Feels Like an Old Friend

I have always been a lover of books and reading.  Since grade school I have had a book in my hand.  I would read everything I could.  Sadly, I got my hands on contemporary romance novels around high school age and was hooked. 

I read those novels for years.  I wasn't a Christian, so I didn't see anything wrong with them.  I didn't realize the values that were being put into my mind and heart.  When I became a Christian, I couldn't read those novels anymore.  I would pick them up and read the same things I had read a thousand times before, the sex, the lack of values and morals,  unrealistic expectations of relationships, and casual violence and even witchcraft at times, and I just knew the books should have no place in my home.  I ended up tossing every one of them. 

I still wanted some reading material, however.  I had my Bible.  I had many Christian books concerning the Bible.  I needed some modern day stories of Christian women to replace the negative ones in my head.  I discovered the Christian section at my little library.  I asked who was good.  The librarian laughed softly and told me that there were many readers for Karen Kingsbury.

The first book I checked out was One Tuesday Morning.  Within a few chapters I was bawling and hooked on Contemporary Christian Fiction.  Karen Kingsbury is one of my favorites.  I think I have since read nearly every book... definitely all the ones in my little library.  My favorite is the Redemption series.  When I read the books in that series (and I have read them over and over), it feels like visiting old friends.

It's been a few years since I've read one of those old romance novels.  I much prefer reading books where the woman stays with the husband when the marriage hits hard times.  The old romances often talked about divorce as if it was easy and no one got hurt.  I like reading the consequences in a relationship when physical boundaries are pushed outside of marriage.   The old romance novels seemed to have pre-marital and even adulterous relationships as the way things are supposed to be.  There was never any bad consequences to those actions.  No one was ever hurt or got an STD.  Rarely did anyone even get pregnant.

I like reading about people that pray and go to church.  I like reading about people that study their Bible and actually turn to it for help and comfort and as a guide to life.   I like reading about people giving their lives to serve God instead of serving themselves.  I especially like reading about Christian families that stick together and pray for each other and lift each other up.  There isn't a lot examples of that in this world.