@fullmetalbunny@xanga - "Women daydream about human men because Jesus is their savior- not their LOVER. If God were interested in satisfying every single whopping need personally, he wouldn't have created Adam AND Eve."

You have a good point.  God certainly created men and women to satisfy certain needs for each other.  He said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).  Dreaming about wonderful men is not a bad thing.  However, I think the problem comes when women expect men to fulfill the deepest part of their hearts -- a job that only God can accomplish.  We want security, intimacy, and a deep, strong, unending love.  Men can and should provide this, but they cannot do it to the same extent that God can.

I don't have issues with longing too much for fictional characters, but sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that my boyfriend (who is quite wonderful) can be my all-in-all.  When he fails to meet my desires, or when I am alone at the end of the day, I realize that I am seriously lacking something.  Human love cannot satisfy me unless I have God's love too.

So, it's not that it's wrong to desire men, but it becomes wrong when we place them as idols above God.  It can be a trust issue, like misspoppy was saying.  We have to believe that God truly loves us with an amazing (and protective) love, more than any man can.  God is also perfectly able to carry us through when we don't have much human love in our lives.

I have always loved book characters and I have never associated them with God.

@shanella - i haven't even read the first book! i just got "into it" (if you can call it that...) because of how much people are mocking/fangirling it on celebrity gossip forums...perhaps I should pick up a copy to see what all the ~*dazzle*~ is about XD

@missmarigold - i hope you do :) you may just be dazzled

@misspoppy - "And yet, I still expect God to be angry, harsh, and inconsistent, so I avoid time with Him and instead watch another television show or movie, trying to take the edge off my hunger for acceptance. I know the truth in my head, but my heart is unconvinced."

This is usually the result of parent-oriented issues since they were our first gods.  Only once they began to disappoint us did we begin to individuate from them.  Until we can face those incidences where they hurt and disappointed us and, with Jesus' help, forgive them, we will be stuck in expecting the same behaviors from the true god.  Of course, finding ways to become more intimate with Him will give you experiences that counter the previously held false beliefs about Him.

Blessings of peace and joy fill you as you continue your journey of letting Him evermore deeply into your innermost being!

@misspoppy - thanks! you have no idea how much i needed the words you said. thank you for being the body of Christ for me today... *hug* =D

I completely agree with you. I, too, obsess over characters from books and movies. (Edward is my fav ;)....) I don't think its so much about the characters but about the time we aren't spending with God. He is a jealous God after all. When you get down to what it really is, its obsessing over somebody that isn't real. sounds like a psyhcological disease to me! lol I have tried to figure this out personally for a while now but its almost impossible to find a balance. You literally have to give it all up to God which is what your supposed to do in the first place. but that doesn't make indulging in the world of fantasy any harder to resist...especially when you've attached yourself to certian characters.

It is in our fellow humans that we see God reflected. God expresses himself through us. By loving each other, we are in fact loving an aspect of God. And you must remember, that fictional characters are created by real people, and are thus an aspect of those real people, and thus are an aspect again of God. If God created everything, then God is within everything. So, to love something God created, is only natural.

All that being said, I must admit I'm a bit of an Agnostic, I don't think humanity's concept of God even comes close to envisioning the truth. I think we are all a bit "small" to contemplate something that huge correctly. I don't think any human ever alive has ever really came close to what "God" really is, not even the ones in our religious books that claimed to be close to the Creator. I think most of the books in said religious books are about as fictional as the romance novels people read, to be honest. That's why characters such as Jesus are so appealing to so many people. He is so good he can only be fictional. He does exist only on paper and in people's imaginations, after all.

And it is so very easy to fall in love with fictional characters, who can be written in an ideal way. Someone else here mentioned Edward Cullen, for example. I've been spending a lot of time lately daydreaming about him and about my name being Bella, sigh... He was written by a woman, so of course he is somewhat idealized by the woman who wrote him and even more so by those of us who read about Edward and Bella. It's natural to make fictional characters better than real people. It's a way of expressing how we wish our own personal worlds could be. And feeling for such characters helps us deepen ourselves emotionally without actually risking our hearts and minds on someone real. And if falling in love with fictional characters was all that bad for us, then there would be far less writers in the world. If "God" as you call it didn't want us to feel love for all his creations, then he wouldn't have created so much for us to love in the first place. Instead of berating yourself for not loving one fictional concept (aka Jesus or God) more than another, why not trying to open your heart to love all things more? Seek to love your God through his/her creations, since s/he is basically unknowable as any more than a concept in your mind.

And don't forget the old story about the man on the rooftop: A man was stranded on his roof, trying to escape the rising flood. He desperately prayed, “God save me.” A few minutes later, a boat pulled alongside. The boatman offered the man a ride to safety. He refused, “God will save me.” As the waters continued to rise, he prayed again, “God, please save me.” A bit later, another boat pulled up, and this boatman offered another ride to safety. Again, he refused, “God will save me.” The waters continued to rise, and again he prayed, “God, please save me.” This time, a helicopter arrived, and the crew offered him a ride to safety. Again, he refused, “God will save me.” As the waters left only the tip of the roof for him to stand on, he prayed again, “God, please save me.” The man died during the storm. When he went to heaven, he met God and asked Him: "Why didn't you protect me? Why didn't you save me? I'm a Christian, I pray to you, why didn't you protect me? And God answered, “I tried to save you. I sent two boats and a helicopter! What more do you want?”

You have to get out there and find someone to love, without expecting your God to be your own personal Lover. But there is nothing wrong with loving a few fictional characters on the side...