The fairy tale life

I'm 26 years old, and I still believe in fairy tales.

No, I won't be putting on a sea-shelled bra and serenading a hunk on the shore, and I won't start talking to furniture and exploring forbidden wings of dark castles, but I'm not going to give up the belief that love can truly transform people and result in miracles.

I realize that I've never been in a relationship, so I can't quite speak from experience, but I've definitely talked to enough of my friends to know that my fairy tale dreams don't exactly occur in every situation. Apparently some people have to go through a few jerk faces to get to Prince Charming. I listened to one of my friends recently as she told me about a relationship that had just ended for her when she discovered the guy had been lying to her for three months. He had looked her directly in the eyes and simply lied about so many things. Clearly she is not going to be eating a bad apple and hoping for him to come around and kiss her so she will wake up anytime soon.

She is not the first to have this happen to her, and she certainly won't be the last. I mean, just listen to almost any Taylor Swift song, and you can probably relate. I don't understand how people can treat one another that way, and it's times like these where I wish everything really were like fairy tales. But, then I remember that even fairy tales have bad people in them—after all, how would Prince Charming seem so perfect if everyone around him were just as flawless?

One thing that's frustrating about not living in a fairy tale—besides not being able to bust out in song at random and have everything rhyme and make perfect sense—is that God's plan isn't always what Disney would write. I can think of numerous guys I thought were supposed to be the one with the glass slipper to fit my foot, but the Big Man had other ideas in mind. Looking back now, it's pretty clear why those didn't work out, though I certainly wasn't able to see (or care) at the time. I just couldn't understand why I was trapped in this ocean when obviously I was meant to be part of someone else's world.

Obviously not.

My parents: the epitome of love

I don't know if I will ever end up with a prince, because some people really are meant to be single forever (BLP=Be Like Paul), but I do know that fairy tales are being written every single day. This August, my parents—who got married straight out of high school—will celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary. While they don't get dressed with the help of birds, and neither has ever experienced the luxury of living in a castle or dancing in the finest gowns and suits, they know what love is. I can't ever think of a time during my entire lifetime when I questioned how my parents felt about each other. It is so apparent that they were made for one another, and there has never been a day when they doubted that love. Sure, their life together hasn't been perfect, and there haven't been singing mice and talking candlesticks, but I see a fairy tale when I look at them. Life's thrown its own Ursulas and poisoned apples at them, and they've overcome them all, because that's how fairy tales go—love always wins.

I think one of the greatest things of all is that we can all have fairy tale endings whether we find our princes or not. Jesus Christ is the greatest example of a fairy tale out there—someone who sacrificed himself and died for us so that we don't have to suffer eternally. Instead, we get to go be with our greatest Love when we leave this world.

Yes, I would love to find my Prince Charming here on earth and see sparks fly every time he walks into a room. But, even if this never happens, at least the Prince of Peace is always in my heart to let me know that I'm a princess in His eyes.