Friday, February 04, 2011

My Own Princess Story

Today went quite well. I managed to finish my thesis outline despite the many times I self-distracted on Facebook and Youtube. I know what you're thinking, that I should just turn the Internet off while I'm writing, right? The problem is that I need to be online to google stuff occasionally...

Anyway, dinnertime came and I rewarded myself by watching the latest episode of My Princess.

If you don't know, it's a Korean drama about this girl who grows up and later discovers that she's the actual princess of Korea. This leads to her entering the "palace" and having to learn the rules of royalty. You know, your typical rags to riches storyline. A Disney version would be The Princess Diaries starring Julie Andrews as the queen of the made-up nation of Genovia.

If you've watched any movies with this kind of storyline, you know how it goes. The girl has to undergo drastic changes in terms of looks, personality and deportment. To be a princess, she has to learn to dress like one, speak like one and act like one. At all times she is representative of gentility and superior monarchy.

Also, the princess character is usually caught between two parties- one who is persuading her to become the princess she really is and the other who is persuading her to stay the way she is.

Of course, the movies generally end with the girl taking her place as princess against all odds and lives happily ever after.

I'm not sure how My Princess is going to end (it better be a happy ending... haha), but watching it made me draw parallels to the Christian life.

Those of us who are born-again in Christ, if we follow God's commands, He calls us the children of God. If we are the children of the King of Kings, doesn't that sort of make us royalty? In a way, you could say that us Christian girls are already princesses from birth. We just didn't know it until God opened our eyes later. Just like in the movies!

Once we are born-again in the Spirit and discover our identities as children of God, the changes that we naturally undergo are actually very similar to Mia's in The Princess Diaries and Lee Seol's in My Princess.

For example, people who are truly born-again in Christ start to become more and more like Christ in the way they live right? So we begin to change the way we dress, the way we talk and the way we carry ourselves. This is quite a tough process as I have discovered, because many of these changes seem painful at the beginning while the rewards are realised much later.

Also, the Holy Spirit who teaches us all good things, is also the ultimate instructor as portrayed in the characters of Park Hae Young in My Princess and Joe in The Princess Diaries. What the instructor tells the princess usually sounds like a chore or a bore to her. She just doesn't understand at that he is actually looking out for her best interests until much later. In the same way, the Holy Spirit guides us in all the paths leading to life, but because of our short-sightedness and lack of discipline, we don't always listen to Him. Like Park Hae Young and Joe, the Holy Spirit is also a constant source of comfort and always seems to be protecting the princess from harm.

Not only do we not always listen to our instructor, we also often doubt our heritage. One voice says "you've been redeemed!" the other part says "once a sinner, always a sinner". One voice says "claim the victory God has won for you!" the other says "you shouldn't". Lee Seol is always running between her old family and her newly-discovered one. Even Mia too seems torn between choosing to be a princess or not. Us in the audience can't help but wish them both to be the princesses we know they are. And I suppose that is how God feels as well, when He watches us live our lives from above. Before we react in anger to a person who hurt us, He's probably going "don't you know who you are? You are my child! The child of God! Now act like one!".

And you know the whole spiel about how royalty should only marry royalty? Well well well. In the Bible it says "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14)

I know movies these days make it seem like it's okay for royalty to marry commoners, but according to the Bible, it's probably a bad idea. Boy and are God's standard's high. He even tells us "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)

Yep. That means princesses marry good princes only. Not "with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler". He says "with such a man do not even eat." (1 Corinthians 5:11)

There are plenty of other similarities but it would take a lot of time to explain all of them. All I know is that as children of God, we really are royalty in the truest sense. We share a common Spirit with the Son of God, who calls us "friend" and "brother". As heirs to a heavenly inheritance, shouldn't we all be undergoing some intensive prince/princess training program? Because we represent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, shouldn't our words and actions overflow with grace, love and power at all times?

I take pride in all that I can do today, whether it's sports or academics, because in my mind, I've come to realise that I am a child of God. A princess, if you will. I have duties to accomplish, tasks that have been assigned me according to my God-given abilities. To honour my heavenly Father, the King, I should watch the way I behave at all time because I do not belong to myself, but to my Redeemer.



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