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The last few weeks have left our heads spinning.

But let me start at the beginning…

Grant and I met country swing dancing in downtown Provo, Utah. I’ll spare you all the crazy details, but needless to say, we started dating shortly thereafter and after a year of courtship (do people still use that word anymore? I do!) we were married in the Payson, Utah Temple!

Here’s the thing… Grant and I… we like to be “tricky.” We don’t always follow the status quo when it comes to country dancing, and oftentimes we’re in the back room trying new lifts.

Yup. Lifts.

We will be back there for hours brainstorming new ideas and new tricks and new combos. Because of this, it has become commonplace for our friends and family to ask for videos of our “latest and greatest.”

Do you know how many pictures and videos I have on my phone?? Yup. I’m THAT person. I have hundreds! I got so tired of scrolling endlessly on my phone looking for videos when someone would ask to see them. That’s when Grant and I came up with a plan.

Instagram. It was perfect! We could make an Instagram account dedicated to our country swing stuff. That way, all of our videos and photos would be in one place and our friends and family could easily access it if needed. It was a brilliant plan. The thing we were stuck on was… what do we call it?

If you know anything about us, then you know we’re big fans of England… and pretty much everything British, including the royalty. So, when Grant suggested “King and Queen of Country Swing,” it stuck.

We loved that it referenced something British and classic while still being country. Not to mention it RHYMES. Does it get much better than that?

So, we started our little IG account – never dreaming anyone would follow it except our friends and family members… but we were so wrong.

Over the past 3 weeks one of our videos blew up. It was getting reposted and shared left and right. And at first, it was cool! At first, watching our following grow so rapidly was fun! And then? And then I read some comments.

About a week ago Grant found me in our bedroom, sitting on the ground, sobbing. I tried to explain to him how I was feeling. I didn’t want this. I never wanted THIS. I never wanted to read comments that were crude or obscene about myself or my husband. I never wanted to be subject to so many polluted ideas about our relationship or our marriage. And I cried. I cried my eyes raw and told my sweet husband that all I wanted to do was spread light. To spread kindness and goodness and share something we love to do.

I told him I wanted to delete our account. I couldn’t see what good could come from it anymore. And as Grant and I talked about it… we realized something.

People are mean. But that doesn’t mean we have to back down or that we have to submit to their unkindness. We can be strong. We can continue to be who we are. We’ll stop reading the comments. We’ll stop worrying about those mean people. And instead, we’ll keep sharing what we love and the gospel. Because if we have any sort of influence on even one good person… then we are going to use that influence to share the gospel.

Because if we don’t share the most important thing in our lives with others… then what’s the point of having any “influence” at all?

So we’ll keep sharing what we love to do – country swing dancing. And we’ll keep sharing what makes us who we are – the gospel. Because this gospel is everything. It is real. It is true. And like Al Carraway always says, it is for everyone.

| Shalee |