#christian youth

[8bitmanna]

Verse of the Day

💙Galatians 6:9💙

[spiritofkoprijan]

[executiveson-blog]

HOW TO DEVELOP A POSITIVE MINDSET

INTRODUCTION A positive mindset is a mental attitude that expects good things to happen, focuses on the good in people and situations, and believes in one’s own abilities and potential. From these criteria, we can infer that a positive attitude is characterised by a propensity to see the bright side, anticipate success, and tackle obstacles with optimism. Making the most of every circumstance…

[elm-e]

On Self-Acceptance

I was speaking to a friend the other day about personal style. Some of us have consciously or unconsciously curated certain fashion pieces that define our style. It’s easy to identify us with these pieces. However, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was in the confidence to pull off your personal style amidst spectators who would always talk. Any encounter with African aunts and uncles will give…

[queerorthodoxy]

I don’t think that you’d find Christ in the home of a mega pastor or in the home of men like Donald Trump but instead you’d find Him in the queer community center. You’d find Him in the homes of people who are struggling to take care of themselves and their community. You’d find Him where there is genuine love and community instead of greed and hatred for the other.

[pirateprincessjess]

When I was in high school a person at a local youth group encouraged kids to get rid of their alarm clock and trust Jesus to wake them up on time. It was wild watching a whole bunch of youth group kids be late to class for a week

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

"contentment in singleness" doesn't require you to stop desiring marriage & family. it doesn't require you to stop pursuing marriage & family.

Christians are called to be content in any situation--that doesn't mean we abandon all our good desires and concrete goals.

contentment is to trust/rest in God's promises to love you, provide for you, and make you holy.

you can do all of those things, and earnestly want and seek a husband.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

"Favor from the Lord" meaning, of course, blessing as the result of a life molded by wisdom.

Now, how can one find a good wife without seeking? Seek without wanting? And how can wisdom and contentment be mutually exclusive?

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

Let me know because I'm interested. I didn't have super good experiences but I wouldn't call them bad, just odd. Particularly as it comes to the leadership, but I wondered what other people thought :D

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Steven Universe: A Complicated Relationship

I’m starting to fall out of love with this show. I used to be obsessed with it and it was important to me as a way of figuring out my gender and sexuality. Yet, my relationship to it has become more complicated as of late. I’ve defended it myself and have been passionate about it, yet seeing the way a lot of stans have acted has kind of ruined it for me especially due to dismissing any criticism. This is not me saying I hate it or think it’s irredeemable Nazi propaganda but not everyone who dislikes it watches Lily Orchard and there are valid things to criticize about it.

There’s definitely bad faith criticism of the show such as flanderizing Steven into a crybaby with those Jack Horner/Hitler memes or claiming it was made to attack Christians but some people do have valid points. The episodes Bismuth and Gem Harvest may have not intended to come off as racist but one could interpret them as forcing people to forgive their abusers or bigoted relatives. As someone who’s Asian and knows about the way we’re represented, the way Priyanka and Doug were portrayed in the early seasons as tiger parents has not aged well.

One other criticism I’ve seen is that the show copies a lot of old sci fi or anime tropes without recognizing the issues with them or removing them from their original context. I and others have compared the show’s ending to the Highbreed arc from Ben 10 Alien Force. The difference is that the Highbreed were treated as supremacists who needed to be stopped, not as abusive family. People can debate over whether they should have gotten more consequences but they were not treated as dorky relatives. The only one Ben befriends was a low ranking officer who became the new leader and convinced the high council to accept having their DNA changed. There’s also the human zoo, another sci fi trope that’s aged badly with the racist implications.

The series is also compared to a lot of anime. There’s references to Ghibli, NGE, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and many have compared the show’s idealism to that of magical girl shows like Madoka Magica. The difference is that those shows didn’t use subjects like colonialism as a backdrop for family drama. SW suffers from that as well especially with the rebels only wanting to restore the old liberal system while taking imagery from the Viet Cong. People who wanted a revolution story weren’t necessarily wrong as that’s what the early seasons did set up.

Some will accuse me of fandomizing the war but I’ve noticed a lot of the hardcore stans are white queers who support Israel or demand complete support for democrats. Not saying every SU fan is a bad person btw. There are a lot of decent people who are anti Zionist and like the show but a lot of these pop progressive cartoons as well as SW, Disney and Marvel/DC are used by people with gross beliefs to infantilize themselves and dismiss any criticism from POC fans. If mainstream kids media is where you’re getting your all political takes from then maybe you do need to branch out and watch more mature stuff. Watching NGE helped me grow up a lot and learn nuance.

As a recap, I’m not saying SU is a bad show or that people are bad for liking it. It was important for my own development as well as a lot of lgbt youth and was a jumping point for a lot of my current interests such as classic anime or Lisa Hannigan, who’s an amazing musician and is pro Palestine btw. Future did help me a bit with mental health yet people are allowed to dislike it or find that even if it wasn’t intentional, there are some implications that should be addressed. I don’t hate it and there’s some stuff worth defending in it but it’s not the greatest show ever and people who get all their politics from it need to grow up. Between it, TOH, Dead End and She-Ra, I think a lot of the pop progressive media that we have today will not age well and that’s something we need to accept.

[bogkeep]

read a very poetic post asking why doesn't christian imagery focus on the inherent horror of giving birth in a barn and virgin mary's hands coming away sticky with blood etc and i am focusing all my powers to not be pedantic directly at this person because i learnt about this in art history!!!!!!! i may be raised atheist in a mostly atheist culture, but it turns out western art history consists of 75% weird facts about medieval christianity. i even remember some of them!!!!

from what i can remember literally every single detail of any event in christian canon has been up for thorough debates, especially stuff like "how DID jesus get conceived?" "how DID mary give birth??" and usually there was some person receiving a vision from god who goes to tell the pope about it and becomes a saint as thanks. jesus got conceived like light shining through a window. he was born by simply appearing when mary raised her arms. thus mary remains a virgin three times over (she was a virgin before, during, and after the birth). what does this have to do with art history?? The Symbolisms. there's paintings of a single ray of light shining through a window and onto mary. baby jesus is always perfectly clean despite having just been born in a barn. holy mary wears her blue robes with three star pins, symbolizing her triple virginity. at least that was the symbolism for this particular strain of christianity at a particular time, i'm sure the agreement on what happened changed or split over time and place - it's not like there's a zillion different types of christianities out there with different takes hahaha

[8bitmanna]

Verse of the Day

💛Philippians 4:6💛

[sergle]

mistborn fanart where people draw Vin ultra feminine poutylips in the face and give her ultra snatched waist / significant ass and tits... Hey. I have a gun

[connieaaa]

My class this quarter is basically a group therapy session.

Classmate: I was a horrible child

Me: No you weren't.

Classmate: You have to understand; when I was in preschool, there was a slide that you could only go down if you were 4. I was only 3, so everyday I would sit at the bottom of the slide so no one could use it.

Me: So, you were standing up to injustice?

Classmate: Oh

If you were a "horrible child", was your crime being too curious or too justice minded?

What was your sin? Was it being a child?

[noknowshame]

hello- on your jesus birthday post you said The Child Is The Price. What does that mean?

Okay THIS one I will answer. this is a reference to Roberte Icke's adaptation of Aeschylus' tragic play(s), The Oresteia. simplifying as much as possible, the story begins by following Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army during the Trojan War. the winds he needs to sail his army to Troy have not been blowing, and Agamemnon receives a prophecy/instruction on what is needed in order to return the winds. the prophecy states "The Child is the Price". this phrase is repeated throughout the play, and what it is asking him to do is make a human sacrifice of his young daughter, Iphigenia. eventually, he goes through with it, and the winds do indeed return.

In the original plays by Aeschylus, the actual death of Iphigenia has already happened and is referenced as something the audience should already know all about. Icke chooses to add an act to the play that allows us to linger on that decision much longer. As a whole, the play deals heavily with themes of the nature of sacrifice, narrative inevitability, and cycles of guilt and violence.

When I was drafting my... infamous christmas post, I was trying to think of the story of the birth of jesus like a greek tragedy, involving very similar themes. factually, in a textual sense, jesus is the sacrifice. his death is the price paid for - according to christianity - absolution. and what I was attempting to point out is that we spend so much time celebrating jesus' birth as this wondrous arrival of the savior that we don't stop to meditate on exactly how bloodily that saving is going to play out. it's the exact same thing: The Child is the Price.

As a last note, many many many people have told me in the tags that me saying "Mary did you know? that your womb was also a grave?" is stupid because "all babies are born to die, Jesus isn't special" ...but there is a Very important difference I'd like to point. yes, all babies will die eventually. but NOT all babies are born to die. Jesus was. it was God's plan from the start for him to horrifically die on the cross, and it was inevitable as soon as Mary agreed to give birth to him. I feel that is an important part of the story. The Child is the Price.

(...anyway go read Robert Icke Oresteia and also watch Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) while you're at it)

[myownsummer24]

reminder to everyone this month

True christians do not hate, harass, or ASSUALT Gay or trans people because it’s “against their religion”. Those are false christians.

True christians love everyone and want everyone to be happy and healthy! Happy pride everyone! 🤍