#for everything there is a reason

[tabernacleheart]

When we are passed over for promotion or lose a job, when we become chronically ill, when we lose people we love, what then? We face the question, “If God was blessing me during the good times, is he punishing me now?” This is a hugely important question. If God is punishing us, we need to change our ways so he will stop. But if our difficulties are not a punishment from God, then changing our ways would be foolish. It might even oppose what God wants us to do!

The Bible reveals that sometimes our suffering is not a result of our sin. Consider the example of Job. He suffered greatly, losing his substantial wealth and his family. His friends urged him to admit that it was divine punishment because of his sin, but Job resisted, insisting that he had not deserved his sorrow. In the end, the Lord rebuked Job’s friends, revealing that they had not spoken rightly about God when they said God had been punishing Job. In fact, it was Satan who had caused Job’s suffering all along! [Nevertheless,] we are not told why God allows Satan to torture Job. One harrowing day, nearly everything Job treasures is stolen. The people he loves—including all his children—are murdered or killed in violent storms. But Job neither assumes God is punishing him nor becomes bitter over God’s treatment. Instead he worships God.

Because Job has experienced prosperity as a blessing from God, he is prepared to suffer adversity without jumping to conclusions. He recognizes the limits of his own understanding. He doesn’t know why God sometimes blesses us with prosperity and sometimes allows us to suffer adversity. He just knows that God is faithful. [When we, too,] know that sometimes [our] suffering is caused by forces [we] don’t now understand, [we can prayerfully ask God to] help [us patiently] suffer adversity without jumping to the conclusion that it is a punishment. Instead, [our trust in God's faithfulness] will lead [us] to worship and trust [Him] always.

Theology Of Work Project

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[thismightbeconsideredart]

"Yay! My first real class!" -> "wait a second this doesn't make any sense..." speedrun

i just love @kianamaiart 's magical girl ocs so much i had to try my hand at animating an aika

[mischievous-thunder]

Wade explaining to Althea why he's brought home the guy he kidnapped three days ago and eventually fell madly in love with

[remxedmoon]

yknow i think their cloak should be a little stained actually. just a little.

[tazmiilly]

fucking hell man

[bixels]

In the past, people in the Animal Crossing community would make fun of Tom Nook as a sleazy landlord. Since then, he's really rehabilitated his image as this 'heart of gold' businessman (he's the one who puts bells and furniture in trees for you to find! he adopted orphans! he donates to charity!), but New Horizons genuinely paints the most devious version of him.

He's successfully privatized settler colonialism: you pay HIM to move to a "deserted island" (which apparently the oceans in the AC world are just full of) and start a colony that he is directly invested in. At best he's running a weird vacation package scam (you arrive on the island with no money and in debt for "using his services"). At worst, he's using you to set up company towns. For god's sake, he literally has his own fake currency that he forces you to use to pay off your debt. But don't worry, he's repackaged it in a way that definitely doesn't sound like an MLM scam: the Nook Mileage Program!

You're no longer just his tenant or his temporary part-timer, you're his business lackey. The entire tutorial section of the game has you spending actual weeks running around completing tasks and doing hard labor to set up his colony. You're even tasked with preparing his properties and finding buyers for them. No, you aren't a tenant anymore. You work for the landlord. You are directly responsible for finding tenants for him. And he doesn't even fucking pay you. Not for setting up town hall and museum, or his nephew's shop –– which is the ONLY store on the entire island that sells necessities –– or bringing KK Slider to town, or helping populate his town. Not a single cent. No, actually, you have to pay HIM to BUY infrastructure like bridges and stairs and park benches. And all the while, he's telling you're the "resident representative"; you get to call the shots! That the reward is the community's progress. That what you're doing is in everyone's best interest (but most importantly, his).

Since NH's release, people have done a lot of legwork to say that Tom Nook isn't a capitalist while the game shows him at his very worst. He owns the only general store in town. You're forced to use a phone that he modified and branded as his own. Buy Nook-branded furniture and merchandise at the self-serve kiosk in the town hall, a governmental building! There's no conflict of interest here!

But hey, if you're tired of being the landlord/business mogul's goon, you can also find work as a deluxe resort home designer for a company that also pays you in their special company currency that can only be used to buy their products instead of a real salary! Because that's what the Animal Crossing franchise needs! More vacation homes!!!

[oneofthedrunksattheoverpass]

they could have picked literally anything else to be the point of contention between that father and son but no, they intentionally chose to use going against traditional ideals of masculinity and what it means to be a man to be the thing that starts getting eddie to do some self reflection on his own roles as both a father and a son

[tabernacleheart]

On the first Easter, Our Lord appeared to all His Apostles— except Thomas, that is. Thomas was simply “not with them” at the time, and ever since then he has been remembered as the Apostle who disclaimed the Resurrection. Closer inspection, however, softens our perception of “Doubting Thomas.” While all the Apostles were hidden behind locked doors— even John, who heard the pulse of the Sacred Heart, and Peter, who received the keys of heaven and earth— Thomas alone was out and about in the city. We don’t know why he was absent— it was possibly just a simple and necessary errand: obtaining food for the group, communicating with their families, or some other “mundane” task. Perhaps reluctant discussion had led to his being chosen as the errand-goer—perhaps he volunteered. Whatever the case may be, Thomas must have been forced to conquer his own fear to leave that secure Upper Room— and that, ultimately, was exactly what Our Lord wanted of him. Our Lord knew that we Christians who have never seen and touched Him as the Apostles did would need proof of the Resurrection. So, to help us, He willed that Thomas not be present at His first visit. Before we could doubt, Thomas doubted, and his doubt was healed by touching the sacred Wounds of his Resurrected Lord. As Pope St. Gregory the Great says: "His clemency acted in this wonderful way so that, through the doubting disciple touching the wounds in his Master’s body, our own wounds of incredulity might be healed."

The Catholic Company

[dividingcosmos]

Something so nice and fun seeing Brainstorm have an English/British accent and I will continue to take screenshots from my friend who sends the crunchiest screenshots while they read MTMTE

[starry-bi-sky]

on a completely separate note; shizun luo binghe with a disciple shen yuan who fell into the abyss??? *thinks about LBH canonically stealing SQQ's corpse for 5 years* he'd hallucinate i think. like, like visual and audial hallucinations.

Keeps thinking he's seeing SQQ in the corner of his eyes, or wandering between the trees, amongst a group of disciples. Thinks he hears him calling for him, but its just the wind or another disciple.

Gets Xiu Ya reforged but patently fucking refuses to make a sword mound. Because his disciple Is Not Dead :))) There was No Body. He's Not Dead. And If You keep Insisting That He Is, He's Gonna Skewer You :). He's holding onto Xiu Ya so he can return his most favored disciple's sword when he returns. It's on his hip right next to Zheng Yang where it's supposed to be.

Also this motherfucker?? does not sleep btw. He has the image of SQQ, wide eyed and hysterical and standing at the mouth of the abyss burned into his fucking eyelids. Can't use the dreamscape to escape it either because he keeps trying to save him and either he does and it's an incredibly cruel trick to wake up to, or he doesn't and he gets his heart broken in several different pieces again.

There is no convincing this man that Shen Qingqiu is dead. Absolutely nothing at all. He is buried so deep in denial that moles would be jealous of how deep he is. He keeps making tea for two in the bamboo house only to remember that it's just him. SQQ's fans are hiding everywhere, little reminders of his presence. He goes to wake up SQQ on the mornings he sleeps in-- only to find the room empty.

[rika-mortis]

Headcanon: Deep down they both want to be their fairy godparent/godkid again after losing them, but don't believe they deserve each other and feel like they aren't worthy to be their companion anymore

They both need counseling and therapy as a whole package

[egophiliac]

YOU MANIFESTED THE TWEEL CARDS CONGRATS

YOU'RE WELCOME EVERYBODY!

seriously though I was probably like. 60-80% thinking we'd get at least one tweel for chapter 10. but I was NOT expecting it so soon! both of 'em! in August! a shame we're not getting a Coral Sea event after all...but I guess I can be resigned to that and ALSO excited for getting shiny sparkly glowing(!!!!) mertwins along with Azul fighting his inner demons and going right for the eyes! AHHHH I CAN'T WAIT

(also heeeey I recognize that rowboat... 👀)

[heyitsrink]

Thinking about a young Perihelion babysitting Iris and crying forever.

[ghosted-jazz]

Did Cosmo and Wanda have a fairy Timmy back in the day? I hadn't watched A New Wish yet but iirc their relationship was strained by Timmy, I think because of the whole "no one aged for 50 years" thing in Timmy's Secret Wish. So would that mean Timmy messed up their marriage?

Yep! Timmy was Cosmo and Wanda's first fairy!

Cosmo and Wanda were newly weds with no support systems thus miserable enough to get their own fairy!

For the first few years, the three of them were perfect but Timmy overstayed his welcome, none of them wanting to lose this new family they created. Timmy used his magic to try and force a magic solution to make Cosmo and Wanda happy again, to varying levels of success.

New fairy management notices that Cosmo and Wanda seem to be getting more miserable despite having Timmy, so they get assigned a new fairy:

Chloe is here to fix all of Timmy's mistakes. But their happy little family isn't going to be separated so instead of being replaced, Timmy and Chloe end up as coworkers.

But even with two fairies, Cosmo and Wanda keep getting more miserable. With a fresh new set of eyes and someone to talk to, Timmy finally admits that the Fairywinkle-Cosmas might be better off without him since most of their conflict does seem to revolve around magic. So both Chloe and Timmy resign, erasing Cosmo's, Wanda's, Poof's Peri's and Sparky's memories of magic.

That day, the Fairywinkle-Cosma's pet goldfish, the one they got when they got their first house, dies. The whole family is very torn up about it, crying even though they don't know why they feel so strongly about losing this goldfish.

As for the whole 50 year time loop thing:

After granting that accidental wish, Timmy does not come clean about it for 50 years in fear of getting into trouble. A swap version of Timmy's Secret Wish does happen and undoes the time loop but yep, that wish absolutely contributed in the decline of their marriage. Not that Cosmo and Wanda would remember it anyways

[wardingshout]

Zelda goes mushroom girl