I like to start my books with a story, then lessons come after.
Please Skip this Chapter if you already know the Cinderella story 🙂
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The Story of Cinderella
Once upon a time, a merchant lost his lovely wife and was left to raise his only daughter by himself. His daughter was a beautiful little girl called Ella.
However, due to his job commitments, he could not raise Ella. Hence, he married a woman who had her own two daughters.
The stepmother and stepsisters were so mean to Ella that they made her do all the work in the house while they enjoyed the luxury of idleness.
One day, there was a ballroom party at the palace. The prince wanted to choose a bride, therefore every woman of marriageable age was invited, including pretty Cinderella.
But Cinderella couldn’t go – her stepmother denied her the opportunity.
Frustrated and broken, Cinderella was left home wallowing in tears. She kept asking herself why life had turned out so bitterly.
Then, there was a light in the sky.
In the twinkling of her tear-filled eyes, an elegant woman suddenly stood in front of her.
The woman said she was her fairy godmother, and Cinderella’s words had the weight of words enough to call her from the invisible realm into reality.
Fairy godmother turned Cinderella’s rags into a splendid ballroom gown, turned the mice in the cellar into horses, and the pumpkin in the pantry into a beautiful royal chariot.
“Off to the party be gone, but before the clock strikes twelve be home, for at twelve the spell is broken,” Fairy godmother admonished.
At the party, Cinderella danced with the prince, and everyone kept wondering from which far away kingdom this princess must have come.
Then the clock started ticking a few seconds before twelve, reminding Cinderella the spell of royalty was about to get broken.
Cinderella slipped out of the Prince’s embrace and darted across the vast ballroom, off into the hanging gardens, and out through the gate.
Yet, in all this, she didn’t realize she dropped one of the glass slippers she was wearing by the door.
When she was a little way from the palace, the spell was broken, her gown turned to rags, her horses to mice, and her royal chariot turned to the pantry pumpkin.
The Prince, having failed to catch up with her, had no idea what happened, nor where to find her. He cussed himself for being so silly enough to dance with such a beautiful woman without even asking for her name. All he found was the glass slipper Cinderella left behind.
The Prince commanded every woman in the kingdom to try the shoe. Whoever could fit into the shoe, he was going to marry.
Everyone tried the magic shoe that Cinderella left behind, but for all, it was either too small or too big. When Cinderella’s turn came, she tried the shoe, and it fit her perfectly.
Thus, Cinderella, the girl who slept on the cinders, was married to the Prince, and to this day, we still know her as Princess Cinderella.
Now Let’s Get into the Rest of the Book, and Explore Life Changing Lessons from the Life of Cinderella…
