Book Shelf or Spice Rack?

Photo by www.kaboompics.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-stack-of-books-on-wooden-stool-4219040/

My cheeks heated, my stomach turned, and I quickly slammed the paperback closed. The netted hammock I was sitting in stopped swinging, and I just sat there for a few moments, unsure what I had just read. I had scoured Amazon, hungry for new fantasy book suggestions, when I came across stunning covers of a medieval fantasy series written by a Christian author. There were nearly a dozen books in the series, and I was convinced this would be my next favorite read. As I sat in the hammock and read nearly half the book, I thought it was too good to be true…until the male main character started growling to the female main character about his lust for her and clothes started coming off.

Was it a fade-to-black scene? Perhaps. Was I being too sensitive? Some would say so, but all I knew was that I had read something and envisioned things that I wasn’t sure would be healthy. I thought about continuing the story, heartbroken at the thought of abandoning such an enthralling plot and the promise of many more books in the series, but the twisting conviction in my heart assured me that the content would most likely continue in the rest of the books. I thought about just skipping the scenes in the book, but I knew that intimate scenes would most likely be referenced again in the books, and my brain was imaginative enough to fill in gaps even if I didn’t read the whole scene. Unfortunately, I was met with multiple similar situations when I had picked up novels by well-established Christian authors, only to end up donating the books because they contained multiple spicy scenes.

Friends, I by no means want you to feel judged or attacked if you have read and enjoyed books with scenes similar to what I’ve described above. We are loved by a Heavenly Father who knows each and every one of us, and only He can transform your thoughts. It is between you and the Lord what you watch and read. My desire in writing to you is to share my perspective and that you are inspired to just think about your own convictions and what media you are allowing into your mind. My wish for you is that you will prayerfully consider where your boundaries are, so that you are not just walking blindly into a world where books and other media can contain things you are not comfortable with.

I had decided early in my journey through young adult and adult fiction that I didn’t want to read explicit scenes. I could write pages and pages to attempt to explain why, but the short answer is that God’s Word commands us to “guard our hearts and minds” and to “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). There are many studies on how reading or watching explicit sex scenes in books or movies can alter your brain chemistry, and once you let it slip in once or twice, it becomes harder and harder to avoid it. Praise the Lord for his goodness and strength as he helps us escape temptation and any addiction, but let me tell you, friends, it is far easier to simply not start something than to have to fight your way back out of it.

As a seventeen- and eighteen-year-old reader, the Holy Spirit convicted me to refrain from reading explicit and spicy books, but in the back of my mind there was an assumption that once I was married, all bets were off and I wouldn’t have to worry about what I read or watched anymore. I think many of us have the assumption that a wedding band becomes a magical armor that protects us from any desires or unhealthy thoughts and gives us a free pass to consume more sexual content, since now we are “safe” and tethered to another person. Well, after marrying my sweet and supportive husband, I found out that this is the farthest thing from the truth. There is still a danger in consuming media that contains explicit sexual material, as it can lead to comparison, selfishness, and distance between you and your spouse. God knew what he was talking about when he wrote for us to carefully consider what we put into our minds and hearts, since whatever is allowed in will not be able to be pushed back out.

Again, I hope you do not feel judged if you are reading this and realizing that the books you read may be books that I wouldn’t be comfortable reading. I hope that you will pause and make sure you are at least considering what you read. Don’t just read what is popular on BookTok without doing your research and determining if this is something that will be healthy or hurtful to your precious mind. God may call you to have different specific boundaries than me, or perhaps the books I read may contain more violence than you are comfortable with reading. Each one of us needs to pause and pray asking God to reveal his best for us, and how we can protect ourselves from meditating on things that will not be beneficial to us later on.

If you are someone who is interested in finding books without explicit material but don’t know how to find them, let me give you some places to start. The topic of “no-spice” books has exploded within the past few years, with so many BookTube and Bookstagram profiles recommending authors that consistently write books without explicit content. More and more clean and Christian authors appear every day, and it is so encouraging to see how much easier it is to find clean content than it was even ten years ago. If you are worried that books without spice or books with specifically Christian content will come across as “cheezy”, there are so many Christian publishing companies and clean fiction writers that produce stories that are the farthest thing from “fluffy”. There are also a multitude of self-published authors with fantastic stories full of adventure and romance (that is swoon-worthy without the spice!) that are looking for their own fanbase. If you want to read books that are clean and honoring to your mind and heart without sacrificing the quality and reading experience, don’t believe the lie that there aren’t any books out there that can fulfill that need.

I pray that writing this has encouraged you or at least caused you to pause and think about what boundaries you have set for yourself so that you can continue devouring beautiful stories and sighing over a sweet romance while guarding your mind. “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8

Learn more about Samantha by visiting her profile!