So I’ve been teaching the girls at church how to be a princess. And isn’t it when you teach the most you learn the most?

And how can I tell a room full of six to eleven year olds, their big eyes hanging on my every word, and not believe it myself?

I can’t.

So when He tells us right there in our Princess Manual that I’ve been adopted into His royal family, that I am His daughter which makes me an heir, that He is my King and He is enthralled by my beauty, well, when He tells us that right there and signs it all in red ink, I need to tell them. And I need to believe it too.

A princess? Me?

Them, yes. Of course them. Their sweet, precious, innocent soft faces. Their eyes big as we read together from a chapter book. Their proud smiles as they show me how hard they worked to memorize the verse I wrote for them on the board. Their faces lovely and untainted just yet by too much of what the world has to offer them. Unblemished, free of too much world-ugly.

Of course they are princesses, each and every one.

My princesses, the two that live here with me, well their Daddy calls them his Warrior Princesses. Muddy feet and messy hair and mosquito bites on their legs, they hold their big brother down and if it’s a happy day, tickle him. If it’s an angry day they might just hold him down. And their Daddy tells them a story at bedtime about two Warrior Princesses and their adventures. It’s a years-long story. And they delight in it. And deep down they know they are really the princesses in their Daddy’s story.

And how can you be a princess for ten years and know it, but then when you teach the little girls at church, you discover it all over again?

Ten years.

My mama, she acts like a princess because she’s brave and strong in her battles. My one friend, she brings love and light and beauty to everything she touches. I have another princess friend who would feed the whole world if her castle kitchen would allow it. And another is princessly by getting right to the truth of a matter. Another talks to animals and they listen. And one, well she suffered so much loss in her life you’d think her mama princess heart might just fall out of her beautiful chest one day but she somehow keeps it in there and manages to love…oh, she loves with the biggest hugs you’ve ever known and a song so beautiful you’ve never heard such a sound and a smile so bright it really could light up a city.

Yes, I know some princesses.

And now I know fifteen more. Little princesses. Jesus’ princesses.

So I’m learning, again, deep down, I’m the princess in the story.

You’re the princess in the story.

When you belong to the King, when you are daughter to the Most High, when you are no longer a foreigner or an alien, but a fellow citizen with God’s people and members of God’s household (Eph 2:19)…we get to be princesses together.

Not a Disney princess or a TV princess or a princess that has to wear a ball gown even. No, you are a princess who has a royal Daddy and He adores you and your mosquito bitten legs.

And even if you didn’t have one that told you bedtime stories when you were little…or if the bedtime stories he told were painful ones…our royal Daddy takes all that in His big strong arms and He says here, nail it all up there and leave it because I AM STRONG and I LOVE YOU and you don’t need to carry that around anymore because it’s just.too.heavy and I want You to carry around my love instead. It’s a lot lighter and I custom made you for that job and you are beautiful and you belong to me and I know you can do it.

And then He shows us how. He says I’ll show you how much I love you and I’ll show you how to live as my daughter, my princess.

We get to choose that. We get to choose to be royalty. He tells us right there in the Princess Manual, John, 1: 12 that those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God. I get to pick Him! And then in picking Him, He shows me how He really picked me first. From the beginning of time. He’s just been waiting for me to say yes, Daddy, and traipse my muddy feet over onto His walkway where He’s waiting arms open for me to come in.

And the bedtime story, that years-long story, ten years now and finally, finally, I realize, it’s really me! He’s talking about me! Instead of Once Upon a Time though it says right now, today. This is it. You are royalty and The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Nehemiah 3:17)

And that makes me feel like a princess. A Warrior Princess. A muddy feet and messy hair princess that has a Daddy who loves her very, very much.

Because of that I can teach those little precious girls that they are Princesses too.

That they are each and every one, Jesus’ Little Princess.

The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. Psalm 45:11

© Cassandra Rankin, This Crazy Little Farm