The Danger of Reading Romance Novels:

I am very fond of romance novels, especially christian ones. I can easily slip into the shoes of the heroin and walk through the meadows, rich with daffodils with the perfect man, usually found in such books.

You see, I have a very good imagination and that is my biggest problem, I can't just read the story, I have to be in the story, the story becomes my life and while I am under it's influence I walk around our house in a dizzy sort of way, "in love," with the book and where my imagination has taken me.

That's when I wake up to reality: Men are by no means perfect and I will never be as sweet as Cinderella. In the end these books are training ground for heart break, I am setting my own self up to get hurt. How? By placing these, "romance," novels as how real life is, when sometimes reality is as far from fiction as you can get.

As I have already stated, often what I'm reading becomes the substance of a lot of my thought time. When I'm reading romance, then that's what 95% of my thought time's going to be about. My dear mother always quotes to me from the book of Song of Solomon, "Do not awaken love till it is time." I think we do a whole lot to awaken love before it's time, reading romance novels is one of those things, it whispers in the ear and stirs the soul to desire what it has to wait for. So when we read the last chapter we are stuck with this longing, "I want that now," but we are only 16, certainly not ready for marriage but the desire has ( alas) been awakened.

What can your heart handle? Can it handle all that emotion being stirred up before it's time?

I realized a few romance novels down the road that mine can't and I find most girls hearts are the same as mine.

I'm asking you to pray about this. Really ask God if there are any books you are reading that are unhealthy and if there are....get rid of them, they are not worth what they are truly costing you.



Just think about it, will you.



- Elizabeth