Cinderella

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Cinderella
Copyright © 2008 by Steven Curtis Chapman

All rights reserved.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville,Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with Creative Trust, Inc., a literary and entertainment management company. www.CreativeTrust.com

The Scripture quotation in this book is from
The Message
(MSG) © 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Personal testimonies appearing in this book are used by permission of the authors.

Project Editor: Jessica Inman
Project Developer: Lisa Stilwell
Design by Koechel Peterson Design,Minneapolis,Minnesota

Photos on pages 5, 26 (Caleb Chapman and Julia), Emily (age 13) with Steven Curtis Chapman on
page 30, and sillouettes on page 39 courtesty of Mary Beth Chapman
Photo on page 7 courtesy of John Price Photo / www.johnpricephoto.com
Photos of Emily (age 20) on page 30 and sheet music on page 39 courtesty of
Jason Tucker / www.tuckerphotography.com
Photo on page 51 courtesty of Austin Mann
Photo on page 63 courtesty of Mark DeLong / www.delongphoto.com

ISBN–10: 1–4041–0522–0
ISBN–13: 978–1–4041–0522–5

Printed and bound in the United States

www.thomasnelson.com

Introduction

Maria and Stevey Joy

One night as I was trying to do some writing for my album
This Moment
—“trying” being the key word in that sentence—I took on bath duty with my two littlest girls. Stevey Joy and Maria were both three years old at the time, and they did not at all share my concern that bath time should run efficiently. In fact, quite the opposite: every time I turned around to get shampoo or a wash cloth, I looked back at the tub and saw only ripples in the bathwater, no girls. Where did they go? A few moments later I heard the giggles and saw the two princesses, Cinderella and Snow White (with a little help from Disney costumes), cheering,“We're going to a ball, Daddy!” I was stressed with my workload, frustrated, and tired, and it was already late—well past an acceptable bedtime.“No,” I corrected,“you're not going to the ball, you're going in the tub.”

Finally, after foiling two or three of their attempts to escape, I managed to get them dried off and hurried them to bed.“Dad, read us a story,” they pleaded.“No, no stories tonight! It's too late,” I said.“We're going to pray, pray quick, and go to bed! Pray a short prayer, immediate family only! Just pray, fast.” I was so frustrated. I had to go back to work—I was trying to write these songs and make some progress on the album. And finally, I got them to bed. “No, no more drinks of water! Nothing! Go to sleep! I love you. Good night. Lights off. Kisses. Good night.”

I closed the door, and it hit me. I felt as if God leaned down and whispered this name: Emily Chapman. And I knew immediately that He was speaking to my heart. You see, my daughter Emily is now twenty-one years old, and she's grown and gone off and is changing the world herself. And God was saying to me,“Steven, you big knucklehead, are you really going to rush through these moments like this and miss these priceless snapshots in time? Because you know how fast they'll go by. Remember little Emily?”

My wife and I have had the luxury of seeing our kids grow into wonderful young adults—and seeing with our own eyes how quickly these times really do go by. Thinking about this was very convicting and I thought,

You know what? I do this so much. I do a lot of rushing
through the moment that I'm in, and I miss some
important times. And I think I'm probably not alone
in this. I have to write a song about these priceless
moments so that I won't forget, and maybe I can help
someone else remember it too.

That's the story behind the song “Cinderella” and the book you hold in your hands.

I worry about the five minutes or five days or five years ahead. Or I look over my shoulder and say,“Boy, that was great back there,” or “I should have done this back there.”God's really been teaching me about making sure I'm showing up in the moment He's placed me in—the good ones, the hard ones, the happy ones, the sad ones—every single moment. The moments on stage with my sons as the proudest dad on the planet, thanking God for this gift of getting to tour with Caleb and Will in my band, as well as that moment at 3:00 a.m. when the baby's screaming and I'm wondering,
What's going on, God, and how do we deal with this?

I believe God wants us to be engaged in these moments with our children, and all of the moments in between. I often hear talk in our circles about “God moments,” times when something particularly amazing happens and we know God is involved. While I've experienced plenty of those and am so thankful for those times, I believe every minute we're drawing breath is really a “God moment.”God is showing up in every moment and revealing something about Himself to us if we just have eyes to see it and ears to hear it, and most importantly a heart to receive it. I hope this book is your reminder of that today, right now.

God moments

Shaoey, Stevey Joy,
Steven, and Maria

spins and sways

She spins and
she sways

to whatever
song plays

without a care
in the world

And I'm sitting here wearing
the weight of the world
on my shoulders

Look at me Daddy !

Bedtime rituals