Never Underestimate the Power of a Pure Heart

        When I was little I spent hours and hours pouring over a collection of fairy tales. It was a magical book, and by magical I don't mean full of unicorns, rainbows, and Disney pixies in bedazzled miniskirts. The book was an unimpressive dark blue on the outside, but the inside was a place of wonder where I lost myself for hours and hours. This was magic: something so seemingly plain could hold such beauty within.
       One of my most favorite stories to read was The Princess and Pea. I used to read that story on stormy nights in the middle of rainy season, imagining how awful the princess must have felt being stuck in a downpour like the one outside my window. I was always disappointed, though, because I felt that I never knew enough about the princess or the prince.
      Which is why I was very happy when I stumbled across Mark Swan's animated film The Princess and the Pea. Swan's rendition shows the Prince Rollo being a very idealistic prince when he is young. He thinks a true ruler should serve his people. He grows up to become cynical boy, thinking that maybe real kings are really just greedy and powerful. It is only when he meets an innocent young woman, Daria, that he begins to rethink his purpose in life and return to his former ideals. Daria is beautiful, but not in a flashy way. Her beauty is in her purity of heart and spirit. In fact, it is this purity that inspires Rollo to become a better man. He rejects other princesses because their vanity and conceit can not compare to Daria's sincere kindness and true beauty of heart.
      This movie made me wonder, "What is it that makes a real woman so incredible?" I think one aspect is what was portrayed in Daria's character: purity of heart. Throughout the film, Daria is treated badly, but her heart remains pure. She helps the people around her not because she wants to be applauded for it, but because they need help. Her motives are pure because her heart is pure.
       I think this is what a pure heart is capable of doing. A pure heart can inspire a boy to become a man.  A pure heart takes on someone else's affliction and carries it willingly. A pure heart can take a girl no one wants and make her a princess. A pure heart is like the heart of of Him who knew no sin, yet became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in the world.
      As Prince Rollo says at the end of the film, "Never underestimate the power of a pure heart." I want to have a heart like Daria's. How will I do that? That is a question I will be exploring in future blogs.
 

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