Fairy Tales

Fairy tales.....about the only choice of bedtime reading stories we read to our little guys when they are still wee ones, right?  When they are really smallish, that is what we do isn't it?  Let's take a quick look at some of those more popular ones read as bedtime stories.  All are seemingly about glamor, pretty pictures, and happy endings....right?  Well, let's disect a couple:

• Cinderella:  in reality, Cinderella is being held as a prisoner in her own home, and is treated as a slave.  She is subjected to both physical and psychological torment at the hands of her stepmother and stepsisters after the death of her father.  That's real "happy times".
• Hansel & Greta:  they are abducted by a sadistic maniac who keeps them in captivity in the woods.  His plan is to fatten them up and then roast them alive to cannibalize them.  Now that's a real class story for the little guys.
• Little Red Riding Hood:  this girl goes to the forest to visit her grandmother.  What does she find there?  That granny has been savaged and eaten alive by a wild animal.  Cute?  Not by any measure.

In your walk of life, how many times have 1) you considered the Bible to be a book of fairy tales, or 2) heard someone indicate that they thought that way?  True,  the Bible has many, many stories within it that to the unitiated, or taken on their face, might be construed as "fairy tale like" stories.

As men, husband, and fathers it should behoove each of us to read the Bible regularly, and learn the Bible well enough so that we might know with certainty that it is far from a book of fairy tales.  Each story should not be taken in the context of a free standing story, but rather viewed as a part of a whole in order to draw proper conclusions as to what the "big picture" story actually is.  It is at that point that we then begin to understand and appreciate the true meanings of the stories and how they apply to each of us in our daily lives.....and they do apply very poignantly to each of our lives.

Perhaps if each of us, in our quest to become better men, husbands, and fathers, read our little ones meaningful passages from the Bible at bedtime, and then answered their invariable questions just as we tuck them in and kiss them goodnight, we would never have to hear those kids think of the Bible as a book of fairy tales when they grow up.

Eh?