True Love's Kiss

I’ve had a love and a fascination for fairytales since I was very little. I love the idea of a world with no boundaries, where adventure awaits at every turn, where magic makes anything possible… and let’s not rule out the idea of a youthful, tanned, and well-mannered prince waiting to whisk me off to a castle in the sunset where we can live lives of carefree bliss together.

While these ideals are enormously fantastic, overly romanticized, unrealistic, and just plain silly, there are also real gems of truth that can be gleaned from fairytales.

Here is one of the fairytale truths I’ve learned in my life: True love’s kiss can break any evil spell.

I know you’re skeptical about this truth, and I don’t blame you. But let me give you an example of it in action.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to take my husband’s car in to get a flat repaired. I’d had a long day, and pregnancy had made me queasy and tired. Luckily, the lady at the desk assured me that the job would only take about fifteen minutes. After an hour (during which time, I had been forced to watch the golf channel with an old man who held the remote with an iron grip and never let his eyes leave the screen), the mechanic came to tell me that he had started the repair, but that he needed a special key to get the tire off. Having absolutely no knowledge about this key (and really nothing about cars in general), I went to help search for the key. I called my husband, but he wasn’t able to help much from the office. When it was evident that we would not be able to find that key, the mechanic said that the best he could do was air up my tire and send me home.

At home, I waited for my husband to get there, fuming about how he had sent me there unprepared. I thought, “He should have shown me where the key was beforehand! Then I wouldn’t have had this problem!”

And then something awesome happened. My amazing husband came in the door, immediately took me in his arms, gave me a big hug and kiss, and said, “Thank you so much for taking my car in today. I didn’t realize that there was going to be a problem. I’m really sorry that happened. I’m grateful for you trying to take care of it for me, though. That was really helpful. I love you.”

And with that, the spell was broken. I was calm. All of the evil, dark, irritation that I had been feeling had been lifted away with that kiss of true love.

True love does that. It breaks the curses of evil feelings that threaten to destroy our homes, our families, and our friendships. Those feelings can make us do and say things that we don’t mean and that we might even come to bitterly regret. But think of how much of that anger and nastiness can be driven away with a simple hug or a kiss! Keep in mind that this hug or kiss must be given in true love—meaning it cannot be half-hearted or feigned. People can see right through these types of hollow shows of affection. But when you have true love in your heart for the person, your hug and kiss truly have the power to push out all of the negativity.

Sometimes offering this kind of love to a person can be hard. Sometimes we may think that they do not deserve it, or that they should be the one(s) offering the kiss to us. But what would have happened if Prince Charming came to Snow White where she lay lifeless and just said, “Well, she should have just come with me from the beginning, and not taken that apple from the witch! I guess if she ever gets better, she can come find me!” Of course that is ridiculous! But I’m sure it took some humility for a powerful and handsome prince to kiss a girl who he assumed had died as a result of some of her poor mistakes. Gaining the humility to show affection and concern for those we truly love, despite what problems arise, is part of what makes us stronger, more able to love and  be loved in return.

Just think of the real power that true love’s kiss (or hug) can have in our lives! We can have the blessing of walking forward in life with good friends and family members to support us and strengthen us! All we need to do is remember to love them through the hard times—the fog, the darkness, the evil curses.

While I don’t believe in fairytales, I do believe in this.