"Cinderella, Prince Charming and Other Myths"

   For the past couple weeks and in weeks to follow my church is going through a sermon series titled: The New Rules About Love, Sex and Relationships. When I heard we were doing this I thought it to be a little off putting. Love and sex were things to be talked about in private with your parents or someone you really looked up to. It was a line I wasn't looking to cross with the entire church sitting at my backside. Surprisingly enough, I find myself rather enjoying these lessons and feel that everyone should take part in open discussion about how God views love, sex, and relationships.

   The first week was incredibly eye opening. It was titled Cinderella, Prince Charming and Other Myths. Now don't get me wrong, I love me a good Disney princess movie as much as the next girl. But let's face it, every single one of those movies are complete fairytales that rarely every come close to true. Finding a lasting relationship isn't that easy.

THE "RIGHT PERSON" MYTH
   One of the points made revolved around what he called the "right person" myth. In movies we see a boy and a girl that just so happen to stumble into each others lives and are immediately "head over heels" for one another. They talk for hours and realize that they have so much in common. Then they each go back and tell their friends how great the other is and how perfect they are together. Not going to lie, all of this sounds extremely appealing but it's obvious that something is missing. We must ask ourselves, how much of this is really true?

    What I described is chemistry, which is very much true, but sadly it isn't the foundation of a good relationship. Chemistry doesn't last forever and eventually you'll run out of things to talk about and those connections you made will fizzle out and you'll end up feeling disconnected. It's completely natural to desire a relationship that has chemistry. It's something that is very important to keep the relationship from being completely plutonic. However, it is not the most important.

   The problem with the "right person" myth isn't that the "right" person doesn't exist somewhere out there, but rather that the "right" person isn't perfect. The first person you have chemistry with doesn't always turn out to be your Prince Charming. It takes time to find the "right" person. And that person will still have flaws of their own. Even Prince Charming had flaws. He danced with Cinderella all night and didn't ask her name once. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?! He wasn't perfect and neither is your "right" person.

   Needless to say, everyone could stand to change one or two things in their own character. So let me ask you this, are you the person the person you are looking for is looking for? Go ahead, read it out loud and let that sink in. Are you the person the person you are looking for is looking for? Because if you're not, what good is finding Mr. or Ms. Right? You're stuck in a fairytale if you think love just happens. This verse was read to us:

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." [1 Corinthians 13:11]

    After reading this he talked a lot about the nature of change. It happens to all of us whether we like it or not. Maturing is a natural part of life. You may not be the person the person you are looking for is looking for but there is always room for improvement. The question is, how do you become that person?
 

   They handed out these cool cards that have a list of, for lack of a better word, criteria. It's called "The Love Test." This list is compiled of selfless things that are somewhat natural when you love someone. Some things are not so natural and those are the areas that need to be worked on within your own heart; the things that will separate the children from the men.

A lot my wisdom and awesomeness in this post is credited to the all too fabulous John Glinski at Austin Chistian. If want to come join us in our group awesomeness we are at 15501 N. FM Hwy 620 Austin Texas 78717. Located just north of the intersection of FM 620 and Tollway 45.


 STOP!! Before you go downstairs and burn all of your Disney movies for filling your head with lies for decades now, there are many truthful things that can be taken away from Disney and other movies as a whole. For one, the characters are of moral character. The wedding is usually at the end and that is when they share their first kiss. Though the steps to getting there may entail some unrealistic behavior, the "Disney" message of love is not completely jaded.