Princess Reflections

We've gotten a fair amount of "Princess" gifts. Many clothes and decorations for little girls center on this theme. I definitely loved princesses growing up, particularly Snow White. My mother made me a wonderful costume for Halloween as Snow White and I think I wore it 2 years in a row! But something now, as an adult, strikes me funny when I see babies in tiaras and the like....

I couldn't pinpoint it exactly. I knew it had something to do with not wanting our daughter to be self-centered. We know there will already be a tendency towards that as the first born (I think I definitely struggle with feeling at the center of it all).

As I thought about it today, I realized that the carefree life of a princess is completely the opposite of the life I believe God calls us to have. In Philippians 2:5-7, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..."

Rather than being royalty, we should have a servant attitude...

This is certainly not something I would expect our young daughter to understand and I'm not going to keep her from enjoying princess movies, dressing up, etc. But I think it's definitely something I will keep an eye out for (limiting the quantity), because I know that the media we expose her to from an early age will shape her view on the world.

Perhaps we should focus on the story of Cinderella, a servant who was chosen as a princess... It is the most real princess story I have experienced.. because we have been chosen as royalty, though we will not experience it until heaven... "you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God..." 2 Peter 2: 9