The Twilight Saga: Guard Your Heart!

On Friday, I went to see the latest movie in The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn Part 1. I have been a Twilight fan since I began reading the first book in 2008. I wouldn't put myself in the "Twi-hard" category, but I do enjoy the books and the movies an acceptable amount. I've heard some incredibly bad reviews about this latest movie, so I think I'm in the minority when I say: I loved it.

For the first time in a really long time, I got totally sucked in by this movie. Maybe partly because I had already read the book and knew what was going to happen, so the incredibly weird stuff didn't shock me much, because I knew it was coming.

Anyway, let me tell you why I loved it so much: the romance! The wedding scene was sooo beautiful! And romantic!

And the honeymoon? First of all, let me just say that I thought those scenes were completely inappropriate for all the little junior high girls who will go see this movie (call me old fashioned)! But anyway, it was equally as romantic.

Sounds like a pretty sweet and romantic movie right? And where is the harm in that?

Well I do believe there is some harm in that if we are not careful!

Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart. For it is the wellspring of life."

How many women get totally irritated and angry when we see our husbands or boyfriends looking at other women? Or watching movies, TV shows, or even commercials that contain scantily clad women who look perfect in every single way? It is really hard for us to live up to those images that completely inundate the media.

Those images are not real. They are a total fantasy, and no one is really that perfect. Lighting, slow motion, and Photoshop are really responsible for those perfect images.

And just like those images are not real, a perfect romance like Edward and Bella have? Is not real.

See the parallel?

Now I'm not saying that it is totally wrong to read the Twilight books or go see the movies. Everyone is different, and it may not effect you at all! But I know people who have read the books, and who are looking for a Twilight sort of romance. And they're just not going to find one, because romance like that doesn't exist long-term in the real world!

I guess what I'm saying is that we need to guard our hearts, just like Proverbs 4:23 tells us. If we're going to allow ourselves to read books or go see movies like this, we need to know that it's not real. We need to completely separate ourselves from those fictional situations, stop comparing our own relationships to those in the movies, and get rid of all expectations that real life is like that. Because I think Satan can sneakily use the media to steal our contentment about our own relationships.

If I've learned nothing else about marriage and relationships, I've learned that we cannot compare our relationship to anyone else's! Especially not the relationships of fictional characters!

And I'm not even talking about simply Twilight movies. I'm talking about things as close to home as those Christian romance novels that are so readily available to us even in our own church libraries.

Again, each person is different, and we need to guard our own hearts and know what we can handle, and how things affect us. But there are some Christian romance novels out there with some pretty idealistic portrayals of romance and relationships.

So I guess I'll get off my soapbox for the day :-) But I just wanted to share what God is teaching me about my own heart, and the way I need to protect it.