There
is a movie called “The Glass Slipper” starring Leslie Caron, co-starring Amanda
Blake (“Kitty” of television’s “Gunsmoke”) as one of the mean step-sisters, and
Estelle Winwood as the scene-stealing fairy godmother. Yes, it is a version of the Cinderella story
that I saw recently. Winwood always
seemed to somehow make sense with her often clever and witty but understated
observations, eventually guiding “Cinder” Ella to make the right choices. Other times the old godmother seemed to say
the craziest random things, such as—
“Cinderella,
that’s a nice word. I like it. I also like windowsill, elbow—elll-booow,
apple dumpling—that’s a comical one—ap-ple dum-pling, and pickle relish. That has a nice snap to it: picklerelish!”
I,
too, like words, learning (and trying to remember) new ones and discovering the
differences between similar words, such as “continuously” and “continually,”
which I used to use interchangeably until I knew the difference and found a
trick for remembering it. (Continuously
means steadily ongoing while continually means repeating over and
over, like the repeating Ls in the word.)
In any case, both share the same root, to continue, and that consistency
is one of the main spokes of being in God’s wheel, errr, will.
“Rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Most of the time, one will focus on the verbs—rejoice, pray, and thank—as
one certainly should. Let us not
overlook the frequency, duration, and universality regarding these activities—always,
ceaselessly, and everything. Each of
these three actions is an outward expression of an internal response to an
external condition.
We
rejoice in the manifested goodness of God in our lives, though we don’t always
recognize Him as the source. The greater
our appreciation of all He does for us, whether it is big or seemingly small,
the greater our inner joy is and our outward expression (rejoicing) should be
about all God gives us and does for us. Thus
we shortchange Him of His due glory and ourselves of joy when we fail to
rejoice in His blessings.
We
pray for many things, from healing of the sick to a good deal on a new car,
from the salvation of lost loved ones to good weather for an upcoming family
outing. Prayer reminds us that we are
essentially powerless to control most of the things around us. This humility, this powerlessness, must
compel us to pray without ceasing—what other recourse do we have other than to
try to muddle along feebly in our own strength.
Whatever the case, God is pleased when bring all of our needs and cares
to Him.
We
thank God for everything He introduces into our lives. This is not the same as rejoicing, which
might be considered more observable by others.
Rather, gratitude is more God-directed, I think. It is not the flippant TGIF mentality but a genuine
and personal expression of thanks to God for each thing He chooses bless,
challenge, or otherwise use to bring us closer to Him.
None
of us is to the point of being perfectly continuous in our Christian living as
we might wish we were, but a 24/7 recognition of God’s grace and goodness
should help us to become more diligent in our practice of continual rejoicing,
prayer, and thanksgiving.
