We all know which story those slippers belong to. And that they were made by a fairy godmother, not Jimmy Choo! Talk about exclusivity!
So Cinderella wore those slippers to a party and…partied. That’s not the happy ending though! Then she forgot to remember her midnight curfew and ran all the way to her pumpkin-shaped cab in a bid to get home in time, leaving a glass slipper behind. Oops!
Well, that glass slipper was lost, but found by the Prince Charming she met at the party. Now he had her shoe size number instead of her cell phone number!
There was only one thing left to do: comb the country for the chick whose dainty foot could fit into that slipper.
Too many chicks tried to mould their foot to the slipper, but alas, didn’t their momma ever tell them feet are like their destiny? They can’t be changed. You can’t diet to make your feet smaller, or change the arch of your foot, can you?
That’s why Cinderella’s feet were like her destiny’s blueprint…or should I say, footprint!
Anyway, lets cut to the chase. The chase for the Prince’s Mystery Girl ended with Cinderella because wouldn’t you know it? The slipper fit perfectly!
Because it was her destiny. It was written, not in the stars, but in her shoe size and shoe shape!
Shoes help people get to their destination, and so fulfill their destiny.
I suppose we could choose to go the distance without shoes, but why risk getting blisters, abrasions, cuts and dirt between your toes?
Shoes protect our feet.
I once went to a club spontaneously, so I also looked unprepared. Not only was I in a tank top and denim skirt, my footwear was more appropriate for Newton Circus than a club. I was wearing slippers! Now slippers expose more of your foot than heels do because they allow your feet to be splayed out, whereas heels tip them at an angle. Well it turned out the club was really crowded that night and there was a rather…prosperous-looking…girl dancing vigorously near me. She was so caught up in dancing that she nailed her 3-inch stiletto heel into the arch of my foot! Ouch! The pain was so excruciating that I almost fainted. I also had an unsightly blood clot on the foot for the following month!
Now I know why club dress codes don’t allow slippers. Maybe it’s for protection!
Sure, I was still alive, but did I have to go through that pain? I didn’t.
All I needed was the right pair of shoes!
Shoes allow us to go through rougher terrain. If you wore a pair of slippers, you could still walk through a thick rainforest, although perhaps not down a steep slope. For that, you might need boots that wrap around your feet more closely, offer more support and protect you from falling.
The point is, that as situations become more precarious, the more we need shoes that offer protection. Just as in times life feels out of control, the more we need God for protection.
The right shoes allow us to go where we’ve never gone before. They allow us to push our limits so we can be the best we can be, in the same way that a bow stretched to its limit can send its arrow flying fastest, strongest and furthest.
Shoes pad our feet.
They make the journey comfortable and smooth. Whereas protection keeps our feet intect, padding makes walking easier.
Padding in shoes helps smoothen the ride for life’s journey by offering a comfort mechanism. Imagine running down a rocky hill in heels. That would be extremely uncomfortable! Running shoes would have been far more appropriate because they mould to the surface of the rocky ground, as well as the curvature of your foot. They absorb the impact when your feet strike the ground, and even when the road is rocky and leads downhill, you are cushioned and stable.
And stability is always such comfort.
Shoes give us posture.
Now posture isn’t just how you stand, it’s also how you carry yourself in the day to day. Like the lifestyle you lead. The things you say and do. How you treat your friends and family.
These are the things that, like posture, can be observed from afar.
Remember how shoes are what people notice over time? Well, even though the shoes themselves take a little longer to be seen, there are times when the effects of those shoes can be immediately seen.
I mean, you could be wearing a figure-flattering Yves Saint Laurent dress and picture perfect make-up but if you wear shoes in the wrong size, or shoes of lousy quality, your posture is completely thrown off.
Unfortunately, posture is one of the things that can be identified from a distance!
It’s not just bad posture that gets you bad publicity. Wearing the wrong shoes also throws you into a foul, foul mood!
New shoes always command a glamorous debut, don’t they?
Mix new unseasoned shoes with a night out clubbing. Stir well.
It was a recipe for disaster. Instead of dancing for hours on end, it wasn’t long before my feet hurt too much to have a good time. All I wanted was to sit down and go home, and that put me in a horrible mood. Sitting down as my friends danced, they also had to keep looking over their shoulder to see if I was alright. My posture slouched as the night went on, and it became clear that wearing the wrong shoes showed on my face. By the end of the night, I certainly didn’t feel as attractive as I should have, or thought I would have. If I had worn the right shoes, I would have had the right posture. All ingredients for a good night out.
As track captain I spontaneously decided to run to the Botanic Gardens for a warm-up run. It seemed like a refreshing change from mindless rounds around the track. At the end of the run, we stopped by a sprawling tree to rest for a bit and toss a Frisbee around. What could go wrong at 2 p.m, in the afternoon? Apparently, a lot. Without warning, the tree crashed into the ground, crushing one of my team mates, who later suffered a slipped disc. At that moment, all the birds that were perching on the tree bolted, creating a dark cloud of birds scrambling for safety. The sky was completely black, and the atmosphere, ominous.
The tree fell because it was internally rotting. It could not stand any longer as much as it looked perfectly fine on the outside.
The lesson I took away from this is: No matter how good we may look on the outside, it doesn’t say the same for the inside. How many times have we worn uncomfortable shoes because we’d rather look good than feel at ease? It’s like a short-term high we get from looking good, but the repercussions are felt afterwards in blisters, sore feet, aching calves and even our spines. The right shoes don’t give us the same short-term high of looking good. We get a consistent, long-lasting high that doesn’t have any negative repercussions on ourselves. Wearing the right shoes is like walking with God: there aren’t any negative repercussions to be dealt with!
The funny thing a lot of us are blind to is that the best high we can get is easily available. One of my old boyfriend’s mom bought me a pair of Calvin Klein heels as a gift. They were in white suede and incredibly comfortable…yet I never dared to wear them for fear of damaging them. So I left them in my wardrobe for years even though they were the best pair of shoes I owned.
Many years later I retrieved the shoes from my wardrobe, but they had yellowed and aged to the point where I could not wear them out anymore. That was then I realized I should not have been afraid to wear them, especially when they were a gift. I was bestowed with the best yet I couldn’t recognize it.
(Lesson learnt: Don’t settle for second best and leave the best in their closet.)
The truth is we’re all looking for something bigger, something better, and something completely absolutely totally phenomenal. What else drives these things that take over our lives? Like fetishes, astrology, tarot cards…things that people are so inclined to be religious about.
But there is a difference between being religious and being a Christian.
Being religious means living your lives under the dictatorship of astrology, and tarot cards, and letting your religion take over your life choices, in the case where a shoe fetish can be taken so far as to lift the limits on your shoe shopping limit.
Being a Christian means living your life […]
Comfort is also assurance, which I believe comes through God’s guiding your steps.
After the first few days of Secondary One, I was reading my Orientation booklet and plucking flower petals doing a “he loves me, he loves me not” check…while walking home! Needless to say, it was a failed experiment in multi-tasking. I walked straight into a manhole and landed on my backpack. When I shouted for help, it fell only to deaf ears. So I climbed my way out, just before some workers sealed up the manhole. God led me out of there just in time!
It was only after going to the doctor’s that I learnt even more about how God guided my steps. People who fall into manholes usually fall face forward and crash their heads on the rim of the manhole. Also, with the manhole 180 feet deep, I was blessed to have my backpack cushion the fall, or I would have had a concussion.
God guided my steps all the way to the doctor’s, where I learnt that if I had postponed a trip to the doctor’s I would have had to amputate my leg. God guided me back to safety.
Why do girls go for pedicures? The feeling of someone washing, cleaning our feet always gets us feeling regal and refreshed.
It is these three P’s: protection, padding and posture that reconcile us with God’s plan. Acknowledgment of this plan helps us to leave it in God’s hands, and therefore, obtain inner peace. With this quiet fortitude we can take our strides of conviction with power to achieve our purpose. With God powering us, we must remember that we are nothing and God is everything.
Protection can also come in the form of direction. After all, how do we know how to direct our path? It’s only when there’s enough light to see where we are going. Or so we can avoid bumping into things or tripping over potholes. This, in a way, also pads you from danger- it helps make the path smooth.
How do we seek direction from God?
Well, my parents hadn’t visited my brother and I in
As it turned out, it wasn’t just a chance to go to
My friend Tim works for the Singapore Tourism Board, and was posted to Mumbai on a mission to promote tourism in
The lesson we can take away from these incidents is that consciously or subconsciously, God arranges the turn of events to lead us to safety. He is like a little compass in us that points us in the right direction.
So much has been said about arriving at a destination using that little compass that’s been tuned in to God’s radio frequency. Yet sometimes when the destination dawns on us, it may not always be what we were looking for to begin with! After falling into a manhole, I was out of action for a few weeks…and out of luck for a place on the netball team. The destination God pointed in was the track team. Many years on, although my track career wasn’t completely illustrious, I understand that my experiences in the track team served more as a training ground for life than for running races.
Injuries, accidents, dedication, pre-race fear…all these have added up to life stories that…??? [not sure if there’s one specific story or takeaway you’d like to highlight]
So while it’s important to have a goal, it’s also important to recognize what lessons you can pick up. Eyes on the lessons is often more rewarding than eyes on the prize, because the prize can change, or you may no longer like the prize ten years from now. The lessons, however, are always valuable. So always keep an open mind and be ready for God to intervene in the course of your journey: let go and let God!
It’s not about knowing everything but more about trusting that He knows everything
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Shoes can accelerate achieving your purpose. You can last longer. Be more comfortable.
Correct positioning: on guard, firmer.
Toe jam
Protection: a friend that never leaves you
God’s ways are different from Man’s ways. Need to find out how God works and understand his language. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step in the right direction. Ask God for the right direction. Accomplish your purpose in an accelerated way.
Padding: Shoulder to cry on at all times
What you want to reap in the physical must be met in the spiritual. à accountability.
What is done in private will be revealed in public one day. Judo master who trains his moves. When the time comes he can rise to the challenge. Training, putting through fire.
How do parents teach spirituality?
OVERLY COVERED shoes, material is too thick. In winter that’s good, but not in tropical country like
Little compass inside: LIGHT OF THE WORLD, salt of the earth
Good parents go beyond basics of parenting, going one level deeper
God, the father, the HS, -- fatherless generation these days (divorce rates), no fatherly figure, even if they have a dad in the house,usually at work not at home. Or if at home, tired. Dads aren’t just peripheral. Both mom and dad are important. Very important that parents introduce God (heavenly dad) in our life. Even if dad was there in a good family, cant compare to the heavenly dad who is omnipresent and Heavenly dad has holy spirit and Jesus . spiritual side will never leave them. Fatherless homes drop ot of home, poverty, children out of wedlock, etc (higher probability). Dad à model , stability to follow. Sometimes moms can step up. Poor models easily replaced but without a good model, sheep beget sheep- generation after gen will be same. Son wont know how to be a dad.
Walking with one leg in circles
How to teach your child to know God:
- How are clouds formed? Just looking at nature you know how small you are in relation to the rest of the world, how God is so precise and good at planning, how amazing nature is, and how we can’t control nature
- If the stuff we can see is great what about the stuff we can’t see?
- 10^-7 is the visible spectrum: where white light is spread out. There is so much power in the stuff we can’t see. When you increase the wavelengths: you cant see sound, at different frequencies you can hear sound as music, look at microwaves you cant see the waves but you can see the power of it. You cant see it but you can see the power behind it.
- Sometimes you cant see God but you can see him in a lot of things . so acknowledge that you’re really small. A lot of us don’t acknowledge what we can see.
- Basically to help put the world in the right perspective. Show us the wonder of the world and therefore the wonder of God.
- God: like a lifeline that you have to call and you can always call for help
- Let your child know he can have a friend like this, just need to call. Can go through who wants to be a millionaire, but you might not stay as long, get out a lot faster!
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