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.
Nice, Thank you for sharing 🙂
Vanae, this was a beautiful post. I am a fairy tale person myself and have loved fairy tales all my life too. In fact the Lord taught me a very valuable lesson about 30 years ago using the story of the frog prince.
One evening I went to bed angry at my precious husband because of something he had said. I was in the habit of stuffing my feelings rather than communicating them thinking in my self righteousness I was being so good by not giving him the come back I had thought of but just kept it to myself. Besides all that I feared an angry retort from him so would rather not say anything to cause waves.
But it did not solve the problem. In fact in my mind I blew it all out of proportion and was seething when I wen to bed thinking how could he say things like that to me and be so disrespectful and on and on.
I awoke to the strangest words spoken to my mind. “Be not afraid of the frog ” and then I saw a vision of a book entitled “The frog prince”. Some how I connected the frog with my husband and thought in my smugness, the Lord is telling me to just love him and he will someday become my desired prince. I was going to love him into repentance.
It wasn’t twenty minutes after getting up and had turned on Sesame Street for the children that the story of the Frog Prince was being dramatized by Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. I was taken aback by the fact I had never seen that on Sesame Street before and I was surprised and thought, because of what I had heard that morning, I ought to sit and watch it and maybe gain some insight into what the Lord was trying to tell me. So I sat with my youngest to watch it before getting breakfast for the others and send them off to school.
The story line was the same as the original story all the way through, except that is until the very end. When Miss Piggy Princess kissed Kermit the Frog instead of turning him into a Prince, she herself turned into a frog. I didn’t like that ending an dismissed the twist as being a message for me. But still I held onto the idea that someday I would have a prince in my husband that I judged as not very pleasant at times to be around.
.
Approximately two weeks later I had gone to a church bazaar where handiwork was being auctioned off for the ward budget when that kind of thing was being done in those days. The Relief Society had given each sister in the ward a 12 inch square block of white material to do anything they wanted on it so that when all was said and done two quilts would be given away as door prizes at the bazaar. I chose to embroider a “Sweet Moments” little girl with a goose beside her that I found in a coloring book. I traced it onto my white block of material. Putting much work into the embroidery of it, I was greatly pleased with how it turned out. I hoped against hope I might be the one whose name was drawn for the quilt that block ended up in.
It came time for the drawing and there were at least 80 women’s names in the bowl to be drawn from. Lo and behold my name was the first name that was drawn. Never having won anything in my life, I was ecstatic. Not only that but I was going to have my wish and that was one of the quilts. Since I had been drawn first I had the first choice of quilts and naturally chose the one with my fancy little “Princess block” on it. (That is what I came to call it later.
But the most amazing part of it all was when I got home with the quilt and looked at it closer, what to my utter amazement, right next to my Princess block was a block with a big fat frog wearing grandfather glasses, appliqued onto it. I had no doubt then that the Lord had not only a sense of humor but also wanted me to be reminded every morning I made my bed to remember not to go to be angry.
That was not the end of the lesson the Lord was trying to teach me. I never saw that little dramatization on Sesame Street again or on television anywhere for that matter. So thought all the Lord wanted me to know had been taught me. It wasn’t until about 15 years later that I had the TV on and was flipping through the channels one morning and came across Sesame Street and the very same dramatization was on. So for a lark and just to remind myself of how good I had been to show my darling husband love in spite of his “froggy croaking” at times, I watched it again.
But this time, the Lord was determined that I get the rest of the message He wanted me to have years ago and I was too high minded to get it. As it neared he end and was remembering the strange twist I had seen the first time around I thought maybe the Lord is telling me something else. When Miss Piggy Princess kissed Kermit and she turned into a frog, I knew exactly what the Lord was telling me. Just because your husband is not the prince you think he should be, don’t allow yourself to become a frog by reacting with anger and disdain. Loving is more than just not reviling again when reviled and not just keeping your mouth closed but speaking the truth in love.
I was being told to communicate my thoughts and concerns in love and not go to bed angry. I had taken offense that night and for his sake and not mine he needed to know how he made me feel by the way he spoke to me, so that he could repent. I myself had need of repentance and not exalt myself above him.
It has taken me many years to get to the point that I can now speak the truth in love and the world has not fallen in around me. I love my husband more deeply than I ever thought possible now. I guess you would just have to call me a late bloomer.
Charlene,
Thank you for this beautiful story. It is funny how the Lord shares his insights with us. I’m so grateful that he knows me and he knows how I learn. Thank you for reading, and thank you for sharing your own story.
I read this a while back and loved it..even shared it with a friend. I was on this site browsing through Vanae’s wonderful posts and thought I would re-read this one. I am glad I did. Not only for what she wrote, but for the awesome frog story comment from Charlene. I don’t know if she will read this, but I REALLY liked that story! 🙂
Thank you Virginia! Your comment warmed my heart. Since i am following the comments on this I received a notice in my e-mail, thus I was notified of an additional comment.
Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord can teach us within the framework of our own understanding and experiences in life and then verify the teaching thru another person, even years later? Vanae writes beautifully for sure and I feel blessed to have found this website, “Forward Walking”, and Vanae..
Virginia,
Thank you for your sweet compliments. It means a lot to hear that others enjoy what I write. You are very kind. 🙂