Friday, July 18, 2008

A Cinderella Story

There are quite a few stories in my little girl's rooms that I adore.

The Giving Tree, If you give a mouse a cookie or Big Red Barn would all be on my top five list for sure. But, my favorite story of all time, even today, is the story of Cinderella.

I love it all! The fairy godmother, the pumpkin that becomes a beautiful carriage, the mice that become horsemen and the magical moment at the ball when the Prince falls madly in love with Cinderella.

It's truly a beautiful story that just never gets old.

But do you realize that this story of Cinderella is exactly how Jesus Christ views us?

Before Him, we are truly just a common girl, a life of ashes and rags. We are no one spectacular. We are separated from the dance of our lives with our King.

This invitation, just like the one Cinderella got, is available for all. Cinderella was invited to come and dance with the Prince. But you and I have a much grander scale of an invitation, it's one to dance with the King.

You see, Cinderella had no way to get to the ball on her own, she had tried every effort of her own, she needed something big to happen! In the same way, we can try every type of religion, self-help book and theology out there, but there is still something keeping us from the dance with our King. It's called sin.

Sin separates us from our God. He is to holy and perfect to look at sin. He loves us, He calls us by name, but we cannot dance with Him without being transformed.

When Cinderella's fairy godmother waved her wand, with some bippity boppity boo, she became a beautiful woman! She looked nothing like her old self. She was transformed from a common girl, to a beautiful woman in just a moments time.

In order to become a princess of God, we too need a defining moment like this. But the incredible gift, is Jesus, who is in a way our fairy godmother. He has the "touch", the "gift", the "way" to the ball......the dance of our life with our King. And He made that way on the cross, when He died for you and I.

As He hung on that cross, the word "beautiful" rung in His ear as He thought of your name.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He sent his one and only son, that whosoever believes in Him should not die but have everlasting life."

The invitation was sent out on that day. "Will you come and have everlasting life, with me?"

I love it when the fairy godmother shows up in Cinderella's life. Cinderella doesn't question her, she doesn't ask, "Who let you out of the loony bin?", she simply believes in her fairy godmother's abilities to transform her!

Have we taken the time to believe in Jesus's abilities to transform us? Have we fully believed in Him and accepted the invitation of a lifetime?

The bible says in Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved".

So will you accept this invitation today? Will you allow Jesus to transform your life like never before? Have you called upon the name of the Lord?

If so, I pray that you will ask the Lord to simply become your King, forever. That you believe in the son of God, Jesus Christ, that He paid this ultimate price for you to come and begin the dance of your life with your King. And that you surrender your "old" life of ashes and rags, and you trade it in for your ball gown and tiara.

This is the beginning of your story, with you God, your King.

Ladies, we all have a story. Will you share in the comments over the next few days how Jesus has transformed your life? Will you share about your defining moment where you accepted the invitation from your King? Will you share how you fell in love with your God?

Jesus changes lives. Stories change lives. Will you share your Cinderella Story?


6 comments:

Michelle said...

Thank you for this post!
I am so blessed that I have a Cinderella Story.
This is not easy for me to share but I know that there is freedom in it so here I go!
As a child I was molested for several years. The boys that did it were older than me and made me think it was a game and then it turned into pure sickness. I thought for sure it would ruin me. It happened right under my dad and stepmom's nose for the first few years. And then my brothers and I moved in with my grandmother and it continued to happen with one of my brothers, at night, when he thought I was sleeping. I became a very scared, hurt, nervous little girl in every situation. It stopped as I got older and I just shut it out of my mind and acted like it never happened.
I got older and never felt like I was worth much. I didn't rebell much, I didn't turn to guys or drugs. I did date some and had a hard time saying no to guys but I never went "all the way", it seemed that God always let something happen to stop that from happening. I did drink pretty heavy for a while, I just felt unloved.
When I was in High School I went to church with a friend of mine and met Jesus for the first time. I suddenly had friends that loved me for me. I had this amazing church family that helped me to see that my life had worth. I began to like myself a little. In 1996 I met the man that would become my husband. It was so strange to me because he never tried to get physical with me. By this time I thought that all guys wanted was to make out. Well, this man wanted to get to know ME. He didn't want me just to get something from me. He wanted to love ME! I couldn't wrap my mind around that.
Well, we got married on January 3, 1997. I believe that all along God had this man waiting for me. God knew that I would need someone like my husband to be able to heal from my past and help others that have dealt with being molested.
And that is what I have learned in the last 12 years.
God has become my Daddy God. I have learned to feel His arms around me and I have come out of the dirty rags of being molested and allowed God to clean me up. My fairy godmother that God sent to me was my husband. And the love that my husband has shown me has helped me to be able to get my dress on, fix my hair and go to the dance of my life! I now know that people have a choice to do bad things, and God was right there with me protecting my heart every time that bad thing happened and I believe He cried with me. So there is no more anger or pain that comes with the memories of my childhood.
Sorry this is so long, this has been a step of healing for me today. Thank you again for letting me share!

ThreeGirlyGirls said...

Michelle, thank you for sharing your story on here! I praise the Lord for the freedom you are finding in Him with this touching journey you are on!

She Rose Up said...

Wow! I was just going to tell you first that I had been thinking about doing a testimonial post for a while! So glad you did this!

I will come back and try to put some thoughts here.

Right now my heart is just blown away by Michelle's story! God bless you, Michelle for trusting God and embracing newness of Life! What a good God and how sweet the relationship that you have with your Abba Father and your husband! So inspiring!

xoxo,
Maria

Micca said...

Hi Nicki,

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I loved visiting yours.

We are more like Cinderella than we realize!

blessings!

On Purpose said...

I truly feel every woman at some point in their lives needs to feel like a princess.

Thank you for this blog...I have a deep passion for helping other woman feel like princesses!!

Love you girl
Nichole

nanatrish said...

Nicki, this was truly a gifted post. Michelle shared her story and she was so sweet to reach out with this openness. God has given you a gift and I am so glad you are using it. Helping women is such a needed ministry. Thank you for stepping up.