We took our daughter and cousins to see the new Cinderella movie for her birthday present.  There were many noteworthy scenes that one could apply to life and discuss a deeper meaning.  The common theme was the challenge to be “courageous and kind”. On her death-bed, Cinderella’s mother told her these words of wisdom to carry her through the challenges in life:

I thought deeply about the combination of courage and kindness.  Typically a courageous person is filled with assertiveness and power; yet, kindness brings healing along with the courage.  Healing for the courageous person, and healing to others.

Jesus was the ultimate courageous and kind person.  He faced many different situations, unfair treatment, cruelty, challenging people, and uncertainty with courageous kindness.

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32

Cinderella was kind when kindness was hard.  She was courageous when fear consumed her.  Prior to going to the movie, we had a Bible study together in which the little girls shared verses on their inheritance as a daughter of the King (Galatians 3:26)!  They talked about the time they were baptized and gave their hearts to the One, prince charming–Jesus–who rescued them, and crowned them —

“You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord…”  Isaiah 62:3 (ESV)

Oh how wonderful the thought to teach our beautiful girls (and ourselves) to be courageous and kind.  Sometimes that courage makes changes in our lives that take us out of our comfort zone, but in all of the roads God leads us down, may we be kind to ourselves and to others.

Forgive yourself and enjoy life…

Forgive others and be set free…

Twila Paris wrote a song called How Beautiful.

“How beautiful the tender eyes that chose to forgive and never despise” is a line from this beautiful song.

May we have the eyes of Jesus and love just as He has loved us.