You got to hand it to Disney, they are some kind of marketing geniuses. Between their Disney Fairies line and their Disney Princesses line of merchandise and movies, they have tapped into the imaginations of young girls every where, and into the wallets of those little girls' parents. However, I must admit some surprise when my wife and I were discussing the two different franchises and realized that we actually had a preference. I was also surprised when our preference leaned more towards the Fairies than the Princesses. The reason for that is actually quite simple; Tink and her friends actually share useful lessons on life that we want our girls to learn. It's not exactly VeggieTales or anything, but it's headed in the right direction.

In Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Tink is given the honor of making some sort of scepter that has a moon stone on it that's important because it helps make pixie dust and keeps a tree growing... um, I'm a little sketchy on the details of the plot, but it's something like that. Of course as soon as one of the characters mentions just how fragile the moon stone is, we all knew that Tink would eventually break it. In fact, the first thirty minutes of the film had my girls on edge as they kept wondering "is this where she breaks moon stone?" Well, as expected she does and Tink grabs ontoa desperate hope after hearing an old fairy legend about a magical mirror that grants wishes. Tink sets out to find that mirror in order to fix the moon stone, but not everything goes according to plan. I won't spoil what few surprises there are in the story, and let me just say I was pleasantly surprised that everything didn't unfold the way I expected.

Far more surprising, however, was the fact that this particular Tinker Bell story actually had a very good lesson to share, one that's articulated quite well by a couple of trolls. Tink has a little trouble with a friend of hers named Trevor. They have a fight and their friendship appears to be in jeopardy. During Tink's adventure, she runs into a couple of trolls who like to tease each other, but one of them goes too far and hurts the feeling of his friend. The surprising part is that the troll actually recognizes that he hurt his friend's feelings, and he immediately apologizes. The other troll asks if he really "means it and feels it," which the first troll assures him that he does and so the other troll forgives his friend. It's at this moment that Tink learns of the power of forgiveness, a lesson that not only I'd like my girls to learn, but one we should all take to heart.

Forgiveness is a very special, very powerful act. Far too often, though, we brush it aside as something very trivial. I've never liked the "I'm sorry," "That's okay" exchange. It's not okay; that's why an apology was needed in the first place. To say "I forgive you" is far more powerful. Why? Well consider this; when Jesus Christ died on a cross, God telling us "I forgive you." We all need forgiveness because sin is a part of our lives. The fact of the matter is we can never do enough to make up for our sin; we can't be good enough, we can't "pay back" enough, we just can't do it on our own. But because of God's great love for us, he paid the price for our sin with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in doing so said "I forgive you." That means that the offense is forgotten, removed, and completely obliterated. God no longer sees our sin, it's been washed completely away by the sacrifice of Christ, and instead he sees us as friends. That was a powerful act, and every time we forgive we emulate that act. When we forgive we remove, forget, and otherwise completely erase the offense.

It's also significant that the trolls emphasized "feeling it and meaning" when they said they were sorry. That's also an important lesson to learn. Far too often the only reason my girls say they're sorry is because I tell them to when they're fighting, not because they mean it or feel. We also do the same to God far too often. We say sorry because "we're supposed" to, but we don't really mean it or feel it. Did you know one of the meanings for the repent is to change directions? It's a great way to define how we should feel when we say we're sorry for something. When we apologize, we should be expressing a desire to stop going in one direction and that we intend to go in the opposite direction. Saying we're sorry isn't just saying we're going to stop doing something, but that we'll start doing something entirely different. We use sorry far too cavalierly; it should be an expression of concern, sorrow, and reform from our heart and not just something we say to get out of trouble and smooth things over.

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