cinderella syndrome

when i was a little girl, i remember listening to disney stories on record albums on our home stereo. you know, the original classics; cinderella, snow white, and sleeping beauty. the albums came with book pages that had pictures of the original disney film in them and words that i could follow along with the story. this was obviously before all of the disney films became so available on video. i had not seen these movies at this point in my life. so, the only visual i had from them was from the pictures in the pages in the record album case. i would listen to these stories over and over again, looking at the pictures of the beautiful ladies in the stories and watching the story unfold. they were wonderful stories. the beautiful ladies were always in some kind of trouble and were rescued by a handsome prince and whisked away delivering them from their hardship, promising to protect them, love them, and cherish them. and, then they would live happily ever after. i wanted that someday. i wanted to be swept off of my feet by my handsome prince and live happily ever after.

as i grew up, the romantic idea of finding my prince still lurked in the back of my mind with the pictures from those stories still very vivid to me. i wanted the fairy tale. i wanted to live happily ever after. when i finally did meet the man of my dreams, i had the picture of cinderella's beautiful dress still lurking in my mind. i wanted my wedding dress to look like hers in so many ways. i wanted my wedding day to be as glorious to me as cinderella's was to her on the night of the ball. isn't that funny? i was 25 years old and yet the idea of living the cinderella dream was still affecting me. really, i think every girl has "cinderella syndrome" in some form or another. we all want to be romantically swept off our feet, loved, cherished, and protected by our handsome prince. we all want the fairy tale. i really believe that it is something that God puts into the heart of every girl from birth. at first it seems that a girl's daddy is her prince charming. He protects her, loves her, cherishes her and literally sweeps her up off her feet when they play together. but, as she grows up the desire to find her soulmate causes her dreams to look past her daddy to the one who would choose her for life.

my wedding day did seem like a fairy tale to me. it was a dream. it was beautiful. but, for some reason, from that day forward was not always happily ever after. the fairy tale had come to an end and real life had set in. my husband was wonderful, but he was not the perfect prince that i had imagined cinderella's prince was. of course that was all in my imagination because all of the stories ended once the prince rescued the fair lady and the story teller said, "and they lived happily ever after." i just had to make up the rest, of what i thought life was like ater the end of the story, in my head. but, what i imagined was different than real life. i had very high expectations. so, when the times came that my husband responded to me out of his own real life issues and not just thinking about me anymore, i would be dissappointed and dissatisfied.

it did not take long for me to realize that aaron could not be my prince charming. he needed a prince charming himself, someone to rescue him, protect him, love him and cherish him, someone to sweep him off of his feet too. he wanted and needed the same things that i did. and, i realized that neither of us were created to be prince charming but in need of one. and, the only One that could make our dreams come true was the Prince of Peace.

as i began to realize this, God began to show me that the fairy tale is His plan for my life. He created me with "cinderella syndrome." But, He is the Author's scripted Prince that makes living happily ever after a true reality. both aaron and i needed rescuing from the destruction that our evil enemy had planned for us and Jesus was our knight in shining armour. as we both look to our Prince to make all of our dreams come true then our lives together are truly remarkable. with the security of God's love and protection firmly in our grasp, the pressure to be something that we are not sets us free to just love each other. and it is a beautiful thing. it feels as if the enjoyment of our marriage is actually a gift from our Rescuing Prince Himself.