E008 - Never "Over The Top"

My wife and I recently attended a birthday celebration for a one year old in our family. We were absolutely amazed at how they went to the nines with this celebration.  In some ways, it seemed excessive.

But the next day, I had an encounter in which I learned something very important regarding our divine worth.  I share about that in this episode.

Transcript

Cheyne Stilwell: 0:00

Hey, there you're listening to the royal awakening podcast.

Unknown: 0:20

Shayne.

Cheyne Stilwell: 0:23

I'm Cheyne Stilwell, and this is the royal awakening podcast, where we are all about waking up the royal family to who they really are, unifying them as one and partnering together with the original royal family to see breakthrough transformation and restoration in hearts, minds and lives all over, no more living like an orphaned pauper. You are meant to live, move and be a royal so let's get into it.

Unknown: 0:58

Hey there. Thanks for stopping by today. Recently, my wife, Katrina and I attended a one year birthday celebration for our great niece. We live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and the party was over in eastern Tennessee, about a three hour drive.

Cheyne Stilwell: 1:13

And for those not familiar, Tennessee spreads across two different time zones in the US Eastern and Central Nashville is on Central Time, and our party location is just barely on Eastern Time. By the way, here's a nugget of wisdom. If you ever get an invite for an event that is scheduled to begin at a certain time in one time zone, and you plug the event into your Google Calendar while living in a different time zone, make sure to account for that time difference on your Google calendar so that you don't arrive just five minutes ahead of the event's advertised end time. Don't ask me how I know Anyhoo, when we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to see that people were not in a hurry to leave hallelujah. Even though it was supposed to wrap up at four o'clock, festivities continued until 530 it was a great time. I'll get into the details of what we experienced shortly. The next morning, I made a run down to my favorite coffee place to get my cup of decaf with all the fixings, along with a couple breakfast items to bring back to the family. When I arrived back at the house, I felt like staying in the car for a bit to work on my little breakfast sandwich and enjoy my coffee. While I was doing that, Papa and I were having one of those wordless conversations, you know, where you don't have to actually say anything out loud when you realize that Papa lives inside and already knows what you're thinking? Anyway, Papa took me back through the events of that day. I was recalling how when we arrived, we pulled up to a house we had never been in before. It hit me that in our 28 years of marriage, this was the first time I had ever stepped foot inside my brother in law and sister in law's home in eastern Tennessee. For this celebration, they were the birthday girls grandparents, and this was their first grandbaby. I recalled seeing the balloons tied to the mailbox, which is actually not uncommon for a birthday celebration. What was unusual for me, though, was this elaborate balloon archway tied to the rails of the front porch steps welcoming people inside. I thought back to the moment when we walked in and we were greeted by our sister in law's mother, the birthday girl's great grandmother. This was the first time I was ever meeting her, and this was the first time Katrina had seen her since my in laws wedding, which was more than 30 years ago, and before I had first met Katrina. We were led through the house, then through their amazing sun room at the back, and then out into the backyard. There we saw a pavilion tent set up with tables and chairs underneath for sitting, eating and visiting, and there were more balloons and various nicely done decorations, including handmade paper flowers in all kinds of summer colors. We learned that our sister in law's daughter, our niece, the birthday girl's mother, made those And there was plenty of food left. There was, of course, a cake. It was beautifully decorated in various colors with a message on top to our great niece, but the size was similar to the top tier of a wedding cake. You know that part that is traditionally taken off and put into cold storage for a year and pulled back out on the first anniversary. I learned later that this is called a smash cake. And there was no shortage of hors d'oeuvres to balance out the sugar rush of all the multicolored cupcakes and macaroons that were specially made and brought in complete with special decorative toppers of their own. I believe there was some pink flamingos thrown in there somewhere. And of course, in the front of the house was a dining room table full of wrapped or bagged birthday presents. There was plenty of... everything! We were absolutely amazed at how they went to the nines with the celebration. At this moment, I recalled how Katrina and I were blown away by all of this. We commented to each other, "Wow, they did all of this for a one year old? It seems awfully over the top. Is she going to remember any of this? As I was reflecting on this exchange, heavenly Papa spoke up with his still small voice and said this: "Cheyne, let's hit the pause button for a moment and take a look at what you guys were thinking just then. (By the way, I believe this is part of what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he mentioned taking every thought captive.)"So Cheyne, that celebration yesterday was for your great niece. It was to celebrate what was true of her, regardless of whether it was true to her. It was to celebrate the newness and abundance of life. Many words, many seeds of love were planted there. People brought gifts, but those gifts were simply expressions of love. If music had been going, I'm sure people wouldn't have minded dancing with her, dancing over her. This gathering for your great niece was a gathering of witnesses, if you will, celebrating the moment she made her presence known in the earth. Yesterday, she was celebrated as the newest of the four generations represented. But bear in mind that yesterday, four generations were all you could see with your natural eyes in the unseen, there were 1000s of generations gathered those in the unseen, cloud of witnesses were also there celebrating her presence in the earth. And since she came onto the scene. She has been a channel of my joy for everyone who has encountered her this past year, she was that same channel of joy yesterday, and all she had to do was simply be. She was, is and always will be, a daughter, a granddaughter, a great granddaughter, a niece, a great niece, and also a royal. An empress, in fact. And finally, she is, as each of you are, My beloved. She doesn't have to do anything to be any of those. It's just who she is, just like she doesn't have to do anything to be a royal in the original family, that is, Abba Father, Mama Spirit, and Son. She is an empress in training, and yesterday, she was surrounded by three other generations of sages, her village, her tribe, and if they will recognize, accept and embrace the importance of a sage in the life of an empress in training. Then when it comes time, she will rule well. And to the degree that she learns to receive, accept and embrace who she really is, then who she really is will be revealed to the world in the way she chooses to live and function. What she does will never change who she truly is, but she will experience the most fulfillment when living and functioning in a way that aligns with who she truly is. This is all I've ever desired for each one I've made for each of my children. This is all I've ever desired for you or for Katrina and when I plan a birthday party like yesterday. Yes, I plan that. Trust me, it only feels over the top, because you guys have no idea how much I feel about you, how worth it you are to me. I love each of you so much, and your being my beloved was true of you long before it ever started to become true to you. Wow! I didn't expect to get that from Papa while eating a breakfast sandwich and sipping on coffee in my parked car, but then Papa is really good at catching us unexpectedly. It's why some people call him Jehovah sneaky. But this is a significant thing to think about, and it's why I'm sharing it today. When the original royal family(that is, Abba Father, Mama Spirit, and the Son) celebrates the life of a son or daughter at any stage in life, they are demonstrating that person's worth and their appreciation of the beauty of that person's life, and they are well pleased with a son or daughter before any doing has ever happened and before that son or daughter has ever shown any appreciation for being celebrated or valued. Is it to say that we shouldn't remember or show appreciation for being celebrated? That's not what I'm saying. Remembering and appreciating are good things for us to do, because they help reinforce not only that we didn't get to where we are on our own, but more importantly, that we are never alone. Having said that, and just to be clear, going to the nines to celebrate a life is just how it's done in the original royal family. It is never over the top. Thanks for listening. Thanks again for listening to this podcast episode of royal awakening with Cheyne Stilwell. You can find me on several platforms, including Apple podcast Spotify and others. Please subscribe to this podcast for more great content, and to be notified as new episodes are released. Also, I would greatly appreciate a five star review from you, which will help get this podcast in front of other people. I now have a Link Tree! Click on the link in the show notes to get my podcast web page for your preferred platform, or for the RSS feed, or to schedule a free 30 minute breakthrough coaching call, where you can learn more about how to accelerate moving from surviving like a pauper to living like a royal, OR to give of your treasure towards supporting the podcast as part of community, living under a value for value model Heads up! To deliver even more value to my listening community, I am in the process of adding content that's only available to those using podcasting 2.0 supported apps. If you don't know what podcasting 2.0 is or what apps support it, click on the links in the show notes under More Info About. Once again, this is Cheyne Stilwell, wishing you all the best in your endeavors to live as a royal, to move as a royal and to be a royal. Have an amazing day. We'll talk soon.