An Article for Thought

In light of the upcoming holiday I thought I would share an article I wrote some time ago. It seemed to be fitting.

The King Inside

Let’s take a journey back to our childhood. Remember back in the day, a little movie called, “The Lion King”? Well, I think we can learn a lot from it, if we just look. (You know you want to keep reading, if anything out of pure curiosity). And one part in particular seems to be standing out to me.

So I’m sorry, but I’m not going to give you a brief summary of the Lion King. If you don’t know it, I suggest for you to go borrow the movie from someone in the ward and watch it. So now that that’s been said, let’s dive in shall we? In the song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, there is a part where Simba and Nala actually sing their thoughts about each other. Which goes as such:

Simba thinks, “So many things to tell her, but how to make her see. The truth about my past? Impossible! She’ll turn away from me.”

Nala then thinks, “He’s holding back, he’s hiding. But what, I can’t decide. Why won’t he be the king I know he is, the king I see inside?”

Wow. Could anything be truer for men and women? I tell ya, Disney got it right. They should do a fireside on this, or write an article. Oh wait, I am. Well ok then. Oh… I’m sorry, did you not understand? Well I’ll tell you. In the single boy and girl world that we are presently in, boys tend to think that girls will turn away from them because of their past and maybe even present, and so they are afraid. And girls only see the future and (key word) potential, and get frustrated when guys can’t see it. Let’s go deeper.

Some boys often see themselves in the past or in the present. They think of their rebel days or maybe how they were immature, or how their family life was or is. They think of how much school they have left, how they don’t have a car, or the whole lack of money issue. So in turn, they assume no one will accept them. They seem to think that if they are having trouble getting the “High School” image out of their own heads then other people (mainly girls) will too. It’s hard for them to see themselves as anything different, and so they act like that. They succumb to the lower expectations or potential. And because of this they get discouraged, especially when it comes to dating. But what they don’t realize is that most girls don’t think that way.

The first thing a girl sees in a guy, whether he be a friend, someone they’re interested in, or even just Joe Shmoe, is his potential. Girls look to the future. They don’t care how the guy was in High School. High school’s over. They care about how he can and will grow. They see him as a provider, proctor, and yes even as a future king. As Nala says, we can see who he is inside and so we try to treat him as the man he is becoming, and as the Priesthood holder he is so that he can see for himself what we see.

So what is the point I’m trying to get across? The point is no matter what we’ve done in the past, or how we may have been perceived, we should always rise to our full potential. We’re all guilty of falling back into the past or acting like idiots because that may be what people treat us as. But we need to “remember who we are” and see each other as we should be seen, as our Heavenly Father sees us. And we need to help each other rise up instead of fall down. If others are treating you with their low expectations, then say something to them, or bypass them and find someone who will help lift you.