I Am A Repenting Ugly Stepsister

...and the day came when the ugly stepsister realized the difference between herself and Cinderella was that real beauty worthy of true love radiates from within, and so the desire to change for the good was born and thus became the first step on her journey toward her own "happily ever after".

The real struggle and the actual first step comes with recognizing that one is more like the stepsister than Cinderella before this transformation can even begin to take place. I grew up on fairy tales and now I am enjoying the stories all over again with my daughter. As little girls we all wanted to be the princess or the heroine in the story and we would pretend play for hours with our costume dresses and stuffed animals. No one ever wanted to grow up to be the wicked queen, the mean step mother, or the ugly stepsister. We wanted to be beautiful, to live in a castle, and to be adored and loved forever by prince charming. Is it weird that I see Christian symbolism in this? I have actually heard the opposite opionion expressed about this from many well intended Christian speakers/authors toward these kind of stories being harmful to our girls by giving them an unrealistic view of the world (I in no way mean that to be offensive or judgmental I have my own blindspots, just making an observation). Oh how we've missed the opportunity handed to us on a silver platter by what had to be Holy Spirit inspired story-telling, yet once again narrow vision has left us unable to see the forest for the trees. We've rejected the message because of how it was delivered- a story as old as time, well certainly as old as Jesus because look how our Lord and Savior was delivered to an unwed teenage girl in a stable- shocking! My point is that we have these wonderful awesome tales that have captured the hearts of young girls everywhere so rather than leaving them hanging with false hope that those rewards of castles and prince charming and love can be achieved in this world, how simple has it been made to us to witness the story of Jesus and the promise- the one true promise of happily ever after, being loved forever in His kingdom.

Holding fast and true to the name of my blog in my random ramblings I will return to my first point and the title of this post:  I am a repenting ugly stepsister. In this world I am a sinner by birth and I am jealous of Cinderella and all those "perfect" princesses because they are beautiful- not just in appearance but in every way possible, they are always kind, always patient, loving, joyous, tolerant, peaceful, gentle, have self-control, and are hopeful/faithful (fruit of the Spirit!)- not to mention beautiful singers. Everyone who sees them loves them- except those who are evil-doers, even animals yield to them and want to be around them. These "princesses" are the exact opposite of me, I can be a brat, I am sometimes quick to get angry, impatient, even mean sometimes, etc. Then to top it all off they get their happily ever after in a big castle with the prince who loves them unconditionally forever- the very thing that I want the most (figuratively speaking). So how can I, the ugly stepsister, get my happily ever after? What do I need to do? Listening to my wicked mother (a.k.a. the world) hasn't paid off, buying or manipulating my way hasn't worked, forcing my way by shoving my big foot into that tiny glass slipper didn't work, so now what? That part wasn't written in the Cinderella story- because it was written in the Bible, it was left up to the rest of us who know the story and believe it to do what Jesus told us to do to share the good news. Cinderella is a fairy tale story, don't even try to get caught up in the details because that is where the message gets diluted and ultimately overlooked and it is unrealistic for any human to ever be as good as Cinderella, so what hope does anyone have? (psst... it's in the Bible, in the New Testament).

Most if not all of our popular fairy tales were originally written and/or collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm "The Brothers Grimm" who were both professing Christians and whose writings have been circulated almost as much as the Bible. Many of the other stories of the Grimm's have been identified as having religious allegories. The history, however, has been interesting as these stories have sometimes been used negatively in the wrong hands, hmmm... much like our Holy Bible. I am in no way saying that these stories are scripture but they could function like a lure. Jesus is the Word of God, He is the Holy Scripture and I like to think of Him like a fisherman who has many lures: fairy tales, movies, music, sunsets/sunrises, nature, church, other people, etc. etc. I like to think He has an unlimited supply of different lures.

God is all around us. He is hotly pursuing us everywhere we go, in what we read, watch, listen to, He has no limits. Who can confine Him? Certainly not satan in all of his best attempts. Christ alone is our light in all the darkness in this world, we just need to remember to open our eyes.

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light" Albus Dumbledore, from Harry Potter (gasp! "oh no she didn't just find a Gospel truth in such an evil story!")