Our Early Morning Sing Along

I took my girls and our dog for our usual power walk this morning. We were off and running at about 8:00am, the girls all snuggled up in the jogging stroller. It's such a great way to start off the week.
Katelyn, my 3 1/2 year old began to serenade us as we walked. She was rattling off a bunch of songs that she has learned at preschool. Starting with "God Bless America", to "Thank You For This Snack", to "Jesus Loves Me." Now, let it be known that Miss Katelyn is not shy about her singing, and she really likes to get it out as loudly as she can, which we usually will lovingly enjoy and encourage. I am sad to say that this morning, for a brief moment, I felt a little different about her performance.
We were coming around a corner, and there was a woman stopped there while her dog was going potty. Katelyn was proudly belting out "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..." and she was so adorably doing the little signs that go with it. I felt myself get all freaked out and worried about what this woman would think. Maybe she didn't believe in Jesus. Maybe she would be offended by Katelyn's singing that song. Maybe I should quiet Katelyn down and ask her to stop.
That is so sad on so many levels. First, what a shame that I would be afraid to offend someone with my daughter's proud and beautiful singing about our Lord, who was surely smiling on while He heard her singing it. And it would have been awful to make her feel embarrassed or guarded or not free to just sing freely and proudly. And how unfortunate it would have been for me to demonstrate for my childrenhow we are to be ashamed about publicly yet politely sharing our faith.
I am happy to report that those feelings of of embarrassment only lasted a moment, and instead I found the courage to proudly sing along with her.