..."modern day fairy-tale..."

My life is a modern day fairy-tale.... I have my prince... I get to dress up sometimes... wear crazy hats when I feel like it... but I don't have to live my life under the watchful eye of the world... and for this I am grateful... what an eye sore I would be to an official royal family...

All this British royal wedding media has me thinking of modern day fairytales, do they really exist? ....

I was a young girl, six years old, when Diana married Prince Charles....

My husband told me he loved me for the first time the night Princess Diana died...

We spent our 1st anniversary in London back in 2000 during the celebration of Prince William's adulthood... his 18th birthday...

In hind sight, my sons are named after the crown princes... completely not intentional.... our oldest son is named after both his grandfathers... our youngest shares the same name as Prince Harry, whose official name rhymes with ornery .... notice dear friends & fam... I have been very discreet about keeping the subjects of my 'tales' name-less....
As a former teacher I wanted to name our youngest a name 'that I hadn't taught'.... the year after I left, my team had a boy by the same name ....

During the spring of 2004 my husband was interviewing with Sprint for a position that would have relocated us to London for five years.... the image of me prancing about London with my own princes was rather alluring.... but my husbands uncle called three quarters of the way through the London process & invited us to Indianan... London... DeMotte... We trusted in the Lord, sold our house to the second couple to view it, & 5 weeks later we were Hoosiers instead of Redcoats, Limeys or Tommie's...

So I was a little nostalgic during all the royal wedding stuff... I had to TeVo it all.... my husband and I had to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. that morning to make an 8:00 a.m. appointment in Chicago.... and I have only watched bits and pieces ...

When we were eating brunch later in the city last Friday, the TV was showing Will & Kate riding in the blue convertible....

A favorite part of the nuptials for me was the Gospel reading from Romans 12... this passage has been placed in my path 4 times over the past month.... once during a small group study of James McDonald's book Gripped by the Greatness of God, during a sermon series of Romans in April, in my small group study for Living Fire with www.vantagepoint3.org .... and during the wedding of Will & Kate...

I like the paraphrased version in the Message....
Place Your Life Before God
Romans 12
 ^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you....



^9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
 ^11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
 ^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
 ^17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

There are so many nuggets of wisdom... life lessons... to be gleaned from Romans 12. 

verse 2: "Fix your attention on God" ... reminds me of the hymn "Fix Your Eyes Upon Jesus."... don't just fit into the culture, or society... in all that you do, be the hands & feet of Jesus....

verse 9: "Love authentically"... from your core. Love deeply. 

verse 14: "Bless your enemies."  Don't begrudge them, shower them with love rather than hate.

verse 15 "Laugh with your friends." ... I think this means your family too, we all need more giggles & grins in our lives... if we laughed more, the world would be a much more pleasant place.

verse 16: "Share tears" ... tears are cleansing for the soul.

verse 17: "Don't hit" .... words & actions maybe forgiven, but once their 'out of the bag', they can't be put back in.

verse 18: "Discover beauty in everyone." ... & everything. So many people are just waiting for someone to notice them, to recognize them & strike up a conversation. Try to compliment everyone you come into contact with, just for one day... the beauty you tap into will amaze you.

In my reminiscing, I pulled an old photo album off the shelf. I was looking at the pictures from the trip to Britain, Brock & I as newlyweds... 12 months after we became husband & wife. Our smiles are so genuine... the love for one another is practically seeping off the photo paper. The look of genuine amusement adorns our faces, seeing Europe as 'young bucks.'  We were really so young & naive... in a good way. 

One photo shows me outside Kensington Palace, former home of Diana, Will & Harry,
trying to make the guard smile, I 'air kissed' him for the pose... not even a smirk.

A photo of Brock posing with a Beef Eater, guards of the crown jewels.  He arranged a private tour of Parliament for us, something generally only experienced by British citizens.  His son had immigrated to Chicago, IL, USA.... a way of 'paying it forward' with his generosity.

Another picture of Brock standing in Westminster Abby, next to the crypt of a famous author... the very place William took Kate to be his bride last Friday...

What I wouldn't give to go back in time and take that trip again... but with the hind-sight that I have now... I would have savored every second, every scone, every cup of French pressed coffee... knowing that life, & marriage, & work, & kids can all do their best to 'muddy thing up'... but if we live a Romans 12 focused life... a life 'placed before the Lord' just as the scripture read last week at the royal wedding says...

...it will all be brighter & fuller... rich in blessings... a God ordained 'fairy-tale."