When I was a little girl I loved princesses! Dressing up, tea parties, dreaming about princes—that was my personality. I never really grew out of that either! At our wedding I had a piano version of “Someday My Prince Will Come” played as our mothers walked down the aisle and a quote from Cinderella on our program. If you don’t think I’m cheesy enough, I even named our daughter Kate, inspired, of course, by Catherine (or Kate!), Duchess of Cambridge. (Shh…don’t tell my husband that!) So it’s easy for me to sit here and talk about teaching our kids the concept of royalty, but even if it’s not in your personality to talk about these things, I promise it’s still relevant!
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you have been adopted into God’s royalty. 1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” We are the children of the most High King! And our children, oh, they are the most precious to our Lord!
“Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.‘” Matthew 18:2-4
Our children are princes and princesses, just as we are, and together we are set apart for something wonderful–our God’s glory.
My favorite verse of all time is 1 Peter 2:9:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
“Princess play” has gotten a bad reputation over the last few years and I think part of this is because the role of the royal is misunderstood. Much of their role is similar to our roles as children of God and our children would do well to learn these values.
Here are two main principles of royalty we can teach to our children:
A duty to serve their country
Royal figures do much for their people and humanity in general. They take part in community services, advocate for important causes, and bring hope to the people. This is exactly what we are called to do as Christians. We should be teaching our children to serve, speak up for others, and proclaim the gospel.
A duty to maintain an image that honors the family
Those in royal families are definitely well-kept. Their clothes are beautiful and their hair is always styled well. But their image goes beyond that. They must pay careful attention at all times to their mannerisms and behavior. People are always watching, and they would hate to dishonor their family name. We as Christians should be striving to maintain an image that honors our King as well. We want to be a reflection of Jesus, and so we are to strive to live as he lived. So we teach our kids to live a life that honors the Lord.
These are things that you are probably already teaching to your children and trying to live out yourself, but have you adopted the royalty concept?
The reason why it’s so important to include these titles of royalty is because we want our kids to know what they are worth to God. They are royalty. Your sons are princes and your daughters are princesses! They are heir to the glorious crown of life. (James 1:2)
So let your little girls dress up as princesses and have their tea parties. Let your boys dress up as a mighty princes fighting dragons and protecting the land. (Of course, your princes can have tea and your princesses can also defeat the dragons!) But while they are enjoying these playtime activities, teach them the way a princess or prince of the heavenly kingdom should behave. Inspire them to learn new languages so that they can be kind to people from other lands, to help people and see the needs crying out from their world. Let your daughter dream of the prince that God has for her, and may she look for those qualities of royalty in her future husband. May your son look for those qualities of royalty in his future wife. Teach them to set themselves apart from the sin of this world and live to please and bring glory to their King. Let them dream of living “happily ever after” because someday we will. Teach them about our “ever after” that’s awaiting us.
As I was thinking of what I wanted to say in this post I watched The Princess Diaries for some inspiration. If you remember that movie, Mia’s best friend Lilly wasn’t always supportive of the idea of Mia becoming a princess. Eventually, though, Lilly came around and said something rather profound about being a princess. “Wow is having the power to affect change.” Ultimately, Mia decides to accept her crown because she cares about other people and wants to make a difference for them.
Being a princess or prince of the Heavenly Kingdom isn’t about our position–it’s about other people. It’s about showing love to others and helping them to see and know our God, our Father in Heaven, our glorious King.
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