Fairy tales can come true...

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

I love fairy tales. I did as a child. Still love happy endings. I was thinking about this song which led me to Cinderella and the other stories I loved as a child. But my favorite one has ended up being Shrek. The princess with the inner beauty, not the gorgeous body and hair, married to the ogre. (My daughter still sees couples and says “ewww, ogre love”. Which I know is rude and unnecessary and I should scold her but she makes me laugh, so I’ll just buy her another bikini).

Every one of the fairy tales I thought of had happy endings. But then I thought about what they went through to get there. Cinderella lost both her mother and father and was raised by an evil stepmother with two hateful stepsisters. She was a maid in her own house, locked in her room to keep her from pursuing happiness.

Snow White ran away to escape death, once again at the hands of stepmother and lived with seven creepy little men that she cleaned up after and cooked for, etc. They were named Sneezy, Dopey, and Grumpy. How fun could that be? (I wonder what my dwarf name would be? This is why comments are moderated.)

In Shrek, the ogre had the personality. He was a warrior who fought and rescued the princess. The prince was dull and weak.


So what is the definition of a happy life? First off, I don’t believe for a second God promises us that as Christians we will have an easy life. Take up your cross sounds pretty rough. Narrow is the path and few there are that find it also doesn’t sound easy. When he says “love your enemies” he didn’t say IF you have them, he said LOVE them. I’m guessing he knew we would all have them. (Here I wish I was like the dragon, I would incinerate them lovingly with fire breath. Wouldn’t that be cool? My kids would never have talked back. Making hot dogs and Smores would be simple. When the electricity is out in the winter, I could warm the house. I could also always say truthfully that I am hot!)

How do I define “happy” for me? What makes me happy. I certainly don’t have the fairy tale by the world’s standards. Fortunately, I don’t live by the world’s standards. I have a husband who loves me (and I love very much) and he loves God. I have happy??, healthy children who are all employed (at the moment), and somewhat doing okay. Which for me and my five is rare. I have a good job, with excellent insurance. And with the last two months with Steve, that is something that makes me really REALLY happy. I have air conditioning. (I mention this, because without it I would be extremely unhappy.)

Most importantly, I have faith in my Savior. And as long as I can feel like I’m putting him first, or trying to keep him in first place in my life, I can believe he will take care of me. I can rest in him. I find my happiness in Him. Everything else is bonus happy.