I know I've written on the topic of books before, multiple times if I remember correctly, but sometimes something just ''bears repeating'' as my Grandmother used to say.
Over the last couple of days my husband and I have managed to find ourselves in the midst of a couple of conversations, privately and with others, that wound up with my thoughts once again going to my experiences with books over the last couple of years.
Let me just say that once upon a time I literally devoured books. I read them every chance I got. I once favored contemporary romance which eventually gave way to 'Christian' romance when I came to the painful (at the time) conclusion that contemporary romance was sin. A few years later I set aside pretty much all book reading and now read Scripture almost exclusively when I read. I can just no longer stomach most books. Even the ones that go by the title of 'Christian' or more specific, as reformed Christian, usually either push man made beliefs or else they wind up not being reformed in doctrine.
And those are the good ones.
The last time I was in a library I was there to use the copy machine. I did not browse the books nor did I check anything out but I did observe the many books surrounding me and I found myself saddened by what I saw. I looked only at books in the children's section and only looked at those because I was in a part of the library where I could see them from where I was.
There were probably around ten or so books set up on top of a shelf, displayed so as to catch the attention of those that walked by. Every last book pertained to some kind of magic or fantasy. I guess I should be grateful that that was all it was.
From there I could also see several shelves of books but could only read titles on one of the shelves. There was nothing better on that wall. Fantasy and magic filled the titles of book after book. I recognized none of the books on the shelf. It was like looking at an unending row of the same thing, just packaged differently. Blue covers, gold covers, green and red covers...all more of the same thing.
In a way I can understand. We live in a world where everything is now topsy turvy. For those of us that are old enough to remember when life was 'normal', when people had common sense, when laws and rules held importance and where right and wrong were not left to the whims of each and every individual...for those of us lucky, or blessed, to be able to remember those things, life as it is now is something to shake our heads at and to see clearly the downward spiral all around us.
For those too young to remember 'the good ole days' of common sense and rules, of men being men and women being women...for those too young to know anything but this mixed up, jumbled up, today...
Oh, those poor souls.
Today's children are exposed to all manner of evil in the form of books and television. They hear it on the radio. Songs that flaunt sex, homosexuality, and...I don't even know what else. Even 'Christian' songs promote 'don't judge me' these days. And the countries poor children don't stand a chance of knowing anything else.
My husband and I know several people that claim to be 'Christians', they are no better than those that deny Christ completely. Most of them are out for themselves, 'Christianity' is a look they wear, like their in style expensive clothes or their high dollar vehicles.
Last October I was saddened to see that the very depth of evil seemed to seep out from everywhere. Halloween has always had a basis in evil but at least there was a time when it was more of a kid friendly kind of holiday now it seems like there is no concern for the inocence of childhood anymore...or is there any inocense left in childhood these days? Tiny babies were flaunted in all manner of costumes depicting evil and that was just the youngest of the batch. There seemed to be no restraint on what was pushed at the masses and what was embraced and enjoyed by them. That was one single holiday, a span of a month or so beforehand when the decorations and costumes made their appearance, when television stations aired specials...when it appeared that what little restraint on evil in America was lifted from every person and the evil was allowed free reign to flow out and be celebrated.
But it's not just Halloween, the evil of the human heart is hardly contained in America anymore. My husband and I have talked quite a few times of how the Lord's restraining hand is barely visible anymore. Where once America at least held to Christian principles and even those that did not believe in Christ in any way were still constrained by society's belief in right and wrong which was often based off Scripture, now...now... there is little constraint and I guess the gruesomeness of Halloween is probably the least of the evil running rampant.
And in all that rampant evil children are being raised in homes where such evil is embraced and celebrated. I believe it is Illinois that has at least one billboard advertising something to the effect of 'welcome to Illinois where you can get a safe legal abortion'. It's flaunted on a huge sign for all who pass by to read. How many young kids see that every day? How many of them read it without any discussion on how abortion is murder?
I can't count the number of toys now filling the store shelves and children's toy boxes that are anything but friendly and innocent. Stuffed animals that when squeezed turn into fanged monster creatures. Zombies. Creatures more in line with nightmares than anything a child should ever see.
And kids are playing with them like they are the most normal of childhood toys.
Because parents are buying them for them like there is nothing to it.
And the books I wrote of...they're just another example of the good things, if they really were good things, being discontinued to bring in the bad.
There is little to nothing these days that don't seem to promote the new 'normal' of anything goes. There are kids books about homosexuality, kids books about murder, kids books about...I don't even know what all.
It still amazes me to this day, no matter how much Scripture I read, or how often I read it, that life in general can clearly be seen within it's pages. Reading Scripture truly is reading the foretelling of life throughout time.
And more and more I feel as though Scripture is the only 'normal' thing in this topsy turvy world. It's almost as though it's the last place where Truth is left as Truth and common sense still reigns.
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