the cure had begun

I love children's literature. It is probably one of my favorite genres for reading. I especially love the classics - particularly the Newberry Winners. I haven't read the entire list, but many of the books were in my home growing up and some of them are some of my favorites. The Giver, Maniac McGee, Holes, and Number the Stars are way up there on my list of favorite books. The other night, I decided to pick up one from the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (Not Newberry winners, but still excellent reading) - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

There is a chapter in the book that is very touching to me. Up to this point in the story, a young boy named Eustace has been acting quite awfully on the voyage. He whines and complains and criticizes, and nobody likes him. At one point in the story, he gets turned into a dragon. My favorite part in the book is when he gets un-dragoned. Aslan the lion comes to him and tells him how to do it. He tries over and over again to un-dragon himself, but it doesn't work. He cannot do it on his own. Aslan must do it for him. It is much more painful and deep than when he had tried to do it himself, but when it is over, though he still feels raw and fresh, he is back to being Eustace.

Whenever I read that part, I think of how often I try to overcome my weaknesses on my own. I try and resolve to do better, but somehow, it doesn't work. We need to rely on the Savior help overcome our weaknesses. It is much more painful and deep than anything we can do by ourselves, but its the only way. Sometimes I think that if I keep slipping back into my old ways, it means I'm trying to do it on my own. That's probably true many times. But last night, the following paragraph really hit me hard.

It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that "from that time on Eustace was a different boy." To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

No matter what, we will sometimes still slip up. That gives me a lot of hope.

If you have not read these books, I would highly recommend them. Although I would recommend not reading The Magician's Nephew first. The order they are in now, though they are chronologically orgainized, is not the order CS Lewis wrote them in and I think it loses some of the magic reading TMN first. I would recommend reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe first and waiting to read TMN until second to last. Just a tip. Enjoy!