Confessions of a Princess

Our New Year’s Eve company had left, and I went to bed shortly after ringing in the New Year. As I reflected on all of the blessings I had received in 2017, my thoughts started shifting to what might lie ahead in 2018.

With the busyness of the holidays coming to an end, I was ready to clean up the mess, get into a new rhythm and start fresh again. A lot of great ideas about new projects had recently come to mind, and I needed to figure out how to fit those in. I also needed to do a little heart check to see what changes God might want me to make in my life as I continue my journey with him. As eager and excited as I was to get started on a plan of action, I knew that my body needed rest. I quickly slipped into deep and peaceful sleep.

I awoke to my oldest son asking two questions. “Can I borrow your car keys?” and “How can water be rushing out of the middle of the road?” Now, I am one of those people who are pretty slow to rise in the morning. You know, the kind that can hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for an hour and quickly fall back asleep in between. When I finally coax my feet down to the floor, I seem to wander around doing who knows what and am not ready to converse with anyone until I’ve had at least a half a pot of coffee and a pretty long pep talk from God.

However, the thought of water rushing out of the middle of the street caused me to jump out of bed lightning fast and bolt into action. Outside my bedroom window, I could see the water gushing, some sort of digging truck and a big dump truck; I knew my water supply was going to be cut off shortly. That’s when it all became “every Princess for herself!” Don’t mind that besides my husband who jumped out of bed as well, there were three sleeping children in the house who had no clue of the ensuing inconvenience.

What do I need? “Bathroom! No. Coffee!” I quickly started the coffee and ran to the bathroom to start filling the tub. I was for a brief moment nice enough to urge my husband to go shower in the boys’ bathroom upstairs, before I also started filling pitchers, pots and the kitchen sink with water and making all the necessary preparations that were routine for times when I had the luxury of knowing the water supply would be shut off.

My husband was already finished with his shower when I had finished filling everything I could think of on the main level of the house. When I found out he hadn’t filled the upstairs tub after showering, I commanded he go “Do it now!” This was a state of emergency for a Princess like me!

He reluctantly went upstairs only to find that the water had already been shut off…. We had one tub of water for flushing, and I had not yet had my royal bath. When my husband, whose shower was on the chilly side, saw the full tub of water I had drawn, he questioned if I had run the tub full of hot water rather than cold. I replied that it was “warm” since I had been planning to bathe. I felt a tad guilty inside because it was warmer than “warm,” but Princesses really cannot tolerate cold water, even on the warmest days, which this sub-zero morning was not, and it truly wasn’t as hot as I normally deemed necessary.

With one tub of water, and the water off, a decision had to be made. Do I use the clean water for hand-washing and flushing or do I take my “warm” bath. Of course, I did what any Princess would do…. I decided to take my bath and use the dirty bath water for flushing. Clean water would eventually cycle through.

When I emerged from my morning pampering for another hot cup of coffee, I was greeted by the sad eyes of my daughter who asked if the water had been shut off. Next in line was my son who had to be at work in less than two hours.

I looked out the window again. It appeared that the job would still be taking quite a long time. My husband’s estimate was another four hours. Again, I felt I had been a “tiny bit” selfish to have put myself first but at the same time, I was thankful that I was not in their predicament.

I did find a place for them to shower, my son did make it to work on time, the last child in the house slept like a baby until the work outside was completed, and clean water did eventually cycle through the “royal throne.” However, as the “state of emergency” came to an end, this Princess started to feel more than a “tiny bit” of shame.

I would like to twist the truth about my motivation for action in this story around and say that I was doing the selfless, responsible thing by getting myself cleaned up first so that I could drive my other family members to a destination to shower. However, that is not the case. The real story is that when I saw what was happening outside my window, the only thing that I was thinking of was the Princess. I didn’t check the calendar to see if anyone needed to go to work. I didn’t think about the chilly water temperature that my husband might be experiencing as I drew my “warm” bath. My first thoughts weren’t even about the poor men outside my window who had to get up early on New Year’s Day to endure freezing temperatures to fix the water leak and ensure that I could have clean, running water. Nope. Everything I did when I got up was for me, the Princess.

Even though it all worked out, I realized that one thing I need to work on this year is becoming the princess that God wants me to be. I really am a princess; I belong to a royal family. I belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, but rather than act like the spoiled Princess who seems to surface when there is a “state of emergency,” I am called to something different. I’m called to live the life described in Philippians 2:5-11….

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NLT)

Since my New Year’s Day didn’t start out quite the way I had planned, and since my whole morning was “dedicated” to “managing my kingdom in the state of emergency that had ensued,” I didn’t really have time to figure out my “plan of action for 2018.” So, I will be working on that more with God this week. One thing I do know has to happen in that plan is that I need to become the kind of princess that the King of Kings called me to be. The wonderful news is that I will not have to figure that out all by myself. I will continue into 2018 clinging to the promise that the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 (NLT),

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.