Cinderella, Cinderella...

Part of growing up, so I've discovered, means learning so much more about yourself than you could see as a child.

Having left high school behind and started on my second year of college, one of the many things I've discovered, is that I have a bit of a modified Cinderella complex... which I just might have inherited from my dad. Never thought that would happen.

Look up "Cinderella complex" on google and you might see something about unappreciated girls who suddenly come into the spotlight. That's not my point. Being a storyteller myself, I tend to look a little bit deeper into the whole story behind Cinderella.

In the Rogers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella, she sings a song called, "In My Own Little Corner," all about how she wishes her life were different. I've always loved that song.
Most likely due to my own overactive imagination. But also because of succumbing to my own version of a Cinderella complex.

Someday, I wonder just how this might effect a marriage (my marriage, ah! the poor man! whoever he may be).

For someone whose love language is doing favors, this creates quite a dilemma. It means that I crave a clean house. I love it when the carpets are vacuumed, the kitchen is swept and mopped and the bathroom sparkling. But I start feeling used when other people begin to sit back and watch me do the work for them. But rather attempting to encourage them to take on the responsibility, I continue doing it myself because I fear they won't perform the task as well as I would. Yet, I grouse and grumble because all the responsibility is on me.

Having written it out... it feels silly. But how many of us really do go about life is such a silly way? For me, its sitting in the same old rut and WISHING something would change. Like one of my favorite scenes between Whitney Houston and Brandy:

Godmother: "Fol-der-ol and fid-dle-dy foodle, all the wishers in the world and dizzy in the noodle."

Cinderella: "That's terrible." 

Godmother: "You try coming up with a rhyme on the spot like that."

Cinderella: "No, no. I mean what you said about dreamers. I mean, why shouldn't I dream?"

Godmother: "I can see this is going to take a while."

Cinderella: "I've always hoped that someone would come and take me away from here."

Godmother: "Cinderella, if you wanna get out of here, you're going to have to do it yourself. The music's in you. Deep down in your soul. When you find it, nothing's going to be able to keep you from walking out that door."

Cinderella: "I've dreamed about leaving so many times."

Godmother: "That's the problem with most people, they dream about what they wanna do instead of really doing it."

I love how stories always speak into our lives. That's the idea for us as writers: to tell a story that resonates with a reader. Now, all the things that make a story resonate are quite involved and take a bit of practice to accomplish (have I gotten there yet? I'm not sure!) but its a goal =)

Well, my prayers for this week revolve around getting rid of my Cinderella complex. But how about you? God likes to use all kinds of different methods of pointing out the ways we need to grow and showing us who we are. Now what we see, however, are we going to trust him to do something about it? There's a real challenge.

Good luck to you!

Emily

(ESV) Phillippians 1:4-6 "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ"