Redefining Princess

From the moment our tiny daughter was born, she was our princess. Now, after almost eight years, she is still our little princess.

I've been thinking a great deal about the word princess as of late.

What is a princess?

The world would have us believe, and is working around the clock at this endeavor, that a princess must be impossibly beautiful, terribly rich, flippantly rebellious, full of sarcastic sass, infinitely lazy and humorously tyrannical. **To be clear, I am not making reference to Disney Princesses, just to the word Princess as a whole.** All one has to do is flip on the television and evidences abound of crass, self-centered girls (and women for that matter) who demand to be treated like princesses who are unable to cope, let alone thrive, with the demands of daily living.

However, as with just about everything else, we are not buying the world's definition of princess around here. I read a book several years ago that discussed the need for fewer princesses and more pioneers. That idea has stuck in my mind. Am I raising a princess or a pioneer?

My answer is, hopefully, both.

I believe that princesses and pioneers are, essentially, one and the same. To me, the word princess denotes grace, inner beauty and a clear understanding of lineage and royalty. A pioneer woman encompasses faith, hope, unwavering dedication, never ending industry, and a profound understanding that she is laying the foundation for future generations. A princess is a pioneer and a pioneer is a princess.

I have found that raising a daughter today takes conscious, planned, and precise mothering. To raise a daughter as a princess pioneer is, at times, daunting and even overwhelming. And there are days when I fail absolutely miserably. I am so grateful that I am not alone in this endeavor. It never ceases to amaze me that the Spirit speaks most distinctly and directly to me when I am asking about my children.

So, despite the negative connotations many have in regards to the word princess, our daughter is still our princess. And hopefully she always will be.

With this concept in mind, I created something called Princess Academy, that my daughter and I do together on Sunday afternoons. I will post about this at another time.