Waiting For God's Best

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess in a grand castle with her father the king.  Every night she would study with her father and talk with him in preparation for her future – she loved her father dearly and greatly enjoyed these times spent with him as well as her life in the castle.  One day, however, while chatting with her father, she gazed out her window down upon the village below.  “Father,” she said “I should much like to go visit the village someday.  The people look so happy and seem to have a merry time together.”  The king replied, “Daughter, I do not want you to go to the village.  The laughing and merrymaking is only a mask to cover the real darkness and emptiness of those who participate.  Your life here with me is much safer.”  With an innocent, questioning look on her face the princess asked, “But father, if I am never to - knowing full well what she was getting at.  He excitedly answered, “Daughter, I have been meaning to tell you this for some time and believe you are now ready to hear it.  Not too far away, in a castle not unlike this one, there is a prince in preparation to meet you just as you prepare with me every night.  And one day he will come for you.”  “Oh when will he come?” the princess happily asked.  “In time.” said her father “And trust me, you will know him when you see him for he will be riding down the main road on a white horse with his entourage to come for you.”  The princess said goodnight to her father and slept through the night contentedly and happily. 

A year of preparation went by for the princess and still her prince had not come, but she knew he would come for her and trusted her father had told her the truth.  Then another year went by, and another, and still her prince had not come.  The princess became discouraged.  One day, however, a delivery boy came to the castle and as no one was there to receive him the princess took it upon herself to do so.  He turned out to be a charming boy and proceeded to tell her many exciting and funny stories from the village.  When it was time for him to go he asked the princess if she would like to accompany him to the village that night.  “Meet me at the bridge at 12 o’clock – the people in the town would love to meet you, it will be fun.”  “I don’t know,” stammered the princess “My father doesn’t really want me to go there.”  The boy assured her it would be worth it and the princess again shyly refused.  He did not waver, though, and left saying he would be waiting for her there.

That night the princess was very distracted during her time spent with her father.  He asked if anything was bothering her but she avoided the truth, telling him that she was just especially tired that day.  Consequently, she went to bed early, but did not fall asleep.  She decided to see the boy from earlier that day and left the castle to meet him.  During the whole night he was as sweet as could be and she surprisingly enjoyed herself more than she had ever expected.  She was awed at the sights and sounds all around her.  So a few weeks later she went back with the boy to the village, and did so a few days after that.  The secret trips to the village became more and more frequent. 

Eventually one day, the princess approached her father, a very different princess than she had been months earlier, and told him that she was in love and wanted to marry the boy and live in the village.  The king urged her against it but the princess would not listen and so, the saddened king let her leave the castle.  About a year later, the princess was sweeping her front porch of her small house in the village, disgruntled.  She’d a had a bad day as her husband was drunk again and they were short on money – she hoped things would get better once she had the baby and her husband would come around.  Suddenly she heard a noise and looked down the main road.  Coming down the road was a radiant prince on a beautiful white horse accompanied by his men.  She could tell he was very handsome and watched him ride up to the castle gates.  If you had been watching you would see that the prince arrived and was met by the king.  After they spoke, though, the king sadly shook his head and the prince disappointedly mounted his horse and rode away.  He rode right through the village and past the princess’ house.  She looked up at him with eyes full of sorrow – his eyes met hers.  Then he turned his face forward and rode on.

Now, you may be wondering why I told this story.  I heard it at a conference I just attended at my church in Redmond, Washington.  The topic was radiant purity - or in other words preparing yourself for your future husband and waiting for God's best.  I have been struggling in this area for quite some time - too long in fact - and this story made a big impact on me.  The Lord does have the best in mind for us and there is a man out  there who God is preparing just for me, to suit me perfectly, and the Bible tells wives to love their husbands all the days of their lives.  That means even though I don't know who he is I need to be guarding my heart for him and respecting him by faithfully waiting for him, because when God brings the right one into my life, I am going to know.  And in the past I realize now that I was looking for the right man and being distracted by that, instead of focusing on God and accomplishing the tasks He has for me now and growing in my relationship with Him as much as I can.  When God brings the right man for me I will not have found him, he will have found me and will fight for me and fight to win my heart and I want to be able to give him as MUCH of my heart as I can (not as little as I can due to having given it away to previous boys).  I do have a tendency to give away my heart much to easily and I know that will make it hard to wait - in fact I just had to let go of a young man I care about very much because I know He is not the right one at least for now - and it is hard to wait and it is hard to trust in God but we cannot see the big picture and He is working in unseen ways in ALL of our lives.  Our perspective is piddly compared to His!  We as young women cannot settle for less than God's best for us.  That is the world's way of doing things and as set apart young women we need to be and can be smarter than that, and reap the rewards that come along with it : )  And it's okay if we've messed up in the past because God cleanses us from our past and can still give us radiant and pure hearts once we choose to let Him do that and choose to be patient and follow His way : )  Wait for God's best.