Me... a princess?

            Now, obviously I'm not the princess of England or France, but I am the daughter of a King higher than those of this world. The Ruler of all. But do I, as a daughter of this King, act like a princess? Am I preparing myself for my future prince? We have all gone through that stage in life where we have longed to be princesses. We dressed up in our bright twirling gowns, put on our plastic jewelry, and hoped that we would be won over by a handsome young knight. We had those fantasies as little girls. But now we've grown older. We still want our hearts to be won over by the knight in shining armor, but we also know that life isn't always fairy-tales and "happily, ever, afters". We have our hearts crushed, our trust broken, and it now never seems as easy as it once did. Yet God redeems. He has given back our wasted years and replaced our brokenness with incomparable beauty. He has written for us a love story that began with His son dying for us and ends with us sharing His love in heaven. He gave us a happily ever after. He won our hearts with his love and saved us from the captivity of our sin. He has called us beautiful. In Psalm 45:11 (Message) it says,

"Now listen, daughter, don't miss a word: forget your country, put your home behind you. Be here—the King is wild for you. Since He's your Lord, adore Him."

        

           God's in love with us, are we in love with Him? Do we want to be the virtuous woman, the pure and dazzling princess, He's created us to be? Yesterday I read through Proverbs 31. Yes, its the chapter that all purity books point you to telling you what to do and how to do it. Unfortunately we are sometimes so caught up in trying to be the perfect woman of God and we spread ourselves way too thin. We become tired. And that's the sad truth. Most Christian women today are... tired. Exhausted from continually trying to be that perfect "Proverbs 31" and "virtuous" woman. We continually feel like we're "too much" or "not enough". What I'm going touch on, in coming posts, are the 3 main qualities I see in this chapter that yes, we should strive for, but also should come naturally when we fear the Lord and fall in love with Him. When we are romanced by Jesus, all the weariness from striving to be perfect (an impossible goal) will disappear, loving Him will become natural.
            Do you remember the story of Mary and Martha? Jesus comes to visit and Martha is so worried and distracted about making sure everything is perfect and that Jesus is comfortable, while Mary plainly sits by Jesus' feet and listen to His stories. She simply basks in His presence and receives His words. Below is the story.

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

   ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

         I pray that we women of Christ can learn that Jesus would rather have our hearts and our affection than our struggle for perfection. Join the journey.