HAPPILY EVER AFTER

What an image.  A prince sitting on his white horse.   The princess waiting to be rescued.  Then in the next instant …. There is a commercial.

The commercial ends and the Prince arrives in the nick of time to save the Princess.  They ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.  The End.

And everyone sighs.  Happily ever after.  Isn’t that what we all want?  Except our life is not a movie and happily ever after includes cooking, dirty dishes, laundry, dirty diapers, and a long – very long – list of things that have to get done. 

Is there a happily ever after?  I looked it up and I have never seen such nonsense in my life.  Say I Love You   Hold Hands   Adore One Another   Happily Ever After -- written in every font and color and framed to hang on the wall.  If life was always hearing I Love You, Holding Hands, and Adoring One Another, of course life would be Happily Ever After.  I wanted to shout, “REALLY?”  NEWS FLASH:  Life is not like that!

Then I saw one that made sense. 

Happily ever after is not a fairy tale, it’s a choice.

When it rains and spoils my plans, I make a choice.  I can be aggravated all day or I can grab a good book and read.  Happily ever after.

When I am afraid, I make a choice.  I can be afraid or I can turn my fear over to God.  Happily ever after.

When someone says something against me, I make a choice.  I can retaliate or I can forgive them.  Happily ever after.

My happily ever after also depends on other people’s choices.  Family and friends choose to encourage me, share my worries, and adore me even when I am grumpy.  They are choosing to help make my life happily ever after. 

Can I have a happily ever after life?  Yes.  My happily ever after life is today.  If I choose to make each day the very best it can be by trusting God with my worry and my fear, by choosing to not allow others to rob my day of joy, by leaving the past in yesterday, and by making wise choices, my life will be happily ever after.  Will this always be easy?  Oh my goodness, NO, but I have already made the most important choice.

Happily ever after is not a fairy tale, it’s a choice.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”  John 14:1-4

I know the way.  I know there is a place waiting for me.  I trust Jesus.  I trust God.  Happily ever after?  YES!!!