Dancing with the King

Seventeen-year-old Princess Ella was brushing her long beautiful chestnut hair. In a few minutes her lady’s maid, Anna, would come and help her prepare for the wonderful ball tonight. It was a special ball her father, the king, had planned. He had decided it was time for his daughters to meet some eligible princes for future husbands. Sadly, Ella knew he wasn’t referring to her future husband. Instead he was set on matching up Ella’s two older sisters Nicole and Claire.
Nicole was nineteen and had decided at a young age she wasn’t going to marry anyone, she would rather move to India and show poor people that royalty care about them. Ella often looked up to her older sister’s compassion and eagerness to help, but was confused at why she wouldn’t want to be married anyways. Claire, at eighteen, was rather opposite of Nicole, she loved to sneak out of the palace and go down to the stables to ride horses. At least, that’s what she would tell Nicole and Ella, but in the darkness of the night, Ella would often follow her sister in secret. Rather than riding, she would spend the entire night talking with the stable boy, Nathan. Or on the odd occasion they would go riding together. And it was clear that Claire would rather marry the low stable boy than any prince.
Ella on the other hand would much rather fall in love and have a perfect fairy-tale. She wanted someone to take her to balls, someone to dance with, and someone who would care for her and their children as he ruled his kingdom. But for Ella, it felt like that would never happen. Her father knew her feelings, her father knew everything. He even knew Nicole’s dreams and Claire’s secrets, but he wanted what was best for his daughters. He wanted them to be treated right and cared for. He wanted his two oldest daughters to be treated the way Ella longed to be treated.
“Milady,” Anna’s soft voice distracted Ella’s gloomy thoughts.
“Yes?”
“Would you like me to help you’s dressing?” She asked as she pulled the beautiful silk purple gown from the wardrobe. It has belonged to Ella’s mother many years ago before. Sadly, her mother had died seven years prior. Now, Ella gratefully accepted the offer of help. “Miss’m, is something bothering you?” Anna gently asked.
Ella didn’t often share her thoughts or feelings with anyone aside from her father. But her father seemed too set in his ways. “Why is my father forcing my sisters to find husbands – yet he won’t let me even dance with anyone? I’m only a year younger than Claire! I don’t understand!” She mourned.
“Mmm, milady, if I may…” Anna began rather shyly. I nodded for her to continue as she tightened the corset around my waist. “I believe your father, the great king, knows you far too well. He fears that you will fall in love and forget your father. That all you do will be about the prince. That you’ll forget your responsibilities to your family and care little about what your father wants to teach you. The time will come milady. Your father loves you dearly, and loves dancing with his little princess. I heard him say so ‘imself. He was boasting about spending the whole evenin’ dancing with his beautiful Ella. But trust me Princess, the day will come. He’ll let a prince step in eventually. And he won’t let it be some boy who’ll go hurtin’ you after. He wants the best for you, and he’ll only let the best cut in. But only when the time is right, he loves you!”
By now Anna was finished fixing Ella’s hair into perfect ringlets. She looked beautiful, but her mind was on what Anna had said. Would he really let the perfect prince cut in at the perfect time? It felt like her father would never let her go. However, so far there hadn’t been the perfect prince – so could she blame her father for protecting her? Some princes seemed nice from a distance, but on the inside, they didn’t seem worth the fight with her father.
Hours past, Ella was still sitting at her mirror just thinking and wondering about what Anna had said. A knock on her chamber door startled her. “Ella?” Her father’s strong caring voice was heard from the other side. Ella jumped up to open the door for her father. There he stood, tall with dark brown eyes that showed Ella how much he cared for her. “Are you ready for tonight my love?” He asked. Ella’s worried and confused expression quickly changed into a smile. She knew Anna was right, her father cared so much for her.
“Yes! I am ready.”
“Wonderful! Tonight I only have one daughter to dance with. My precious Ella,” he turned to leave,
“Wait, Father…” Ella reached for her father’s strong arm. He turned to look at her, “I love you!” She embraced him.
“I love you too! More than you can even understand.” He smiled.

The evening soon arrived, as did the many guests. There were princes from all around the kingdom, and all to dance with Princess Nicole and Princess Claire. Both of Ella’s sisters looked beautiful, it was sure all the princes would fall in love with them – if they allowed it. Before the royal entrance, the three sisters and their father stood behind the large double doors leading to the ballroom.
The head guard’s voice could be heard loud and clear, “All rise for Princess Nicole,” Nicole entered, curtsied and stepped to the right. “Princess Claire,” Claire entered, curtsied and also stepped to the right. “And now, our Great King and his youngest Princess Ella,” With my arm wrapped around my father’s, we entered together. I curtsied and he bowed his head in respect for his many guests. I stepped to the right, joining my sisters. Our father gave a short welcome, and commenced the dancing to begin. Immediately princes began to ask my sisters to dance. And immediately, my father took my hand and together we walked to the dance floor.
As we danced I looked around the room, there were so many princes. They all seemed so gentle and kind. A part of me was glad to be dancing with my father, and part of me wished I could dance with a prince. All in a moment my eyes met with a prince’s. I had known that prince for a while, but hardly had a chance to speak to him. In my heart I wanted so badly to dance with him, for him to sweep me off my feet and carry me away.
“Not yet my precious daughter,” my father’s reassured. I looked up, my focus returned to my father, and we continued dancing.

The End

Change

I would say in the last twelve months, I have experienced the most change in my life – so far! God has tilted my world upside down – although I wouldn’t say it’s all been bad. Some of the changes have been wonderful and some have been very upsetting. So let me go back and recap for you all the changes.
February 2, 2008 my oldest sister, Breanne, got married to a wonderful guy – Chris. They honestly are perfect for each other. I couldn’t imagine anyone better for my big sister and I’m so happy she and Chris ended up together and are now happily married. However in September they set out driving west to Chatham, Ontario. Chris got a job as the Music and Arts Pastor at a church in Chatham, so together they left Calgary, all their friends, and both sets of parents behind and moved away. It’s hard having only short phone conversations with my sister, or the occasional Facebook chat. I miss them and wish they could be here or I could be there, but I know God has them in Ontario for a reason and I have to let them discover that as they seek after Him in their new environment and new world.
In the summer I was forced to grow up a lot. I went on a mission’s trip to Mexico without my parents and I spent the summer working at a Bible camp. In both situations I was forced into responsibility; I needed to take care of my health, make wise choices and be held accountable for my own actions. There were definitely ups and downs of the summer, I found it incredibly hard at times to be smart and know what to do in certain situations – but God helped me to grow more than I could imagine.
Then in the fall the change continued. September started off with me and my mom in Africa which although was amazing – confused me thoroughly. See by the time I was in Africa I was exhausted mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. It had been a crazy busy summer and I wasn’t ready to serve in a completely different culture. But again, God really used my inability to teach me about myself, my limits, my weaknesses, and His power, glory, love, and compassion. One of the major realizations in Africa was my future. I was certain I would end up in West Africa working with street kids. But God has a plan and showed me, His plan and my plan might not be the same. For a week while in Uganda we were in Kampala, the capital. I was taking care of local pastor’s children while their parents were at a conference. There was about 300-500 daily and they were honestly adorable. Then for three days we went to the bush to a little village called Nango. I found it very hard to connect with the kids there, not only was there a language barrier, but they were honestly scared of the Muzungos (white people) so I couldn’t even pretend to talk to them or hold the babies because they’d start crying. So I decided the city kids were cuter, but really who am I to even think that? It was clear the Nango kids were craving to be loved, many were orphans, their clothes were torn, and most had large sores on their heads. Then on the drive back to the capital from the little village God really spoke to me. He was telling me that working with street kids will be like working with the Nango kids; hard to reach, untrusting, and scared of me. Which flipped my “life plan” upside down, God told me He knew where I would be in ten years and I didn’t have to worry about it at the moment. He wanted me to let it go. So for now, I’ve let my Africa dream loose – I’ve given it up to God hoping He gave me this huge passion or Africa and for kids for a specific reason.
Schooling also changed for me, I started doing online school rather than simply traditional homeschooling. This forced me to be on top of my school at all times, now I had assignments to hand in by a certain date. Plus my teachers were people different from my mom so I couldn’t just ask her a question or talk out the assignment with her. And an exciting realization that came along with online school was the prospect of a grad. Now I will have an official grad, with a grad dress and all! Starting online school is definitely one of the wonderful changes, I love how it’s prepared me in some areas for any post-secondary education, plus it’s given me a grad class!
More recently since the summer ended, many of my friendships have been redefined. In September my best friend, Brianna, started university. As you can imagine, our worlds flipped as now she has tons of papers, way less time to hang out, and new friends who’s worlds are more similar to her own. It’s not bad, it’s just different! I started talking to other friends more, new friends and friends I hadn’t talked to in a while. Sharon and I started getting closer over the summer. With the help of being in Mexico we spent way more time together and realized how similar we are. And now we still are spending tons of time together, and enjoying every minute of it! I also became friends with many of the people at my second youth group. It seems like now, my friends seem to be around my age whereas last year I had a few friends my age and a ton of friends a couple years younger than me.
My second youth group is definitely a highlight of my week. In April I started joining Brianna as she went to Southview Alliance youth. We attend the Tuesday night, worship and life group. It’s really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Now I talk to people who normally I would have just smiled at, now we’re friends and I talk to them weekly. It’s also opened my eyes to the real world. The girls in my Bonavista small group (whom I love) seem to have problems with school or maybe a family member to share, meanwhile at Southview the girls have all these boys and friend issues. At Bonavista we’ve all grown up together and are fairly sheltered and naïve meaning many friend issues we have would be within the group. But with Southview it’s very different, those girls aren’t as tightly connected and have completely different worlds.
The biggest Bonavista change took place last Sunday, we were all informed our youth pastor – Ryan – had been laid off. This was a huge shock for all of us, and made many of the youth furious. Ryan had led the team to Mexico I was on, then the first weekend we were home a small group of senior high students and Ryan drove up to Wayne, Alberta. It’s a little ghost town where we camped while attended a youth worship event. It was so much fun. After spending so much time with Ryan, he became more of a mentor than a pastor and the friendships amongst myself, my peers, and him have been strengthened. So hearing he was laid off because of our church’s financial issues was devastating for all of us.
Again, it seems like my world has completely changed over the past year – my friends, my schooling, my family, my dreams – it’s all different now. But all these changes have made me stronger, they’ve pushed me and pulled me in ways I may not have wanted to go, but was grateful for. Life is a continuous journey and although there are major highs and major lows, I’ve really been trying to find joy in all circumstances. Things are going to happen and we may not like them but that won’t stop them. We have to remember God has everything under control and He’s got the master plan in action right now, we just don’t see it. The challenges that we face in life may not all be pleasant but we can learn from each event, and grow through them. I know this isn’t the end of my changing world, soon I’ll graduate and I’ll have to decide what’s next in life. It will be exciting, and scary, but I know God has everything under control and He’s the one guiding me anyways, so it’s all okay!