I have been told countless times that my celebrity twin is Amy Adams.  In fact a few people have even had trouble remembering my name when they first meet me because they say the resemblance is so uncanny.  Hey, I’ll take it.  They can call me Amy all they want!  A few years ago this was brought to my attention by a fellow mommy in bible study which prompted me to choose the movie Enchanted for a girls night with my daughter and her best friend starring Amy Adams so I could see what everyone was talking about.  While I was flattered at my friend’s opinion, what I saw from the movie was not so much my resemblance to her…but who I really am.

My love of princess movies is blatant and I couldn’t begin to hide it even if I wanted to.  What I love isn’t just the happily ever after…but how it happens.  It’s never how we…or the princess…expect.  The road to true love is an uphill battle and she really has to believe it will happen to get there and she cannot give up.  As I was watching this movie God showed me the resemblence to my own life.  It isn’t at all what I hoped it would be…it is so much better!  I saw who He made me to be.  He is the King of kings and He chose me to be His child.  For the first time I saw myself as His princess.  I am royalty.  It might not seem like it in the hum drum of everyday life on my own uphill battle in this earthen vessel, but I am His for all eternity.  I also realized that because I am His…I need to act like it.  I need to be thankful and honored to be His daughter and have an eternal perspective each and every day.  I need to believe who He is and in turn believe who I am and own it.  I need to stop living as though my circumstances define me.  And I cannot give up.

The second verse of the song Ever Ever After says this…

Start a new fashion, wear your heart on your sleeve
Sometimes you reach what’s real just by making believe
Unafraid, unashamed
There is joy to be claimed in this world
You even might wind up being glad to be you

For so long I hid behind who I thought I was supposed to be in fearful shame.  But God asked me to be real and transparent.  Once I did that I was finally free to be me.  There is joy to be claimed, not just in eternity, but right now…right.now!  As fabulous and beautiful as Amy Adams is, today I am so thankful God made me to be me.  I am thankful He chose me to be His.  And most of all, I am thankful that for me there is an ever, ever after.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  1 Peter 1:3-9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  1 Peter 2:9