I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc. I love this time of year and to be honest, yes, many of my reasons are rather selfish. I love being with my family more than anything and in my family, we're all obligated to make it home for Christmas. I love creating or coming up with gift ideas for loved ones and then watching their faces as they open it. I love watching people all around me serve others that they may not even know. And I love having a time of year where I can specifically focus on the gift of my Savior and how his coming saved me.
However, I realize Christmas was sooo last week and due to crazy radio stations and advertising companies, most of you are probably over it. I hope this post can relate to the spirit of Christmas without actually talking about Christmas and making you want to pull your hair out.
My next meme victim is one pertaining to The Princess and the Frog. The original one stated:
Disney Taught Me - Bestiality
This would be funnier if it was slightly more original. People have been saying this of Beauty and the Beast for years (but that's a rant for another time).
Here's something you may not have realized: this is a CHILDREN'S show in the sense that it's main target audience is between the ages of 4 and 10 years old.
Grow. Up.
Bestiality is not something that children even understand enough to have it be the take away point of this movie. Not to mention that she obviously doesn't WANT to kiss the frog so, in my opinion, anyone that has a pet dog or cat that sleeps on the bed with them is just as guilty (if not more) of bestiality as Tiana is.
But even without taking all of that into account, this still focuses on a ridiculous part of the movie, completely missing the big picture!
Tiana is this hardworking, amazing woman! She does everything she can to reach her goals and she doesn't give up easily. That's the first take away point. Second take away point is right before the aforementioned "bestiality" scene.
She's spent. Her dreams that she has spent the last decade of her life working toward have just slipped through her fingers. She doesn't see anything else to do except..
Wish on a star.
Silly, right? Who does that?
Hopefully, YOU.
My take away from The Princess and the Frog is, yes, work hard, you can achieve anything you set your mind to, etc. etc. But it has to be more than that. It has to come from the heart too. And in a world that's increasingly adamant about keeping faith out of everyday life, I'm glad that Disney gave me a scene that taught me it's okay to believe.
It's alright to let yourself pray and hope and wish on a star. Even if you've gotten to a point where that's all you can do. Where you don't even have a reason to think it will do any good. The Hunger Games really did have it right - the soul lives off of hope. Take that away and what are we?
It's okay to believe in yourself after you've tried and tried and you just haven't made it yet. It's okay to believe in someone else that has given you many a reason to give up on them. And it's okay to believe in something bigger than yourself. That isn't weakness, that isn't being naive and it isn't lying to yourself. I guarantee you that if you're the kind of person that allows yourself to just believe every once in a while in the midst of all the hard work and anguish, you will be 5x happier than most of the people around you and you will be capable of achieving so much more than those that can't believe.
Here's to a New Year worth believing in.
