A fairy tale and its influence …

In case you missed the news, today a fairy tale happened in London: handsome prince marries beautiful common girl.

The wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton is a new chapter in a long story that started with a different fairy tale romance thirty years ago.

The wedding of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer in 1981 was one of the greatest media events of the twentieth century. That was a story of a less handsome prince who married a beautiful girl whose family had an aristocratic background. Charles selected Diana because of her position, rather than for love, and very soon after the wedding cracks in the real relationship began. The unraveling of the marriage seemed to happen before the eyes of the world, which witnessed the collapse and end of that fairy tale.

Prince William did not want to make the same mistakes his parents did.

That’s understandable.

Unfortunately for Prince William, his mother leaned on him as a confidante while he was quite young. She shared with him all her problems with her marriage and life, a burden a child shouldn’t be loaded with by a parent.

Prince William was so determined not to make the same mistakes that he was intent on marrying for love and not position. And to make sure it was real love, and a union that could withstand the “royal life,” he and Kate lived together for an extended period of time before the Prince proposed to his would-be Princess.

Therein lies the problem.

The world watches this fairy tale and finds it wonderful. In the process, the act of living together while not married was actually pointed to as something wise on the part of the newlyweds. Multiple programs about the life of Prince William, as well as programs about the courtship of William and Kate, have been running on television all day. In one of the programs, multiple commentators described the time when the Prince and Kate lived together, and spoke of how beneficial it was to the couple. One commentator said their time living together helped them to decide if a marriage could last, and then she said about the premarital arrangement, “… just as it should be.”

Who knows how many young people, enraptured with the idea of their own fairy tale, will now make the argument for premarital unions. They will point to the example of Prince William and Kate Middleton as justification for living together prior to pursuing any possibility of marriage.

That choice will be a great way to ruin their dreams of a fairy tale!

Statics have long showed that a majority of couples who live together prior to marriage, and who later marry, will divorce. But beyond the statics, premarital unions simply are not God’s design for how to live happily ever after with a spouse.

I can understand Prince William’s strong desire to not repeat the mistakes of his parents. But his method was a poor choice which will likely influence the choices made by many other young couples.

That’s not a good way to build your leadership and influence in a nation or as a world figure.

As leaders, or as followers, our personal choices in our personal lives can have as great an impact on the lives of others as do key decisions made in our professional lives. Turning dreams into realities can be wonderful life experience, so long as they are done in a manner that brings honor to God rather than disobedience to His instructions for us.

Like many millions of people around the world, today I wish the very best for this young couple as they begin their marriage. Their standing in the world will influence many lives. I pray for a better example from them. Not only will that be best for those who watch their lives, but it will be best for them as well.

Scotty