Why should I follow the Lord? What good will come of it for me? These are good questions, and they deserve answers.
I'd like to ask you to consider a Fairy Tale for a moment. Consider Beauty and the Beast. In the original story, Beauty was the youngest child of a merchant, and had at least two older sisters. Beauty's sisters try to ruin all the good in her life, going so far as to fake sorrow to force her to break a promise. In the end, though, all their schemes come to naught; Beauty lives happily ever after, and her sisters are turned into statues until they repent of their evil ways.
What on earth does this have to do with the questions I asked? This simple fact: you reap what you sow.
Psalm 37:1-3 says, "Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." The evil will be cut down, but the good will feed on God's faithfulness. The Lord promises to curse those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, but also to show love to those who love Him to the thousandth. (Exodus 20:5-6)
This principle of sowing and reaping can be found in countless places, inside the Bible and out of it. There are, at a guess, hundreds of fairy tales that reflect this principle, as well as millions of other stories. The movie "Miracle" shows this principle as well, as the hockey team that is willing to go all-out wins the Olympics. How many testimonies have you heard that, if stripped to their essentials, would not include the phrase, "I followed God more closely, and my life got better?" This last point is the core of the principle of sowing and reaping.
In closing, I would like to present you with a challenge; Trust in the LORD, and do good. I promise your life will be better.
TJ, I think this is really good. I love how you put in a fairy tail perspective in there. However, I don't remember Beauty having to older sister. I love how you based it on the 'you reap what you sow' theory. However, one way I think you could have made it a little more effective is by adding in another fairy tail story just to make the theory more believable to the non-christian. The verses you used were perfect for the topic. I love this a lot!
ReplyDeletegreat work bro! (although i think it could have been a little longer) :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the critique, Beth. Sorry about the fairy tale mix-up, I read Andrew Lang's "Fairy Book" series, which tells the old versions of the stories(did you know that in the original version of Sleeping Beauty, the prince that breaks the curse has an ogress mother?), and I should have made it clear that it was the old story. As to your second criticism, I know of at least a hundred fairy tales that have this theme-which is part of the problem. I could have written a paper ten times this long on "the theme of sowing and reaping in fairy tales" or some such, but halfway through, everybody has gotten bored with them and stopped reading. I chose to be cautious-too cautious, it would seem. Thanks again for the critique!
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