Alligators on the Castle Grounds!

I just heard about the 11 yr. old boy, Devin Funck, who was attacked by an 11 ft. alligator in Louisiana! How horrible! I cannot even imagine. My heart goes out to both him and his family. An event as traumatic as that will most certainly carry with it not only challenging physical healing, but emotional healing as well.

Alligators conjure up images in my mind of an animal that is big, dangerous, angry with a huge mouth and large teeth! They are sneaky, lurking in the waters, waiting to attack on their prey. Oddly enough I read that typically, alligators are docile. Docile?! How can that be? I obviously need to do more research on alligators, but this reminds me of how we all have emotional alligators in our lives. We build castle walls to keep them out, but somehow, through rivers or cracks and holes in our fortress walls, the emotional alligators, crocodiles and dragons of life manage to slip through to our safety zone. At first, we run and hide questioning how this possibly could have happened, after all, isnt' that what the wall is for? But little by little, we realize we have to face the dragons who've crept inside the castle walls of our lives. Some enter as small dragons, but the more we hide from them, they grow larger and larger, affecting not only our own mental health, but our relationships to those around us.

These emotional crocodiles take many shapes and forms- insecurities, anger, bitterness, jealousy, rage, to name only a few.
We often think we can fight them alone so we battle forward in our finest princess gowns, and tiara, with sceptor in hand, thinking they will surely notice our Royal Position and run, be we forget we can do nothing without the power of The King. He is the one who possesses and equips the armies needed to fight these battles for us. We must first come to Him, ask for His help, and acknowledge that our Power truly comes from Him.

William P. Young, author of the NY Times Bestseller, THE SHACK, refers to these emotional dragons as "The Great Sadness." He writes a wonderful fiction book touching on how we struggle so much with the belief that God is "especially fond" of us and the belief that He wants to help us fight the many emotional alligators in our midst. Ultimately, it requires our surrendering to Him and believing how He is truly kind, and loving and wants to heal us from the inside out.

I know I am now fighting some personal emotional crocodiles within the walls of my own Castle and as I sit here with sceptor in hand, I realize I must first bow my knee before The King. As my knee hits the ground, I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders and empowered at the same time; empowered by His goodness, kindness, protection and love. For me, my Castle is only truly Royalty and only truly protected within the Kingdom.

Kimberly Webb, Fan of Princess Bubble