training and sparring is also offered. At each level scripture memorization is required. Progression to each level requires a pre-determined amount of lessons, increasing in mumber while moving up in rank.

Taekwondo for Joy really has complemented her dance well too. Both require discipline, determination, memorization, coordination, and physical challenges. We call her our "Girly Tomboy".

The way Joy has it figured, she will go for a new color in February, green (patience). Who knew she would get so excited over a new color around her waist?