The Glass Slippers





One of my favorite fairy tale stories is and will always be “Cinderella”. Cinderella was a kind, caring, and loving girl who lived with her step-mother and two step-sisters after her parents both died. The step-mother and step-sisters were mean to her and treated her like a slave. They forced her to serve them. They were very harsh to her in words, actions, and thoughts. Yet, she carried on and endured life with them.

One day an invitation was sent to all the single women to attend a ball put on by the royal family. On this special day, the prince would choose his bride. With the help of her Fairy God Mother, she attended the event as the most beautiful woman, with an elegant gown and shiny glass slippers. The prince saw her and fell in love. For the brief amount of time they spent together, before the midnight bell chimed in, the prince knew she was the one. In her effort to get home on time, she had to rush out of the palace, and one of her glass slippers was left behind.

The prince was in love with Cinderella, but he didn’t know where she came from or even her name. All he had was her single glass slipper which she had left behind.  He went searching for her and had many ladies try on the shoe. The slipper did not fit any of them, until Cinderella, who was the last to try it on. When she did it fit her perfectly! From that moment on, the prince took her away from that awful situation with her mean step-sisters and step-mother and asked her to marry him. The marriage to her prince charming was so romantic. The way the two characters acted on the big screen showed a special kind of love that only the two of them could understand.


I love this story because I can really relate to it. I was not treated badly by my family like Cinderella, but I had other trials and hardships I had to endure. This kind of love story is special to me because it’s the reason why I wanted to get married. I want to share my life with someone that I love and who loves me back just as much or even more.  We all know that marriage takes work and there will be lots of mistakes made along the way, however, the important thing is how you handle those mistakes with each other. Fixing mistakes is not an easy thing to do, but it is possible.

One way we can fix our relationship issues is through kind words and forgiveness. How wonderful would it have been for the step-sisters and step-mother to try and be kind to Cinderella the way she was kind to them? When we say harsh words to our spouse or any of our family members, or yell at them for any reason, we must repair the hurt we caused them. In repairing hurtful words used toward our loved ones, one must be sincerely apologetic and say sorry to the other person. If you do it without being sincere, then it will only be a temporary fix. Just like when you get a deep cut on your finger, do you think washing it and putting a bandage on it will do the trick? It may seem okay, but if your deep wound is not properly treated with stitches or an antibiotic ointment, it can lead to serious infection that will hurt you even more. We can also repair damaging words we use with our spouse. “If emotional injuries aren’t addressed, they tend to become constant irritants---like a stone in your shoe that you keep walking on” (Gottman, 2015). The best repair in any marriage is love towards our spouse. Do things for them with love because they are the love of our life and they are the one your heart beats for at that first hello or first eye contact.

Cinderella exemplified many character traits that we can all seek after such as compassion, hopefulness, willingness to serve, optimism, good-hearted, hard-working, patience, understanding, pure love, and a dreamer.  She treasured her glass slippers. We can’t walk around in life wearing only one glass slipper, both are needed to give us balance. I don’t know whether this tale is true, but I know I can have that, “happily ever after” marriage I dream about and make my marriage true and everlasting for all eternity.

Source:

Gottman, J. M., PhD, & Silver, N. (2015). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. New York, NY: Harmony Books.

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