As soon as breakfast was over, she ran up to her room to get dressed.  She had laid out her pink leotard, pink tights, and ballet shoes.  She even found her “tutu pink” undies so that she matched perfectly.  She beamed with excitement; a day she had waited and hoped for for a while, she would be starting ballet for the first time.

We drove to the class and I looked in the rear view mirror to get a glimpse of her.  She practiced her arm movements as if she were already in class.  Not allowing her car seat to restrain her too much, she moved as if a soundtrack played in her ears; arms raising and lowering in  rhythmic motions. And her eyes sparkled.  She was so excited.  Three short years ago, her eyes were black and lifeless, but today they sparkled as if the world were hers.  She knows who she is, at least in this moment.  Beloved.  Beautiful. 

She was full of nervous excitement as the class began and I was too.  I stayed at the glass door and watched her as closely as I could.  My first girl at her first ballet class and I was mesmerized.  I watched her and remembered how far she has come, I felt Him whisper to me . . .

I came so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

That sparkle in her eyes, that excitement for the promise of this day?  He wants me to have it too.  This abundant life He has given me, has brought life to my life-less eyes.  Do my eyes sparkle with the promise of abundant life each day?

“Mommy, put the sparkly barrette in my hair,” she says as she hands me the barrette her grandmother gave her.  

It’s a reminder to me of the crown He gives each of His daughters.  We are daughters of the King.  He places a crown on our heads.  We are jeweled because we are His beloved.  That barrette sparkled in her hair as the jewels in a royal crown.  Because she is royalty after all.  Daughter of the King.  This day, in the moment, she FEELS it.  And I am challenged to accept my royalty. My crown.  Felicity is adorned and beautiful, dancing into her rightful place as an heir to the kingdom.  I smile to myself.  As I watched her dance across the room, He nudges me again.

“Dance into YOUR inheritance.”

It seems a silly thought to me.  A sparkle in my eye, a crown on my head, dancing in freedom?  Oh, it feels like time and struggles and hurts have stamped the sparkle out and before I knew it, I took the crown off, not truly feeling royal at all.  And the freedom to dance left me long ago.  Too serious, too concerned of how silly I may look dancing.  Yet, He brought this precious little girl into my life.  Who in a short span of the first 18 months of her life, had the sparkle snuffed out, crown knocked off, and no time to dance either.  Yet, she is in front of me now, dancing into her inheritance.  A confidence in her that she knows she is special, and beautiful, and a daughter of the King.  My heart leaps.  It’s possible for me too.  Not just possible, but essential.  To know that He places jewels on my head and calls me His daughter.  That He has an inheritance for me that He is calling me to dance into.  It is never too late.  It isn’t too late for my daughter, once called by what she lacked.  And it isn’t too late for me either.  This dance, is a process.  One point in our lives, we step more into our inheritance but we are not totally there.  There is a deeper, wider, fullness He is waiting for us to enter.  There is a freedom He is calling us to.  A stand up straight, and carry yourself like the royalty that you are, sort of freedom.  A confidence that you are not defined by how the world has defined you, but by the name and position that He has given you. 

So, get your crown out the drawer you put it in, dust it off and place it back onto you head.  You are a daughter of the King.  You are royalty.  You are precious, and special and He has a special place for you.  A role that only you can fulfill.  He is nudging you to live more abundantly.  He is asking you to dance into your inheritance.