Devine Grace Maghinay

Nourish Your Life

The Lake Princesses

Anonymous

Once upon a time there were two beautiful Princesses whom, when still young, had been
kidnapped by a hostile King. The King arranged to have them taken to a forgotten lake
where they were abandoned on a small island. Here they were to remain forever, guarded
by a terrifying lake monster.

Only when the wicked King and his court of wizards and fortune-tellers had been
overthrown did it become known that a brave Prince was destined to liberate the Princesses
from their captivity.

When the wind carried this news to the island, it filled the Princesses' lives with hope. The
youngest, who was much sweeter and more beautiful than her sister, patiently waited for
her love, making small decorations from flowers and clay, and singing love songs. The older
Princess, however, didn’t enjoy having to wait.

-“I’ll have to do something to help the Prince rescue me. At least so he knows where I am,
or he knows what the lake monster’s like.”

Determined to help the Prince, she set to work, making signal fires, building towers, digging
tunnels and a thousand other things. However, the terrible lake monster always did his
best to scupper her plans.

As time went on, the older sister felt increasingly uncomfortable. She knew the Prince
would choose the younger sister, so she felt there wasn't much sense in keeping waiting.
From that point on, she concentrated on trying to escape from the island and the lake
monster, not worrying any more about the Prince or whether he would rescue them.

Every morning she would prepare a different escape plan, but the monster would always
manage to ruin it. The escape attempts went on day after day, and always ended with the
monster capturing her. They became like a game of cat and mouse between the Princess
and her guard. Each escape attempt was more original and ingenious than its predecessor,
and each form of discovery was ever more subtle and surprising. They put so much effort
and imagination into their plans that at the end of each day the Princess and the monster
would spend hours chatting like friends, about how they had each prepared their strategy.
And when the moon came out they would say farewell, until tomorrow, and the monster
would dive back down to the watery depths.

One day, the monster bid farewell to the Princess like this:

-“Tomorrow I will allow you to go. You are a clever and brave young girl. You don't deserve
to remain imprisoned like this."

SMN1: You are to finish the story by deciding which strategy works by the older sister or
the younger one? Who was chosen by the prince? And draw a life’s lesson of strategy you
want to apply in your life or in love life and why?

Continuation….

The day after that, the monster kept his word to set the older sister free. She was freed
from her prison while her younger sister stayed in the small island. The younger sister
continued her preparation for the prince's rescue.

When the princess left the island, she saw a tall handsome man. Coincidentally, that same
man was the long awaited prince who the princesses had anticipated. The prince chose the
older sister and the younger sister was disappointed to know that her expectations were
denied.

Little did they know, the prince and the monster were actually friends since the prince had
been imprisoned just like the princesses by the same monster in that small island long way
back when he was only of young age. The prince's strategy to befriend the monster was to
let the monster realize that the he was not a bad person. Seeing that, the monster
befriended the prince and decided that the prince deserved to be free from his prison.
However, before the prince could take his leave, he asked for a favor from the monster that
if ever the king would kidnap a princess, the monster would have to be the one to decide
who will be worthy enough to claim as his bride.

Taking that in accordance, the monster agreed to his favor and observed the princess'
efforts to escape. Along the process, he saw the princess' true spirit and worth. Every day,
he never failed to notice a growing development in her skills in forming amazing and
creative strategies. In the end, the dragon decided that she was deemed worthy for the
prince's hand in marriage for her wisdom and bravery. And there you go, they live happily
ever after

The lesson that I learned from this story is that we should have the perseverance to
withstand the trials in our lives. You cannot gain anything by constantly sitting back and
relax. You need to work hard if you want to achieve your goals in life. As days, months, and
years pass by, we grow stronger if we work, and eventually, you will find yourself easily
conquering your problems. We need to focus our minds on our goal, just like that older
princess. The time will come when our goals will be in our reach and you will be surprised
if you weren't expecting yourself to go through that far. We could say the same to our love
lives that we shouldn't act like the younger princess who was being a constant damsel in
distress, waiting for someone else to fix her problems for her.

This is the same as waiting for Jesus' second coming. It is not enough that we prepare
ourselves and sit tight. We should do God's will and spread the word of truth. While in
ministry, we may face with countless of trials but we only have to do what the older sister
did: think of different strategies to spread the good news. Our main goal is to be in heaven,
so I hope that we will see each other there.