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just-a-torn-up-masterpiece · 2 years

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for i have sinned

masterlist

Pairing - priest!wanda maximoff x reader

18+ : dubcon, religious language used in and out of sex, smut; degradation, rough sex and kissing, strap use(r receiving), blood kink, cutting (wanda to r), sacrilegious asf tbh, dom!wanda

A/N - catholic school trauma said i had to write this and also photoshop priest!wanda so that’s an extra little gift

A job at the catholic church was not what you’d originally planned for your summer break from university, waiting tables or serving behind a bar was what you had in mind but this was all you could find. And money is money.

So now you’re finding yourself making copies of fliers for the church, leaning against the wall with the whirring of the printer as background noise. You didn’t necessarily believe in this stuff but putting ‘atheist’ on your application wouldn’t have done you any favours so within the hours of nine and five you’re catholic through and through.

It was only your first week and it’s already getting boring. The smell of the candles burns your nose and the polish they use on the pews makes you cough but at least you don’t have to sit through services and mass.

“Afternoon, Y/N.” Wanda smiled as she walked in.

“Hi, Wanda.” You returned.

“Mass starts in twenty minutes - all staff are expected to attend. I wasn’t sure if you knew so I thought I’d tell you.” You did not fucking know at all, you’d had enough of sitting through masses during your catholic school days and it took so much effort to hold back the grimace fighting its way to the surface.

“Oh, okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

“No worries. They’re big on Latin here, so I’d brush up on that if I were you.” She added. “I could always help you if you want.”

“That’d be great, thank you.” You smiled as she left with a nod. She’s too sweet for you to turn down, always smiling and softly spoken, going out of her way to help anybody and everybody. Everyone who steps foot in the church knows how nice she is, such gentle innocence and light radiates from her.

You made sure to drink another coffee before the service, you were going to need it if you didn’t want to doze off.

—

The last few weeks have been spent printing flyers, drinking crappy coffee, learning Latin with Wanda whilst trying not to stare at her unimaginable beauty and sitting in on sermons. At least when Wanda gives them you can watch her speak, white clerical collar around her neck, black blouse hanging over her body.

Her hands made gestures with her words, fingers dancing through the air, svelte and adorning a couple of rings. Her voice was soft as her eyes gazed over the crowd and although the lilt to her voice was melodic, you tuned her words out, instead flitting your eyes between her and the stained glass windows beside you.

“For this is the will of god, your sanctification; that you abstain from sexual immorailty; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the gentiles who do not know god.”

Her words barely registered as you just pulled at a loose thread on your sleeve, eyes mindlessly trailing over her body; up her long legs clothed beneath trousers, boots partly covered by them.

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

She could tell you weren’t paying proper attention when she caught sight of you at the back of the church where you sat alone, a bored look plastered over your face. She wasn’t surprised, she sees you fighting back yawns any time you attend a service, she catches you stealing glances at her during your tutoring sessions.

She was aching to do something about it. It goes against her own life, her entire life and vocation she’s built. But she’d be helping though, right? Doing the lord’s work. You were a stain, dirty and sinful, desperately in need of purity. It was her calling to erase the tarnish within your soul.

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

She glanced at you and licked her lips, she can’t wait to set you on the right path. Her hand gripped tightly onto the missal stand as she flicked pages, clenching her jaw at your obvious inattention and sending a sickly sweet smile your way when you glanced up.

—

“Okay, repeat that back to me.” Wanda spoke from beside you, she sat next to you at the table in the break room where she’d been helping you with your Latin, chin resting in the palm of her hand as she watched you.

“Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.” You returned, returning the radiant smile she gave you. (Outside the Church there is no salvation)

“Good girl.” She knew that would make you nervously clear your throat the way you did and she didn’t even bother hiding the smug smirk that tugged her lips upwards. “Try this one. Nitimur in vetitum.”

You repeated the phrase as best you could, basking in the praise she sent your way. “What does it mean?” You asked her and watched as she inched closer with eyes darker than you’d ever seen them and her hand trailing over your thigh beneath the table. You wanted to move away, you knew this was wrong but you couldn’t ignore the shivers sent through you at her touch.

“We strive for the forbidden.” She returned lowly, plump lips so close to your cheek you could feel the ghost of them pass over your skin and the intrusion of her hand pushing further and further up your thigh.

“Wanda, we can’t do this - you can’t do this.” You rushed out, moving your head back from her.

“Deus vult.” She growled through clenched teeth, a possessive hunger on her features you never imagined she could ever possess as her fingertips harshly dug into your flesh and her lips slammed into yours. You wanted to push her away, you really should push her away but the way her lips moved with yours was better than you could’ve imagined, all the rough possessiveness she could harness. (god wills it)

Her grip was harsh on the back of your neck until she pushed your head away at the sound of approaching footsteps, all of a sudden encompassing that innocent doe eyed facade she always sports when a few colleagues walked in. You lowered your head nervously at the stern glance she addressed you with, perfectly hiding the fact she was so near to just fucking you on the table just moments prior.

“This will be continued.” She whispered before taking her leave.

—

Wanda was a woman of her word and that’s why you’re now in her bedroom with your back flush against her door as her lips claim yours and her tongue licks into your mouth. The ring on her thumb pressed into the centre of your throat when she held onto your neck, cold against your heated skin.

The way her lips slotted with yours was desperate with her teeth nipping at your bottom lip, clashing into yours sloppily; it was clear she’d been wanting to do this for a while. Her other hand trailed down your side, creeping beneath your shirt to pinch the bare flesh of your waist.

She growled breathlessly against your lips, “Hoc est corpus meum.” Her thumb pushed onto the column of your throat and you were sure her thick silver ring was going to leave an impression behind but the thought of being left with any physical reminder of her only made the arousal in your belly grow tenfold. Her hand slid further down until she cupped your cunt through your trousers, feeling your heat as you just yelped in surprise. “Corpus tuum est corpus meum.” Her voice was low and possessive and she claimed your lips as hers again, not caring about the way she pushed your head into the wooden door behind you. (this is my body)(your body is my body)

Wandering fingers grabbed the hem of your shirt before yanking it over your head, drinking in the sight of your body as she tossed it across the room, reaching behind you to rid you of your bra with an immediate sinking of her teeth into your breast. You hissed at the feeling, arching your body into her as her fingertips pulled at your nipple and her tongue licked over your skin.

She pulled open the button of your trousers, forcing them past your hips and only pulling away from you to watch as you stepped out of them and kicked them across the hardwood floor. When she pushed her hips back into yours you felt a bulge against you through the thin material of your underwear and you couldn’t help but rock your hips over it whilst she kissed you.

“Such a little fucking whore.” She breathed, stepping backwards to unbuckle the belt around her waist, undressing herself so she stood before you with only her shirt and clerical collar on her body and the red strap she’d been waiting to use on you between her legs. You licked your lips at the sight of it, not missing the way Wanda smirked at the flustered look on your face.

It nudged against you when she closed the space between you, holding your chin between her finger and thumb to make your eyes lock with hers. “Genua ante patrem tuum et orate.” She muttered through gritted teeth, pushing you behind her to swap places, nudging your shoulder down until you were on your knees before her. (kneel before your father and pray)

“Forgive me father, for I have sinned.” You closed your eyes as you spoke, head bowed and hands clasped together. You shivered at the feeling of something cold gliding over your shoulder and pushing your head up from beneath your chin, cool metal on your skin when you opened your eyes to Wanda towering over you. She held a silver letter opener against you with her fingers wrapped around the handle, guiding the pointed end down the thin skin of your throat musingly.

“Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” You continued with bated breath at her next move, the feeling of the blade moving lower to settle beneath your collarbone. (my fault, my fault, my grievous fault)

“I’m going to make you pure.” Wanda whispered, pushing the sharp metal into your skin. You winced at the two cuts she decorated your flesh with, a cross that will stay on your body as a scar and a reminder of who had been there.

With one hand she pulled your head back by your hair, with the other she swiped her thumb through the pooling blood, the crimson that was slowly but surely dripping down your breast. The bloodied pad of her thumb drew the sign of the cross on your forehead, two overlapping lines of a red smear. She admired the sight of you beneath her, looking up with teary eyes.

“C’mon, take it.” She smiled, pushing the tip of her cock against your lips, roughly pushing it past your parted lips when you slackened your jaw for the intrusion. She fucked into your mouth, not caring about the way it hit the back of your throat roughly and caused tears to spill down your cheeks at the feeling.

She only pushed your head away once she was satisfied and your lips pulled away with a string of saliva clinging to her length and your face hot and wet with tears and bleary eyes, she only pointed to the bed and you followed her gesture obediently, lying back with your head on her pillows as she climbed over your body. Her gaze was predatory, the stroke of the back of her fingers down the skin of your cheek shocked you but the soft look on her face wasn’t completely honest. Yes, she looked at you admiringly but more as though you were in need of her help, the sacrificial lamb she was saving from slaughter - this was for your own good.

She pushed her lips to yours and caught the yelp you let out into her mouth when she pushed into your dripping cunt without any warning, she eased into you slowly, stretching you out and coating her cock with your arousal before pulling out and thrusting into you again to begin her harsh pace.

She grabbed the hands that clung to her back, linking her fingers with yours and pushing them into the mattress either side of your body whilst she continued to fuck you

“This is for your own good, you know?” She breathed through grunts of her own from her clit rubbing on the strap as she fucked you, growing closer to climax with each snap of her hips into yours. “Dirty sinners like you need to be fucked pure, isn’t that right?”

You couldn’t even answer her, too mesmerised by the sight above you. Her body hovering over yours, fitted shirt still on her body with her collar still fixed around her neck and the crucifix necklace she always wore swinging rhythmically above your face. The silver pendant shone in the light as it swayed.

“Isn’t that right?” She repeated sternly with her hand now squeezing at your throat and lusting eyes boring into yours.

“Y-yes, yes.” You nodded, cutting yourself off with a moan as Wanda’s pace increased, growing rougher if that was even possible. You could hear her pushing into you, the small thuds of the bed and the shaking of the wooden crucifix on the wall, threatening to fall if she fucked you any harder.

“You belong to me.” She uttered, bringing her lips beside your ear. “I’m your fucking God. Now, be a good little devoted catholic girl and fucking cum all over my dick.”

With the way her voice rasped and her thumb rubbed over your clit, it took practically seconds for you to scream her name, your body hot and shaking as your back arched off the bed and your eyes scrunched closed. Her own orgasm was close behind and you both took a few moments to catch your breaths before she left you empty and discarded her strap across the room.

She lay beside you where you looked at the ceiling in a daze and musingly dragged her fingertip over the drying blood on your chest.

“I don’t think you’re quite pure yet.”

“I s’pose I need more of this penance then.”

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff #wanda x you #wanda maximov #wanda marvel #wanda maximoff smut #wanda x y/n #wanda maximoff x you #wanda mcu

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sunshineandrosesnoraincamemyway · 2 months

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There are several different areas of how youth ministries work that I have major issues with.

teenagers are taught appallingly little theology. We got three sermons on David and Bathsheba in a year telling us not to have sex, but not a single one on the process of sanctification. (like, seriously is that the only story in the Bible that you can find to teach this lesson with? Last I checked there was an ENTIRE BOOK about not awakening love until its time. I digress). No real theology is taught, everything is overly simplistic with the flimsy excuse of "keeping the messages simple in case someone who has never heard the gospel is in the room." They are supposed to be preparing students for adulthood, but they give the group with the most questions the least amount of answers

There is also little to no Church history being taught. In tenth grade I studied Church history for school (because I was homeschooled and feel called to missions, more on that later) and I would bring up that I was learning about Athanasius, or the Counter Reformation, or Dietrich Bonhoffer, and my friends had never heard of these people and events that helped shape what we believe and how it plays out in our lives. I'm not saying I expect them to be an expert, but to have no familiarity with those who came before us is mind boggling to me.

There are no resources or help for students feeling a call to ministry. I have felt a call to international missions since I was eight years old, and I go to a church with a huge emphasis on missions. So you'd think they'd be excited and jumping on the opportunity to teach me what that looks like, help me figure out ways to start preparing so that I'm making the most of my time, right? Wrong. I was told that it was cool that I felt this call but I was acting like i was better than everyone else and I needed to focus on the lessons they had and I had time to figure out my calling when I was older. I'm thankful that my parents have ways encouraged me in this calling, and I was able to create my own plan to prepare me as best I could for a life of missions. (i won't go into what exactly the plan was here, but I believe it was a wise one and I'd be happy to answer any questions about it.) I look at my peers and my friends who are still in youth, and there are so many who are feeling a call to ministry, and they are coming to me for advice. We are the all or nothing generation, there is no more sitting on the fence. Imagine what it would look like if we took our youth seriously when they say they feel called to ministry! I've graduated now, and if I had taken the advice of those who told me I was too young to know of I was called to missions to not I would have missed out on over ten years of studying the Bible, how to communicate the gospel to people of other religions, praying for people groups where no one knows Jesus. TEN YEARS! How is this acceptable?

Anyways, TLDR the only reason I know what i do of the Bible is because I took it upon myself to study, and the sad truth is most students don't even know enough to make that decision. We have the reverse problem of 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, where students are longing for solid food, but we are only fed milk.

#Found this in my drafts and it's still true

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eternal-echoes · 30 days

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“As the logic goes, "Who would buy a car without first test-driving it?" The obvious problem with such a question is that a person is not a something that you can return to the used-car lot if you aren't satisfied with its performance. A spouse is not something you trade in after ten years, when newer models appear on the market. Furthermore, while compatibility makes marriages more enjoyable, the survival of a marriage depends more upon the couple's ability to work through their incompatibilities.

One single man explained that he assumed cohabitation would predict greater stability in marriage because, "If you are truly compatible, then you don't have to change."1 Such a comment reveals an immature view of human love. One of the purposes of marriages is sanctification. Through marriage, one's faults rise to the surface like oil in water so that the couple can correct them, thus growing in love and holiness. Such a purification of one's love might be a painful process, but it will forge a marriage that can last for ages. If a man is unwilling to change and be refined by the fire of authentic love, how will he last through good times and bad, sickness and health?”

-Jason and Crystalina Evert, How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul

1 Whitehead and Popenoe, “Why Men Won’t Commit.”

Note: Earlier in the book Jason and Crystalina Evert warns against missionary dating (getting into relationship hoping to change the person) so I don’t believe that they mean that marriage is forcing the other person to change, but inspires each other to be a better person in order to reach Heaven. Because sanctification is the process to become saints and for most lay people, that is what marriage is for.

#Relationships #dating #love #quotes #Christian marriage #Jason Evert #Crystalina Evert #How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul

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walkswithmyfather · 8 months

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Romans 8:28‭-‬32 (AMP). “And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. For those whom He foreknew [and loved and chose beforehand], He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [and ultimately share in His complete sanctification], so that He would be the firstborn [the most beloved and honored] among many believers. And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified [declared free of the guilt of sin]; and those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity]. What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be [successful] against us? He who did not spare [even] His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”

“May all things work together for your good as the Lord lights up every room you walk into.” Amen. 🙏

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beanlot · 2 years

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How does Ellie and Abby differ in bed? Love ur fics, ur always bringing something new to the table 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

ellie is hands on.

she understands how much you relish just the mere stroke on your hip, just as much as she savours how your skin reacts under the sanctification that was her fingertips - she’d unearth every fragile nerve in your body, nerves you hadn’t known existed, and only would amplify their sensitivity with just her fingers. sometimes, you’d underestimate the true divinity of them; you’d forget how saintly they’d slew inside of you, only to be reminded of what promised land she’d send you to when she’d twine them inside your pussy so skilfully. being rewarded with your whines and whimpers in her ear was nothing more than narcotic utopia, only using her tongue on your neck and collarbone - potentially your breasts every now and then when her fingers were short of vigour.

personally, i don’t think ellie is much of a dirty talker. she presents herself as very reserved and vanilla, but that’s only skimming the surface on a superficial level - in her lewd temper, ellie might not be afraid to delve into such pornographic words about how perfect your cunt looks from here, or if you like what she’s doing to you.

but in terms of kinks, ellie would like to regard herself as experimental with you - but after spitting in your mouth or having her hands bound by rope, she prefers things being raw and.. simple. generally, ellie is more of a make love to you and let me appreciate your body person rather than having her wrists torrent with irritation from such harsh bondage or seeing the decimation of your skin with her bite marks, which she feared would disappoint you.

and of course, she’s a switch - orchestrating herself with such duality that sometimes, she was serene enough to ask you to eat her out, have you tongue-deep inside her. sometimes it was 50/50, other times it was 30/70, or even 80/20. but on the days where you had done most of the work and hadn’t came, she’d remain persistent in making it up to you through the boiling guilt in her chest; this could be from giving you more orgasms than intended, guzzling at your clit under the dinner table, or joining your showers with her strap - which was as much of a reward for her as it was for you.

finally, ellie’s aftercare is nothing short of heavenly. she’s your sweetheart, even on the days she’d be blighted after a session - it was always you that she insisted be overindulged. whether it was her washing the bed with scents of ocean fervour and citrus; having you lay on her lap whilst she’d spray cucumber serum on your skin, or stimulating ticklish patterns on your waist and admiring how godly seraphic you look in the dusk, all whilst contemplating what animation to watch.

now this is where shit gets rough, because..

abby’s a biter.

honestly, i see abby the complete antithesis to ellie in bed. maybe it’s the brawny figure, the callous irises bleached with such ascendancy that she strikes me as someone who likes to hunt you. where ellie likes to use her hands, abby is one to know that her mouth is her paramount - her tongue is superlatively impulsive on your body, inviting itself wherever it wished: your mouth, your breasts, your hips, your clit. and eventually, her primal instincts became axiomatic, because her teeth were as entitled as her tongue. she’d bite at your shoulders, your lips, your nipples, thighs - and if her urges desired, she’d test the waters with her teeth sampling your clit. which was rather detrimentally agonising on your end and often resulted in establishing timeouts for her, but some days, it was your cup of tea.

i mean put it this way, the only time abby would use her hands had to be necessary, whether this was through stripping you or keeping your legs still to finish slurping at your folds; this usually meant a lot of your sex was facesitting in the gym whilst she used weights, calibrating to being perched upon the dresser before a night out with your leg on her shoulder, adjusting to the tremor in your thighs when you’d cum on her lips.

and abby knows she’s freaky - i’d say she prefers to keep the sex between you dynamic, the adrenaline of exploring kinks like no other refreshment. you’d cottoned on that abby already acknowledged herself to be a sadist, and decided to serrate the blunt edges with conversations on your personal fantasies; some you regret talking about, such as abby’s fantasy to fuck you whilst you slept, or the ongoing discussions about if she could whip you so you could get a taste of the disciplinary raw strength behind her arms. because she liked reprimanding you, and this was often the case when you’d nosedived into the rabbit hole of disharmony and conflict - because you learnt (and so did owen) that abby was one for hate sex. she likes to broadcast her barbarity on your body, and personally, i think this fuels abby’s potential to dirty talk - often resulting in belligerent hisses in your ear about what a fucking whore everyone thinks you are, and how fucking dare you speak to her like that.

and although the sex between the both of you seemed toxic and violent, it was your love language - because you know in the complex roots that abby is, she maintains so much love towards you; it’s safe to say that abby is a shatterproof top.

finally, abby’s aftercare is the antipode to ellie’s. whilst ellie would typically be giving herself up to you through acts of service - abby is in the simplest of words, a bellyacher. and it goes a little something like:

my muscles ache, babe.

fuck, my hip.

think i pulled something.

you’d be the one picking up the fragments she’d left of you, susceptible to the irony of her complaints; sometimes it would be through bathing in the puddle of sweat that you both were whilst her face would burrow itself between your breasts, which sometimes only activated another hour long session when her tongue would stroke against your nipple. other times, it could be ambling yourself to the kitchen to make her a hot brew and massaging muscle cream into the most delicately sculptured parts of her body. and it was these moments where, although she treasured you, it was just mere realisation that she was so grateful

that out of the billions of people on this planet, you were the one she met.

#ellie williams x reader #abby anderson x reader #ellie williams #abby anderson #ellie williams smut #abby anderson smut #the last of us #ellie x reader x abby #howdoesellie #howdoesabby

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ladytemeraire · 6 months

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Actually no re: that post from @kintatsujo, one of my favorite details in Hunchback of Notre Dame comes at the end of Hellfire

Because yes, Hellfire is the one of the greatest villain songs of our age, I will die on this hill; Frollo is the most terrifying and monstrous Disney villain of Disney in general and the Disney Renaissance in particular because there is no magic, no mythology, no godhood – there is just a man and his bigotry and his lust struggling against his sacred duty —

And yet —

At the very end of Hellfire, Frollo holds the last note of "she will be mine or she will burn" for a ridiculously long time, long enough for the main chorale leitmotif to play out in its entirety, and even before he drops the note the choir has disappeared and Frollo is left alone in a cold-toned stone corridor.

There is no Inquisition here; there is no sacred choir, there is no church or Church (he's not even in Notre Dame, he's in his own personal quarters), there is no promise of divine retribution, there is no Hellfire. There is simply a man in the cold dark stone corridors of his quarters, squaring with his own insatiable desire and guilt against the responsibilities of his office and the divine calling, with nobody to hear or witness but the wind whistling.

(Contrast literally all of Sanctuary, where Notre Dame herself and implicitly the saints and even God work to free Quasimodo, rescue Esmeralda, and subsequently protect and defend those who stand against injustice, and thus excoriate and ultimately destroy those who oppress the innocent and oppose the will of God. The choir absolutely demands a plea for salvation from the fires of Hell over the course of this scene from long before the moment Frollo ignites Esmeralda's pyre, culminating in "Save me, immolated Savior, who opens the gates of heaven; hostile wars oppress, give vigor, bring salvation; be the glory everlasting, glory, glory, always glory, in the highest" with the sopranos absolutely belting sanctus sanctus in excelsis landing as Quasimodo frees Esmeralda and bellows Sanctuary — the compassion and will of God comes down embodied in Quasimodo to free one injustly condemned, and then continues in Quasimodo and in Notre Dame herself to defend holy ground and repel injust invaders looking to desecrate her grounds in the name of false piety. What counsel shall be called to defend, when even the just man can hardly be secure?)

Frollo spends the entirety of Hellfire justifying himself and his actions, begging for forgiveness and absolution and justification, and at the end it's just him. He has been offered sanctification - every time he pleads "it's not my fault, I'm not to blame" the choir echoes mea culpa, mea maxima culpa (by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault), and so in the end It's just him. It is his own finger-pointing and condemnation turned inward, and it's such a good visceral and physical representation of how isolating that rigid mentality and false piety can be from actual repentance, forgiveness, and grace.

#ladytemeraire talks about fictional characters #The Hunchback of Notre Dame #favorite movie alert #formative influences #small in the presence of glory #here I stand; I can do no other #anyway Hunchback is GOOD and I will go to the mat for it any day of the week #the defense of Notre Dame can go toe to toe with the defense of Hogwarts do not @ me

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artsyunderstudy · 3 months

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hey, it’s the someone wicked anon again. you answered that beautifully and with so much grace<3 i completely see where you’re coming from with the repression aspect—that’s partly why i wondered whether my question would sound stupid, because the entire premise of the story is sexual freedom, and here i was asking why simon didn’t give up sex work at the end. and even though there’s still some things i disagree with, i think the point of good literature is to make people reflect on and challenge their beliefs, and you definitely achieved that. you have such a mastery of language and character-building—it was a joy to read. you dealt with this tricky topic in a really mature, thoughtful way. the research is evident. it’s a lovely, lovely piece of work, and it’s going to stay with me for a long time. you’ve given me a whole new perspective to think about—thank you.

Thank you so much for this response, I'm glad I was able to articulate my views on the matter well. I'm really heartened to hear that the story made you reflect on those perspectives.

I come from a very religious, conservative family and I've had to spend a lot of time challenging the beliefs I grew up with. And where some of my gut reactions stem from. I think that connecting and listening to people who have vastly different life experiences and perspectives from me has been key to me growing. (Though I still fuck up all the time.) I think empathy is how we bridge gaps, and I want to encourage empathy in my writing.

I was speaking to a friend the other day about how complicated a topic this is to write about. It's complicated because of the implicit bias we have as a culture toward sex work, and the sanctification of sex in general. I think people are drawn to sex worker erotica because there's something forbidden and tantalizing about it. Or, and often in the same story, it's a savior narrative. And it's all predicated on this idea of all people in sex work being victims of circumstance, and that it's something shameful. The truth is more mundane. It is a job that some people enjoy and some people don't, where there may or may not be exploitation. I also saw a post recently about how we are exploited in all sorts of professions, but we normalize it. In sex work, we sensationalize it. (Which often leads to more bias toward the sex worker themselves, not toward the systematic issues that allow that kind of exploitation.) It's just something I've been thinking about.

Anyway, it's complicated. And there's no story you can write about it that's going to please every reader, no matter the perspective. But I'm glad that mine allowed you to empathize even while not being fully on board with all decisions made. It means a lot to know that.

original ask here

#ask #someone wicked

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hiswordsarekisses · 3 months

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Progressive sanctification is not a partnership with the Spirit in the sense that we each—the believer and the Holy Spirit—do our respective tasks. Rather, we work as he enables us to work. His work lies behind all our work and makes our work possible.

The Holy Spirit can and does work within us apart from any conscious response on our part. We see this in the initial act of sanctification when he creates within us a new heart and a new disposition toward God and his will. He’s not dependent on us to do this.

But we’re dependent on him to do our work; we cannot do anything apart from him. In the process of sanctification there are certain things only the Spirit can do, and certain things he has given us to do. For example, only he can create in our hearts the desire to obey God, but he does not obey for us. We must do that, but we can do so only as he enables us.

So we must depend on the Spirit to do within us what only he can do. And we must equally depend on him to enable us to do what he has given us to do. Whether his work or our work, we’re dependent on him.

We aren’t just dependent on him; we’re desperately dependent. Because we so often equate Christ-like character with ordinary morality, we fail to realize how impossible it is for us to attain any degree of conformity to Christ by ourselves. But if we take seriously the many Christ-like character traits we’re to put on, we see how impossible it is to grow in Christ-likeness apart from the sanctifying influence and power of the Spirit.

~ Jerry Bridges

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25

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3rdeyeblaque · 9 months

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Today we venerate Ancestor Bishop C.H. Mason on his 157th birthday 🎉

Bishop C.H. Mason founded the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), THE largest Black American pentecostal church in the U.S. In doing so, he preserved and cultivated the religious culturesof our Afrikan ancestors while fighting for ourreligious freedom of expression and integration in the church house.

Brother Mason born to former slaves in Shelby County, TN. Due to his family's impoverished status, young Mason worked as a sharecropper and did not receive a formal education. Yet he still learned how to read and write. As a child, Mason was greatly influenced by the religion of his parents and other former slaves. He admired their prayer rituals, spontaneous singing, & shouting. At age 12, he embraced the Afro-Baptist faith and was later baptized in his older brother’s church.

In 1895, Brother Mason met Charles Price Jones, a popular Baptist preacher from Mississippi. Mason and Jones started preaching the doctrine of holiness and sanctification together in local Baptist churches, which led to their expulsion from the Baptist & Methodist churches. They, and others, established the Church of God and Church of Christ. Their movement consisted of both Black and White folk were grossly dissatisfied with mainstream denominations. From COGIC’s inception, Brother Mason ordained and allowed whites to join his denomination. He dreamed of an integrated church and believed that all races were entitled to equal rights and authority therein. Their principal belief was that being sanctified was an internal experience that resulted in external changes within individuals & their communities. They taught their followers to seek higher spiritual development and encouraged them to rekindle the dynamism of "slave religion".

In 1897, Brother Mason established St. Paul COGIC in an old cotton gin located in Lexington, Mississippi. He then started using the name “Church of God in Christ”, because, "God told him that if he used that name it would cause people to follow him". By 1904, Brother Mason established pastoring 4 churches: St. Paul in Lexington, Saints Home and Dyson Street in Memphis, and a COGIC church in Conway, AR.

In 1907, he attended an interracial service in Los Angeles, CA. After which, he declared that he'd experienced a spiritual metamorphosis and that he now believed in speaking in tongues. This is what spurred Jones and others to excommunicate him from their Holiness association. This ultimately led to Brother Mason and Jones’s 12yr partnership ending over theological differences, rights to church properties, ecclesiastical power, and the COGIC name itself. After 3 years of legal battles, in 1911, Mason’s legal victories catapulted him into historical prominence and placed COGIC in the Mid-South’s religious pantheon.

Brother Mason was also an outspoken conscientious objector. He was arrested in 1918 and probed by the FBI for teaching pacifism and encouraging Brothas to refuse being drafted into WW I and II.

By the early 20th century, the Black Christian middle class frowned upon any & everything associated with Mother Africa. They believed shouting, dancing, & especially speaking in tongues, were shameful & hindered Black progress. Defiantly, Brother bMason encouraged his followers to embrace their Afrikan heritage and gave them space to express themselves in church. He allowed the working classes to dance shout, testify, speak in tongues, string musical instruments, & sing gospel. His preservation of the Afrikan heritage, freedom of religious expression, & leadership spearheaded COGIC’s astronomical growth.

In the 1920s, COGIC had 30K members &, as a result of the Great Migration, 68.7% percent worshiped in urban cities. By the 1930s, COGIC was an urban phenomenon. During the Great Depression, Brother Mason’s churches fed and clothed poor Whites and Black Peoples across Memphis

Today, it has an estimated 6.5 million members and 12,000 congregations. COGIC is the largest African American denomination in the United States, with eight million members worldwide.

We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his passion & commitment to the preservation & cultivation of our Central/West Afrikan cosmologies, cultures, & belief systems via our religious of expression.

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

Offering suggestions: COGIC bible/prayer offerings, water libations, gospel songs of praise/dance

#hoodooheritage #ATR #ATRs #hoodootradition #TheHoodooCalendar #ancestors #veneration #theblackchurch #ancestorveneration #bishopchmason #cogic #cogicchurch #og #deepsouth

#bishop ch mason #cogic #cogicchurch #black America #black Christians #ancestor elevation #ancestor #hoodoo #hoodoos #atr #the hoodoo calendar #atrs #conjure

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ae-neon · 1 year

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Controversial ACOTAR Crackship?

This is just my opinion, I'm not an unbiased source. Don't like? Just scroll

Was explaining to my lovely mutual how :

Feyris is what Fey.sand should have been (and is actually better than Ne.ris) because the material conditions necessary to "excuse" bad behaviour exists for Eris but don't exist for R.hys

(and for some reason F.eyre's narrative is obsessed with excusing / always explaining why her side have the moral high ground 🙄😕 so, here's how it might actually work and not come off as cognitive dissonance + hypocritical nonsense)

R.hys has been the HL for his court for over 400 years. He is the Most Powerful™ and his nepotism circle are the Most Powerful™

Eris on the other hand is still under the very real threat of his father and his brothers as well as being isolated and lonely. This makes the "mask" necessary and, more importantly, BELIEVABLE.

Therefore F.eyre's (+the narrative's) exoneration and sanctification of the love interest doesn't come off as hamfisted and self righteous as in canon.

It also doesn't force F.eyre to give up her action heroine archetype as the overall plot of the AC is one of an impending rebellion (the Illyrians don't count, they are no threat and especially no threat in comparison to B.eron and an Autumn succession war)

It would fit for F.eyre to be the bridge that reconnects Lucien to Eris as she has/ would have a separate personal relationship with both (Nesta doesn't work here)

As always I maintain the Valkyrie plotline belongs to her and it actually makes sense for there once to have been a female warrior group who now no longer exist in the current sexist climate (aka Beron's reign) this could be a key point in the rebellion (again I'm not a warrior Nesta supporter so she doesn't fit)

Also fits F.eyre as liberation figure, to help the AC rebellion, cause she's doing fokol for the Illyrian women.

It even makes more sense for Eris to have a secret enclave he considers his home outside the capital

And last but not least Eris has no mind fuck abilities so even the idea of manipulation or threat of control

(this is where the opposite pairing does have merit because Nesta isn't as vulnerable to R.hys' mind fuck powers or even his plain old manipulation, he could never convince her to get half naked or pretend she's a sexual pet)

#rare censored post #rarepair #feyris

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orthodoxadventure · 6 months

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"I say that the Virgin Mary could not be sanctified before Her conception, inasmush as She did not exist. If, all the more, She could not be sanctified in the moment of Her conception by reason of the sin which is inseparable from conception, then it remains to believe that She was sanctified after She was conceived in the womb of Her mother. This sanctification, if it annihilates sins, makes holy Her birth, but not Her conception. No one is given the right to be conceived in sanctity; only the Lord Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and He alone is holy from His very conception. Excluding Him, it is to all descendants of Adam that must be referred that which one of them says of himself, both out of a feeling of humility and in acknowledgement of the truth: "Behold I was conceived in iniquities" (Ps. 50:7). How can one demand that this conception be holy, when it was not the work of the Holy Spirit, not to mention that it came from concupiscence? The Holy Virgin, of course, rejects that glory which, evidently, glorifies sin. She cannot in any way justify a novelty invented in spite of the teaching of the Church, a novelty which is the mother of imprudence, the sister of unbelief, and the daughter of light-mindedness) -- Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Catholic Church

#Saint Bernard of Clairvaux #Christianity #Theotokos #Blessed Virgin Mary #theology

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 7 months

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Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

The Heavenly Inheritance (1 Peter 1:1-12)

“To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered. .. who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” It is a sweet pleasure to be chosen to be a friend even by a true and noble man, to have a pure and loving heart turn to us and choose us from among many for regard, affection and interest. But it is far more precious to know that God has chosen us to be His friends. His children. Jesus said of His disciples, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”

We are told also that we love God because He first loved us. Instead of puzzling our brains over the doctrine of “election,” let us accept the sweet thought which such words as these bring to our hearts. How sacred it makes our life seem to think of it in this way!

“Through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.” When God chooses us to be His children, He also provides for making us holy and fit to be partakers of the heavenly inheritance. The word “sanctification” has two senses. It means a setting apart. The Father chooses us and the Holy Spirit sets us apart as God’s. We belong to Him and are sacred to His uses. Then the word means also the actual cleansing of the nature making it holy. The Spirit enters into our heart and makes His home there, purifying the fountains of life and overcoming and driving out the evils of the flesh. The blood of Christ also has a part in the making holy of those whom the Father has chosen. We are redeemed by His blood. The blood cleanses from all sin. Thus the three persons of the Trinity are active in the saving of everyone who is saved: The Father chose, the Son made atonement, and the Holy Spirit purifies and sanctifies .

We enter God’s spiritual family by a new birth. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope.” In our natural state we are not ready for life in God’s household. A wicked man, with an unholy heart, could never be happy in heaven. He cannot even be happy in a prayer meeting on earth. We must have holy feelings, desires and affections, before we are prepared for living in a holy atmosphere. The kingdom of heaven must come into our heart before we can enter into the kingdom. So God provides that when we receive Christ, the Holy Spirit renews and changes our nature, giving us the child - heart. We see here also that it is not for anything in ourselves that God has chosen us, changed our heart, and taken us into His family but “according to his great mercy.” Mercy always implies unworthiness. We are saved through the grace and love of God.

There is a glimpse here, too, of the blessedness of the Christian’s hope. It is a “living” hope. We are born again to an inheritance of life, eternal life. Our hope itself is living and eternal. Earth’s best things are uncertain, and at their best are only for a time. But the hope of the Christian is immortal. It is guaranteed by Christ’s resurrection. He conquered death, and all who rest upon Him live with Him for evermore.

“An incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance reserved in heaven for you.” Here we see what our living hope is. It is an inheritance, a free gift to us, something which comes to us from our Father. It is not like earthly inheritances, however, for they are liable to waste or to be lost. This inheritance is “incorruptible,” that is, it is not subject to decay but is eternal. It is “undefiled.” Some earthly inheritances pass down to children stained in the getting. An honest old man, dying, said to his sons, “I do not leave you very much but there is not a dirty shilling in it all.” He meant that every penny of it had been honestly earned. This is not always true of this world’s inheritances. Too often there is many a stained shilling in them. But the heavenly inheritance is absolutely without stain. It is purchased for us at the price of Christ’s blood, and comes to us from our Father’s hands, white with heaven’s own purity.

Another thing about it, is that it fades not away. Earthly inheritances often fade away, leaving the inheritor in poverty. This inheritance is beyond the reach of robber and money panic and all shrinking in values. It never can be taken from us. It is not in any banks or investments of earth but is laid up for us in heaven, reserved there in security until we get home.

“Who are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” Not only is the inheritance kept in secure reserve for us but we are guarded on the way to receive the inheritance. This is very important. The world is full of dangers through which we must pass to get to heaven. On every hand there are enemies. We could never get safely to the blessedness laid up for us if we had no protection along the way. But we are guarded by the divine power. God Himself is with us always, sheltering us with His wings of love, keeping us. Our part is faith resting in the divine keeping, simply going forward in the way of duty, leaving to God the guarding of our lives.

“You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to be distressed by various trials.” For a little while the Christian is to be tried. “Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning.” We can surely bear trial a little while. Then, there is a “need be” in the trial. There is a blessing which God has to give us that we cannot get in any other way. The purifying of the gold never can be gotten without fire. Not to be cast into the hot furnace is to keep the dross. God never chastens unless there is a “need be.”

“These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Again, the grief is caused by “trials” which are testings of faith, so that it may shine at length in glory at the appearing of Christ. So we ought not to be troubled by our trials. There is a blessing in them. As the rough, unsightly ore, by passing through the fire, yields at last bright, shining gold so our weak faith, with its admixture of self-will and pride and evil is purified by the fires of trial, so that at last it appears before God to receive praise, honor and glory.

“Though you have not seen Him you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him.” The love of Christ will keep us in temptation and trial. The secret of a faithful, true and beautiful life is this love of the unseen Friend. Drummond tells of a young girl who became wondrously beautiful in her life and character, growing into a rare Christlikeness. Her friends wondered what the secret could be. She wore upon her breast a little locket, which she always kept closed, refusing to allow anyone to see within it. Once, however, when she was very ill, a friend was permitted to open it and found there only a little piece of paper, bearing the words, “Whom not having seen I love.” This told the whole story. Her love for the unseen Christ was the secret of that beautiful spiritual life which had so impressed itself upon her friends.

The secret of the life of Moses is given in one phrase, “He endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” Faith is better than sight. If we believe and love the unseen Friend, our life will be firm and steadfast in all trial, and will be transformed little by little into the beauty of Christ.

“Though you have not seen Him you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” We find here two blessings resulting from the love for the unseen Savior. One is unspeakable joy, even in a life of sore trial. The other is “salvation.” We need but to continue faithful unto the end, to receive the full and glorious inheritance.

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care.” Both earth and heaven are intensely interested in this great redeeming work of Christ. There are smart men who are so busy in their researches into little earthly matters that they cannot get time to study the things of the spiritual kingdom of God. Here, however, we see that in heaven’s sight, nothing in this world so merits the thought, study and research of the wisest beings in the universe, as Christ’s work of redemption.

The interest of the angels in Christ’s sufferings as the Redeemer is very beautiful. There is a picture by Domenichino which represents the scene on Calvary, on the evening after the Savior’s body had been taken down and laid in the grave. The cross is empty. An angel stands beside the crown of thorns which lies there, feeling with the point of his finger one of the sharp points. His face wears a look of mystery and wonder. He is trying to find out the meaning of suffering. Angels in heaven know nothing of pain by personal experience. The artist’s thought is that to this angel, the sufferings of Christ were a great mystery which he was trying to understand. The same thought is suggested in the words, “Which things angels desire to look into.” Surely it is worth while to give thought and attention to the great and wonderful things of Christ, since even the highest angels find in them mystery worthy of their deepest study. Nothing else in all the ranks of knowledge, is so worthy of our deepest study and most diligent research and investigation, as is the glorious gospel of the blessed God!

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wolint · 1 day

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THE POTTER’S WHEEL!

THE POTTER’S WHEEL

Jeremiah 18:1-9

We’ve all probably played with mud, real mud or play dough. Whichever you played with, you remember how it felt to run your hands through the wet mud and mould something out of it.

Consider how painstaking and deliberate the potter is to fashion the humble mud we step on into those beautiful porcelain products we admire, buy, and collect. The potter shapes the mud into whatever form and design he wants; the mud has no say in how it turns out.

Just as the mud has no input in what it becomes, we too cannot tell the Lord (our Potter) what to do, what to make us into, and how we are fashioned. God, the Master Potter, took clay and formed man with a prosperous and powerful result in mind, yet He moulded and shaped us into something beautiful according to 1 Corinthians 15:49, into Christ’s image.

God speaks to us in tangible ways using life all around us and if we listen to Him and place our lives in His hands as mud on a potter’s wheel, He fashions us into that beautiful porcelain He wants us to be. We try daily to make ourselves into what and who we think we should be, we try constantly to shape ourselves into the image that we think is acceptable, fashioned by our circumstances and experience.

We weren’t just made, we were wonderfully and fearfully made according to Psalm 139:14. No matter the blemish the clay has, the potter is still able to squash the clay into a mound and reshape it into a likeness that pleases him. No matter how rough the mud, there is always going to be hope for the tarnished mud, because the potter will never discard the clay, He will merely remould it. In and of itself, the clay was good, but it becomes better in the potter’s hands. The potter’s wheel is the place of change, the place of transformation, and the place of renewal. Regardless of the damage done to our hearts, a new heart can only be granted by the Lord as declared in Ezekiel 36:26. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” declares 1 John 1:9. At which, the transformation and sanctification of our hearts and lives begin on the potter’s wheel. We are all clay on the potter’s wheel, where God is shaping us into individual vessels that He wants to use for His glory.

As much as we’d like to reshape ourselves, we will always be unable to mould ourselves aright. We will therefore need to ask the sovereign Lord to mould us into His way of salvation, and He will not abandon us because we are the work of His hands, says Isaiah 64:8.

We must constantly ask ourselves the question in verse 6 and answer honestly. Can God not do with us as our maker what He wills? If God can reshape Israel, He certainly can reshape us. The only way we can become the treasures God fashioned out of clay according to 2 Corinthians 4:7 is to constantly remain on the potter’s wheel where only the Lord can help us overcome every struggle with our human frailty, weaknesses, and imperfections.

Whatever change we desire, God the Potter can reshape, remake, and remould us into the treasure He made us to be, even when we don’t understand the shape, we must trust Him to bring out our potentials in Him.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, thank you for moulding me into a vessel fit for your purpose. May I always remember to come to you for fixing in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

WOMEN OF LIGHT INT WOMEN MIN.

#spotify #devotional #christianpost #women's ministry #biblestudy #biblestudy christianpost women's ministry #biblestudy christianpost 'women's ministry #conference #family #prayer meeting

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sanctity-in-sexuality · 18 days

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What do you think about a couple going into a marriage with the intent to immediately start practicing NFP? My boyfriend and I have been discussing our future plans and considered the idea of delaying the first child for maybe about a year or so in order to have time to focus on getting settled into a new home/anticipated career changes and to build a strong financial foundation. We would absolutely be open to life and so NFP wouldn't be something to be anal over; even if we conceived a child immediately upon getting married, we would be eager and capable of supporting them, but we just thought that it may be wise to wait a little because life would be very hectic with lots of major changes at once if that happened. We know one couple who has done this exact plan and the husband reports that it worked perfectly for them. But we also have a trusted unmarried friend who strongly advised that starting off a marriage on NFP isn't great because you'd ideally don't want to be "holding back" anything once you get married, and that NFP should be the exception rather than the rule. We talked to our priest as well and he said that while there's nothing wrong with it in that you wouldn't incur sin, he also agreed that there's significant merit in NOT starting off on that note. We are not insistent on the idea to begin with and are both very open to this perspective as well, but I'm curious to hear more people's thoughts on this, especially from married persons. Thank you!

Hello,

The priest has the right idea. Your reasons can be prudential and justified, but it is turning down a potential opportunity for sanctification that might benefit you in other ways. Imo, this is a situation in which there is an objectively best option, and then an inferior but still acceptable option that might be subjectively best for your current state in life.

My husband and I actually did something very similar to what you described. We got married shortly after graduating college and agreed that we would like to avoid pregnancy for the first year-ish in order to create a good, solid foundation of marriage before bringing kids into the picture. Namely, both of us settling into our first professional jobs, building good habits together, learning how to balance marriage with post-college adult life, and establishing a Catholic community in a new city so that we wouldn't become isolated once we had a baby. It worked out well for us. (Unfortunately, we did end up having to wait an additional year for unrelated health reasons).

Now, having a baby right away within our first year would be a kind of trial by fire that would have afforded enormous opportunity to grow together spiritually and test our trust in God, and perhaps objectively this would be best. However, we didn't feel like we were in the right space spiritually or mentally at that time to handle that level of challenge in a healthy manner, so avoiding was subjectively the better option for us until we felt better equipped. This was after a lot of careful thought and discussion.

Deciding whether to avoid or conceive requires prudence and should rarely be an easily-made decision. If you ultimately decide that is better for your family to wait initially, as you have outlined, my main advice to do so healthily is to revisit the decision with every cycle, and do not let it become the assumed "default". If you decide to avoid, it should be for the overall well-being of the whole family (e.g. not just so you can go on extra vacations). Avoiding conception specifically should feel at least a little bit like a personal sacrifice - denying something you desire (a child) for the time being in the name of overall family well-being. And you should be actively working to fix/overcome the obstacles that are proving a justifiable impediment (e.g. seeking counseling for mental health).

So long as you are open to life should it come unexpectedly, fully intend to have children, and are actively working to make that possible under prudent circumstances, you are fine.

God bless!

#ask #marriage #NFP #TTA #personally I think the opinion that you shouldnt get married unless you can and will have a baby right away is bogus #sometimes you need the graces offered in sacramental marriage first in order to work on impediments to childbearing

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walkswithmyfather · 1 year

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“Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf. And with my own body I supplement whatever is lacking [on our part] of Christ’s afflictions, on behalf of His body, which is the church.” —Colossians 1:24 (AMP)

“I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” —Colossians 1:24‭-‬29 (NLT)

“Christ in You” By In Touch Ministries:

“Our salvation is the work of Christ, and so is our sanctification every day that follows.”

“Paul wrote to the Colossians, “I rejoice in my sufferings” (1:24). Can you imagine yourself saying that? It’s a difficult claim to make, much less to adhere to day after day. In fact, that would be impossible for us to do on our own.

The apostle was able to have such an attitude only because he drew from Jesus’ strength—and the same is true for us. We can try to live the Christian life by our own efforts, but we won’t succeed. Jesus Himself told the disciples, “The one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

To live a healthy spiritual life, it’s essential to recognize that power has nothing to do with us; it comes from Christ in us. Our salvation is the work of God, as is every bit of our sanctification throughout the rest of earthly life. Not only does He transform us; He’s also the one who empowers us to obey and serve as we rely on Him. Paul understood how our responsibility and God’s power intersect. In verse 29 of today’s passage, he expressed it this way: “For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power which works mightily within me (NASB).”

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