by
Molly Noble Bull
Do
you chicken and dumplings?
When
I was a child and a young adult living at home with my parents, I especially
liked that particular meal, and I assumed that everybody else liked it too. But
apparently, not everyone likes chicken and dumplings.
The
Bible says that the true church is the Bride of Jesus Christ and that when
Jesus returns to earth at the second coming, he will marry the true church, and
they will live happily ever after—in eternity—a place called heaven. Knowing
this, is it any wonder that women like to read and write romance novels with forever
after endings?
A
marriage is the blending of two different families into one new and often
unique family, and in order to make this new family work, many if not most
brides and brides-to-be spend time before and after the wedding learning what her
groom likes and what he doesn’t. The same is true with the church. The true
church spends time reading and studying the scriptures in order to learn what
the Lord likes and what He doesn’t like.
Charlie
Bull is my earthly husband, and we have been married for many years. But like
the church that is the bride of Christ, I had to learn what Charlie liked and
didn’t like as a newly married bride. Sometimes, these lessons can be painful.
Charlie
and I had been married about a year when I decided to fix chicken and dumplings
for supper. It was a meal favorite in my family, and I was sure Charlie was
going to like it too. But when I poured chicken and dumpling onto his plate
that evening, he did not look happy.
Charlie
looked up at me and frowned. “This is nothing but watered-down biscuits.”
I
couldn’t understand why he was so angry. Until that moment, we had never had a
single disagreement must less an all out argument.
It
was like two football teams fighting, the Dumplings against the Anti-Dumplings,
and the anti-dumplings won. In the new family that came about as the result of
our marriage, chicken and dumpling were never served in our home, and I doubt
if our children even knew it was a family favorite on my side of the family.
The
true church is like that. The bride of Christ learns what her groom likes and
what he doesn’t like from reading and studying the Bible, and not only does she
stop doing the things he doesn’t like, she repents for doing it in the first
place.
Although
I never served chicken and dumplings in our home again, I have ordered it at restaurants,
and it doesn’t taste as good as I remember it tasting when Mama cooked it.
#
Speaking
of romance novels that women like, two of my Christian romances were published
in May 2017.
The first one, The Secret Admirer Romance Collection, is a collection of 9 historical novellas by 9 different authors. My novel is titled “Too Many Secrets.”
The
second of my books published in May is titled Cinderella Texas, a modern day
Christian western set on a cattle ranch in
South Texas where we live today.
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