Romance Novels?! - Day 187

Several years ago I was somewhat enthralled with romance novels. (I know, really manly.. Hey, I liked to read everything......) The books that I found around my house and others were the ones through which I browsed. Grace Livingston Hill, Janette Oke, H. Rider Haggard, etc. I never read any modern Christian romance. Most of the books were written to appeal to women (shocker) and to create an image of a perfect man. Each book would create this beautiful romance. It was full of passion. It was full of love. It was filled with low lights and pretty colors. There was romance. And then they got married.

I do understand the books to some extent. You're trying to appeal to single women(married women to some extent) who don't have a perfect romance in their lives and encourage them to lust after it? It's going to sell... I honestly don't comprehend why there is anything good about them. I understand that women tend to want to have that perfect man with all the right words, the sensation of fluttery feelings, and get that handsome prince of your dreams. But I'm sorry to break it to you. It's not all about you. I think that romance novels for women can possibly turn into the way a man uses pornography. It's all about you. It's about satisfying your emotions, your feelings, your desires, and your dreams. Both have a way of satisfying desires in a sinful manner.   Albeit women and men have a different way that they interact with fulfilling these desires. In the end, if it's not going to be all about you, it's going to need to be all about God. It's about honoring God with everything you do.

It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about God. That's something that I have to remind myself of constantly.

God created men and women to fulfill these desires in a marriage. These desires are good things, and there is a proper place for them to be fulfilled. Romance novels, pornography, selfishness, and fornication are not the place.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ~ Galatians 5:16

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. ~ James 1:15