Some of my earliest memories are of Disney related obsessions. Snow White is, and has always been, my favorite princess. I had an imaginary friend named Grumpy....yea like the dwarf.....see addict. I have seen every single Disney film more times than I can count. I plan our annual trips a year in advance. (yea do the math on that annual trips+year in advance+=I never stop planning Disney trips) My girls LOVE all things Disney. We are STILL listening to and watching Frozen on a weekly basis. I pretty much adore all things Disney. Until today.........
Both my daughters, who on this blog I have taken to calling Mischief (6) and Mayhem (3) are budding Disney aficionados. Mischief can't stand when someone calls it Cinderella's Castle. If you don't know why that's wrong......well Google it. Mayhem can sing the ENTIRE Frozen soundtrack....she's 3......the whole thing.word.for.word. They are both currently watching the latest fairy movie, The Pirate Fairy, whilst in costume as I sit next to them typing this on my iPad in it's Disney case. But today something errked me about one of the shows they are also currently obsessed with, Sofia the First. Specifically the episode where Sofia gets to sing her kingdom's anthem.
Here is where I risk loosing my VIP Mickey ears.
Walt please don't come back from the grave and haunt me but on this particular episode you totally missed it! Like big time fail.
So the premiss of the episode goes like this. Sofia is chosen to sing the kingdom's anthem at a festival. She gets a big head, brags to her friends, is cursed by this magical amulet she wears and in the end apologizes to her friends in an effort to remedy hurt feelings and remove the curse. That should've been the end of it right?.........WRONG. Sofia had to take it a step further to "make it right" and give up her opportunity to sing the song and give the spot to her friends she hurt in order to have the curse broken. Uhhhhhh no.
You may be saying well what's wrong with that. Everything is the answer you are looking for. Sofia recognized her wrong, made her apologizes, her friends forgave her, the end. Why then did she have to give up her place to "make it right"? Now we get deep.
Christ teaches us in Ephesians 4:32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. It doesn't say you then have to make some grand sacrifice to "make it right". The act of forgiveness made it right. The GRAND sacrifice was made by HIM, thousands of years ago on a cross. That's why we don't all have alters and lambs anymore. Ask and ye shall be forgiven.
If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. Matthew 6:14
Here is where the problem lies. It is this culture of no one can ever have hurt feelings, lose or be last place. Everyone is a winner and everyone is included. Well guess what.....that's as wrong a fantasy world as Sleeping Beauty having to be rescued by Prince Phillip.
Was Sofia wrong for being a brat to her friends and making them feel bad, yes of course. With that said once the forgiveness was given the issue was over. She should've sang her song and her friends should've been happy for her. If she wanted to make some grand gesture invite them to sing WITH her not instead of her. I am growing so tired of this world we live in of every kid gets a trophy and no one keeps score. People that is NOT.REAL.LIFE.
There are winners and there are losers. Not everyone gets to do everything and you sure as heck shouldn't teach kids to feel obligated to self sacrifice their opportunities in order to soothe hurt feelings. Again, when you say you forgive someone that's it. The end. No more should be expected of you or them. If we are to forgive as Christ has forgiven us all we need do is ask because that is what HE requires of us.
I make it a point to teach our girls they will not win all the time. I don't "let them win" when we play board games. We are raising a generation of kids that think the least little hurt needs to be met with some HUGE restitution. Yes, people should apologize for being jerks but all this I need to be righted and someone owes me something has got to stop.
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