Once upon a nervous breakdown, a certain daughter of the King went fumblingly on her way. She had a tendency to fuss and fume over every circumstance she found herself in. She could be peevish about even unchangeable things like, for instance, the weather! And she was seldom satisfied. Even when she was thin, she thought she was fat. And though her house was adequate, still she complained. She had a fine husband - hardworking, thoughtful, ambitious. But she complained about this, too.
Now, if the truth were but known, our heroine had everything going for her. Why? Because she knew God. But she couldn't be satisfied here either, for she consistently whined around the castle that she didn't feel loved. Well, even though her knowledge of God was very vague, still our heroine had developed a pretty good habit of getting on her knees and talking with God. Granted, her prayers were rather fuzzy and cockleburred with many "oh, give me's" and heavily scented with a lot of woeful "if only's." You see, she'd come to believe that happiness depended upon outward circumstances. If she could just manipulate God and others around her to conform to her way of thinking, and if she could just get others to do as she wanted them to, why of course she could be happy! Little did she know that this attitude stemmed straight from the dreadful pit of hell--that this desire to control her circumstances, and yes, even the hearts and minds of others, came from the awful, awesome proclamation by Lucifer that he would be "like God." For if she controlled others, if they did exactly as she thought they should - would she then not be in complete control, setting herself up as a god?
Well, fortunately for our little princess, her Father the almighty King overlooked this proneness to control, and looked even deeper into her heart. He knew that the deep yearnings of her heart had been planed there by His Spirit, and all these other "waste products" would be burned up by the fire of the Holy Spirit, once He was given control. So the King wasn't nearly as concerned as were the other subjects of this kingdom she was trying to set up for herself. For sadly, you see, she make the lives of others quite miserable. She made her husband, the handsome prince, feel most inadequate. She was constantly making demands of him that he couldn't fulfill. Her children were not happy, either, you see, because the princess had been given the important responsibility of establishing a happy atmosphere in the castle, and she was not fulfilling her sacred duties in the area!
But one day, our fretful little princess was crying. She saw that her garden was completely overrun with nettles, briars and weeds. The fruit of the Spirit she'd so hoped she could harvest and bring before the King were being choked and strangled. With great determination (referred to in the kingdom as "an act of the will") she set about untangling the vines that had grown around the fruit trees. And as she worked, she suddenly stumbled upon something -oh, see!! She found the keys of the kingdom! She was ecstatic as she fondled them! There they were in all their shimmering glory, just waiting to unlock the rusted chambers of her heart! The biggest and the heaviest key of them all was marked "acceptance." With great care and perseverance, she applied that key to her heart, but found it needed coaxing and persistence. But gloriously, it seemed to be the master key - the one that would make the others "fit." As she hesitantly began to accept herself, with all her limitations and weaknesses, her abilities and uniqueness, she found it quite easy to accept her husband, just as he was-and wonder of wonders, she found that the very essence of yielding to Christ meant "accepting" circumstances as they were and having come directly from God's hand, fashioned in love for the very shaping and molding of her life. Now, when she got up from her knees, she understood that if she really meant it when she prayed, "Lord, I give you my life, my heart," the way to prove it was to get up from her knees and accept all the circumstances as being meted out by a just and loving God.
One of the other keys was tagged "giving." She found out that "giving, expecting nothing in return" entitled her to a deeper abundance of love than she could ever have hoped for, or imagined. She found out that nowhere had she ever been commanded to "feel" loved, but only commanded to GIVE love. Well, needless to say, the discovery of these keys had a profound effect upon the princess's little family. They all clapped their hands in glee, as love and joy began to fill up the castle. And, as the writer of this little story and the clap-happy princess are one and the same, I can honestly tell you that they all lived haphazardly together, right up until at least the penning of this story, continually "keyed-up" and ready for anything the King commanded! -Charlene Potterbaum