As I do every morning, I checked out Ron Hutchcraft’s A Word with You. Today’s topic was “Drinking Dirt”.

In short, the story included an anecdote about his then five year old grandson turning off a show he enjoyed because “It was a bad one.” The transitional message was he knew no matter how much he liked the show, no matter how many shows they have when there’s nothing bad, when it is bad, it isn’t for him.

The situational sermon was, “That’s a model for Jesus-followers of any age. But all too often, we watch portrayed, or we read about, or we listen to something that is part of sin Jesus had to die for.” And often it’s wrapped in a package that’s funny, or entertaining, or brilliant, or clever, or popular because Satan is no dummy; he comes in under the radar.

That mini-lesson hit home because I’m often just as guilty. There are numerous shows — mostly television — I started watching and following because they included sharp written adult dialogue. Often, I continued watching, long after the “adult” dialogue morphed into inappropriate conversations walking the line between funny and crude.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a prude. I enjoy adult interactions because, well, I’m an adult {at least in age}. But there are shows I can process that immediately get turned off if my grandchildren wander into the room. I can tolerate cussing and swearing and even sex and violent scenes, but not within earshot or view of pre-teens. They get bombarded enough by the realities of 21st century life — the Internet unsupervised, smart phones, tablets, videos. I don’t have to help them.

I also started thinking about  my novella, Heaven Shining Through, and its expanded novel, My Name Is Sam … and Heaven Is Still Shining Through. I’ve listed them both as Christian fiction … and that’s exactly what they are — adult Christian fiction. As an author, I wrote about a young woman’s journey through life. Have you walked through life? It has ups. It has downs. It has challenges. It has successes. It has failures. We don’t always make the right choices. That’s Sam’s story — an adult story told through a Christian prism with an ultimate Christian message.

It has been interesting to read comments about the books.

Some hard core Christians balked because there was some occasional swearing {believe me, not gutter swearing and very little of it} or because there was a premarital sex scene {I thought tastefully presented} or a time when our heroine walked away from her faith. A few never read it through.

Then there were the pastors or pastoral ministers who recognize the “Sam” in each of us. They tended to latch on to the ultimate message … a message of hope … a message of personal connection with God. They recognized every journey through life is different.

And there are the everyday readers who just enjoyed the read as a  romantic fiction. They could identify with the characters. They recognized the family dynamics presented. They read the love. They felt the heartbreak. It just touched them as a romantic journey through one woman’s life. They saw their lives reflected in the scenes and chapters.

The books were not written exclusively for Christians. They were not penned as a proselytizing tool. They were written for all to hopefully just enjoy.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: A well-spent day brings happy sleep. — Leonardo daVinci