Of Knights and Fair Maidens

  I have always loved fairy tales and love stories. When I was a little girl I ate, drank and slept fairy tales. One thing that always stood out to me was that no matter how bad things got for the heroine of the  story, she would always be rescued by her man. Her hero always saved her.

   There is rarely  a story you read that does not, in some way or another, feature a damsel-in-distress and a gallant knight in shining armor or a cowboy in a white hat rushing in to save her. There is always a villain after the lady and it is up to her true love to rescue her from  the clutches of evil.

    I think that deep down—even if she won’t admit it—every woman likes to be rescued. I think it is built into us and not something we can outgrow or become to mature or spiritual for. We were made to feel like we need to be saved or rescued and the hero in our lives was made to be be our husband, or our father if we are unmarried.

    Men are wired to be the hero. They like to take care of the ladies in their lives. Men like to rescue and fix things. They like to save the day. You can see this even in little boys. They like to dress up as the hero and catch the bank robber and untie the girl from the railroad track in the nick of time. They like to be “the man.” This doesn’t go away when grow up—I think it grows worse ;)

  Some women do not like feeling like they need saving. It makes them feel weak and helpless. (They are not, by any means, weak and helpless however.) They feel they have to be tough and do everything themselves and not depend on anyone. Even some married women are like this.

   I feel sorry for the women who try to smother the need to be rescued. They are robbing themselves AND their hero of a blessing.  Sometimes an area of perceived weakness can actually be an avenue to the greatest blessing you’ve ever had.

   Sometimes we don’t realize that we need to be rescued. Our hero might see something that we can’t see and it is up to us to trust him enough and let him rescue us. When we put self aside and fulfill our roles as laid out in Scripture,  contentment, joy and blessings will overwhelm us.

     One of the advantages of a wife staying at home is less drama than if the wife had a job outside the home. Maybe not less drama so to speak, but more manageable drama. For example: (and I have seen this many times!)

     The wife is having problems at the office. Whether it be issues with people, or a crazy workload, or whatever, she comes home and tells her husband about it. She is so stressed and sometimes distraught and she wants things to be fixed. Her hero—her husband—in most cases, can do absolutely nothing about it.  This frustrates him because he can’t fix it. All he can do is sit back and watch his wife grow more frustrated and stressed.

   On the other hand, most of the drama in a stay-at-home wife’s life is simpler. 95% percent of the time my issues and problems can be solved and handled by my hero. I’ve been rescued, he fixed the problem and feels macho. We’re both happy and all is well in the world.

   In the end, we all need to be rescued—heroes and damsels alike. From the beginning of time Christ has been rescuing his Bride from the evil one, even dying to save her. Even when she was  running from Him (her Savior!) and didn’t think she needed to be rescued, He had a plan that would wash her clean and draw her to him. In the end, He will carry us off to live in His castle in the sky. I can’t wait!