Happily Ever After?

Happily Ever After?

A worthy wife is a crown for her husband, but a disgraceful woman is like cancer in his bones.

Proverbs 12:4

Like nearly all the world, we watched the highlights of the royal wedding on April 29, 2011, when Prince William married Catherine Middleton. And in the seemingly endless hours of news coverage about the royal nuptials, we were reminded of a different royal drama occurring in the 1930s. At the time, the world’s most eligible bachelor, the Prince of Wales, was still unmarried at age forty-one. He seemed incapable of pulling the proverbial trigger. But when the man that would be king came to a decision, it was a big one.

On December 11, 1936, in a radio broadcast heard by millions, the newly proclaimed king announced the unthinkable. “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do,” he said, “without the help and support of the woman I love.” That woman, Wallis Simpson, was a twice-divorced American.

It never occurred to Wallis that Edward would exchange the monarchy for marriage. By many accounts, she never really wanted to marry the king. She was content with the status quo and had in mind, according to Donald Spoto, author of The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor, being a royal mistress. Besides, as head of the Church of England, the king is forbidden to marry a divorcée. But this didn’t stop Edward from declaring, “The throne means nothing to me without Wallis beside me.”

The couple married six months later before only sixteen guests. The life that followed was empty. They lived in voluntary exile in Paris. “You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance,” Wallis told a friend.^a

Fairy tale romance is just that—a fairy tale, not reality. King Solomon, of noble lineage himself, surely understood the heartache of trying to live a storybook existence. Faraway castles, beguiling jewels, and even surrendering the throne for love are only an illusion of real-life romance. A husband’s true crown, according to this Proverb, is “a worthy wife.” This is the only authentic and healthy way to live out a great romance. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised” (Proverbs 31:30). Fearing the Lord—it is a phrase that appears numerous times throughout the Bible. It means showing reverence for our maker and being in awe of God. It means loving God.

Fearing the Lord and living with godliness from day to day is the only authentic and healthy way to live out a great romance.

The fairy tale is irresponsible; it is frankly imaginary, and its purpose is to gratify wishes, “as a dream doth flatter.”

—Susanne K. Langer

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