Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
There are some very popular, acclaimed books I choose not to read… yet. Sometimes I look at their beautiful covers or hear a friend talking about them, but for now I set them back on their figurative shelf and wonder when I’ll be ready to open them up. Are they bad books? Not as far as I know. Some are highly recommended by Godly women in my life. Still, I know I’m not spiritually or emotionally mature enough yet to read them, because they deal with areas of life in which I am still, as a young single woman, naive. One example I could give is “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers. I see rave reviews for this book often, both on its quality of writing and message; it is an allegorical retelling of the Biblical love story of Gomer and Hosea set in the old west. The story’s central theme is God’s redeeming love for sinners, illustrated through the life of Angel, a prostitute. Could this be an excellent premise? Yes. Could this book be a blessing to women coming to Christ from broken backgrounds? Yes! Do I feel ready for it? Not just now, and I am at peace with that. Right now, I am at peace with preserving some of the childhood innocence I still hold onto as an unmarried girl and guarding my heart until I feel more prepared to be discerning about what is real and what is fiction in mature relationships.
Do you ever feel this way? To any of you who are married or older women, are there any Christian fiction books/authors you waited to read—and were you glad you did?
a page out of her book 