#bible stories for children

[awidowgast]

okay okay okay, i have so many thoughts and they are all a bit jumbled but I NEED TO TALK ABOUT GOOD OMENS.

this season just hit me full force in the chest as someone who was brought up in a christian household and who is still slowly deconstructing.

i felt like i saw two halves of myself in crowley and aziraphale; the current version that is more jaded and disillusioned and the younger version that was so desperately hopeful and believing. crowley has some fond memories of heavenly duties, didn't hate every aspect of being angelic, and still generally believes in helping people, but has seen behind the curtain and has been rejected for it and now he can never see it the same. whereas aziraphale is still hanging on, he's still at the start of figuring it out - he thinks there are just bad apples and can fix it by giving his input.

and maybe he will change a few people's minds, but it is an "institutional problem". the foundation is rotten. he still thinks they are the good guys, and can't see that there never were any.

ugh, there's so much more to say here but i can't figure it out right now. just- mr. gaiman you menace! what have you done to me.

#good omens 2 spoilers #good omens #tw religious trauma #to be clear i loved the season even with the sad ending #amazing #there are so many layers here #like i could go into metaphors about internalized homophobia #and aziraphales fear of being bad #that went so much deeper this time around #the WHOLE job arc of the season #that story has fucking haunted me since i was like 7 years old and i read it in an illustrated childrens bible

[elliot-amy]

illustrations from My Book of Bible Stories (1978) by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

#jehovah’s witnesses #jehovahs witnesses #jw.org #my book of bible stories #this is a book for children I had as a kid

[noknowshame]

which veggie tales movie?

....The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

okay but tell me that 'costumed waiters who hate their job at a pirate-themed dinner theater get time-traveled to the actual golden age of piracy to go on a quest because the people that summoned them for said quest think that they're real pirates' isn't a great plot concept??

the story that I was writing (original, not fic) wasn't -exactly- like that, but it was close enough for it to upset me, and I could not muster the "two cakes!" mentality. thankfully, now I have combined that story with another wip I'd abandoned years ago, and now they've merged into a significantly more batshit and self-indulgent story I've been enjoying workshopping so much

#for those that don't know - Veggie Tales is SUPPOSED to be a show teaching children about Christianity #this movie doesn't talk about the bible -at all - which is so funny to me. they really said 'forget jesus we want pirates' #new story badly and vaguely summarized: #you know how you can break a computer by asking it impossible questions? that but with the 'a story is true. a story is untrue' problem

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

.

#- HK #had another novel idea based upon that news story about the mosaic at Armageddon being moved to the Museum of the Bible #and how it dates back to the time of Christian persecution by the Roman empire #and yet one of the chief donors to the construction of the church it’s in was a centurion #and now I have this character in my head who is the cynical and ambitious wife of a centurion #who likes him well enough before he converts but is disgusted and disappointed in him afterwards #not because he’s switched religions (this is just the Unknown God right?) but because he’s behaving like a ‘weak’ man #in deferring to her judgment and investing his own time in their children #and fraternizing with people so below their class and worthless in their utility #so she’s like. keeping his secret because Honor. but also hates him for embarrassing her in front of the slaves. #and then she finds out that Christians gather at NIGHT like the cult of BACCHUS?? and do CANNIBALISM?? nah fam she is not having it #but who knows….maybe. he’s found out and sentenced to die and maybe. she save him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #which would be a whole other can of fascinating worms to unpack bc maybe he WANTED to be a martyr maybe he was PREPARED #but I digress #it’d be a deep-study project but I’ve always been fascinated by the Romans so #x #writing

[katierosefun]

i’ll always have a weird relationship with religion and specifically christianity but the way i’ll always be at least a little glad that my parents brought me to church, solely because lil’ old me heard the pastor talk about how each and every story is about how humans long to go back to a home that they can never reach while they’re alive on this earth and maybe that did something to my brain. anyways humans are meant to tell stories and we all want to go home and we never know where that home is. if you even care

#caroline talks #tw religion #i just. [deep breath] #urhggugghgh the way i'll always have a weird ass relationship with christianity #but something i do appreciate about it. is that like. i remember my silly little children's bible #and how on the front page it was like 'above all else. this is a story about good defeating evil and fathers who love their children. #and this is a love story above all else.' #and UGHGHGHGGHGH for all my complicated feelings about christianity!!! if i just pause and look at that in isolation #with all the horrific things that people have done by using christianity and catholicism as an excuse #(THE PERVERSION OF LOVE OR WHATEVER) #ughghghgghghghg whatever it's now cloudy and 80 degrees where i am. so that means my brain is gonna be fuckign weird

[violetwolfraven]

God I hate Pinterest and I really need to stop reading the comments on literally any post on there

I just saw someone straight up say they’re afraid that show fans who haven’t read the books are going to take over and dominate the fandom and they’re afraid that their memories of the books are going to get overridden by memories of the show because of new show fans, and that’s a good reason to gatekeep.

Like okay, just say you’re a party pooper and go home.

Yeah this is about Percy Jackson but I’m not gonna tag it as that cause I don’t wanna get hunted for sport

#i say this as someone who read the books repeatedly as a kid #like was full on autistic hyperfixated on these books and would read one book in 2 days #and when i finished blood of olympus i would start back over and read from the lightning thief #i’m not exaggerating when i say i think i read each book at least 12 times #these books were so very important to me and i would not be the person i am today without them #and i have zero sympathy for people who want to gatekeep the story from people who didn’t read the books #like sorry i have real problems #and what exactly do you think you’re accomplishing beyond making someone’s day a little worse? #acting like there’s some pure pristine way to experience the story? give me a break #you can love one version of this story and let other people love another version #it took me a while to see that because i was a teenager who liked being angry but that includes the movies too #do i like the movies? not really #but there are people who do and in the end i don’t gain anything by shaming them #god there are some people who treat popular book series like the fucking bible #like it’s some moral crusade they have to go on to defend them from heretics who like the wrong version of the story #grow up and let people enjoy things #*this rant is not aimed at the children saying shit like this #*y’all will grow up and hopefully be more mature about what hills are worth dying on #*this is for the grown ass adults who act like it’s their sacred duty to shit on any changes made from the books #*and if it offends you then you probably need to take a step back and look at why you feel so threatened by other people enjoying things

[alinachau]

This Christmas season, we send our heartfelt greetings to you!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2024 from @PenguinWaterbrook @AlinaChau and @NancyTupperLing 

https://bio.site/rcbhelpcenteid998

#bible story #kidlit #poetry #children picture book #alinachau #watercolor #illustration #children book illustration

[queenlucythevaliant]

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Eugenides dwelt on the betrayal far more than he should have, for one who already had an answer. He returned to the altar again and again, but thoughts of the Mede, of Attolia with her green dress and impassive face, made him tongue-tied and stupid in his supplication. Praise came harder still.

At night, he dreamt the quaking, unsteady ground and his own feet struggling to find foothold. Perhaps there was more than one way to fall from his god’s hand.

When Attolia’s altar was erected and the day of his wedding drew near, Gen stood before the place and bitterly muttered, “I understand and accept your purpose, but I do not have to like it.” Gods, but it was still a heartbreak to look down at himself, with only one hand.

Who are you to speak of rights to the gods?

The whirlwind was stronger than he ever could have understood. Job shuddered in the face of it. Sackcloth and ashes do not make for comfortable clothing, but the whirlwind was worse. Dust flew through the biting air and stuck to his skin, his hair. His eyes burned with dryness.

The voice of the Lord was terrible, terrible, and Job could do nothing but swallow his complaint. No recourse. He was raw, laid open, and he could not bear his own smallness.

Gird up your loins like a man.

I push myself up, freeing myself from the coils of the bedsheets. Another day  devoured by the hungry locusts, which I can only hope to see returned in eternity. Another day lost.

When I feel my eyes begin to burn again, I cry out to God and He answers. So what if I do not like the answer?

Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?

Mara poured out vitriol and wondered how Ruth could stand to cleave to such a god as hers. The God of Israel took and took and when he gave, it was only with the intention of taking later. Mara knew. He had taken her yeled, her boys! and now she was empty. So, she could not be Naomi any longer.

Left alone with the daughter-in-law she loved best, she tried to fold her soul into a state of acceptance. She ate the meagre food they could still afford, which was still better than famine, and took pleasure in the sound of her native Hebrew. Mara, she whispered internally. Bitterness. Yeled. My boys.

The Almighty has brought calamity upon me.

The Stella Maris was freezing cold. This was a strange observation, since the onboard climate controls were calibrated to maintain a perfect room temperature of twenty degrees Celsius. Still, as he stared down at his ruined hands, Emilio Sandoz felt terribly cold.

If God had willed this, then there was no warmth left anywhere in the universe. Deus vult, Marc had repeated, but Marc was dead now. Anne was dead, and D.W., and Sofia, and all the rest, and it was either his own fault or God’s.  

Sometimes Emilio still caught himself thinking, “Please, have mercy on their souls, O God. Please have mercy on me, if it be your will.” God. He’d sworn he’d never pray that again.

And so, with nothing more to pray, Emilio could only watch his bandaged fingers seep blood, cold and desolate.

If I accept that the beauty and the rapture were real and true, then the rest of it was God’s will too, and that is cause for bitterness.

When Susan remembered Aslan, it was only as a sweet dream that she had long since outgrown; a lie, even if breathed through silver. If ever she had believed him real, she knew now that she must have been deluding herself. She’d left all that behind, years and miles ago. Only children comfort themselves on beautiful lies, and Susan was a child no longer.  

There were parties to attend, lipstick and nylons and invitations, enough to distract herself from the vicious weight of her heart. Susan started over in a new city and wished to be brilliant, to be dazzling and popular and beautiful, if she could not be strong.

Whenever she passed by the doors of a church, she trembled.

‘Course he’s not safe.

After she finished writing her complaint, Orual thought for a wild moment of burning it. Her anger was righteous, sure enough; but the god was a god. Foolish is the mortal who challenges the divine.

Instead, she wrapped her book in oilcloth and gazed at it a moment longer before setting it aside. She half expected the god to appear, glorious and absolute. If he did, she would meet him. Silently, Orual defied the god who had wronged her so grievously. Alright, she thought, give me the very worst you’ve got.  

Are you answered?

“Am I king?” asked Eugenides.

The voice from the heavens replied, “Am I god?”

Yes, said I.

Prayer is important—I would be dead without it—but it is very hard too. Hard to subordinate myself to a God whose mind I don’t understand. Hard to accept something called truth which cannot be proven empirically. Hard to grapple with theodicy and epistemology when my brain is entirely shrouded in fog two days in three, but necessary, so necessary, if I want to survive this.

I write prayers in my journal and I try not to make them read too much like letters. My friends will tell you that I am not very good at letters. I always overthink them. Elizabeth once told me that my birthday cards tend to read like the Declaration of Independence.

Still, writing my prayers does help, because I do want to think about them, because faith is not a feeling. I am trying hard to have faith, in spite of how I feel.

How long O Lord?

Habakkuk paced the watchtower until his knees complained, squinting at the horizon like it might somehow answer him. Surely, if God lived, He would take action. Surely, He would not leave his people to fend for themselves.

Yet all through the long watch of the night, as the lanterns burned low and the stars danced overhead, no sign came from the horizon. Silent and sullen sat the tree line, and beyond it the enemy slept peacefully in their beds. A night-bird chirped beneath the empty sky. The heavens might as well have been empty.

So, Habakkuk cried out to the God who did not act. “You who cannot look at wrong, why do you remain silent while the wicked swallows up the righteous? Where is your justice, oh holy God?” he bellowed.

The bird chirped again in the silence. And then God made His reply.

My legs tremble beneath me, yet I will wait quietly.

It was many, many years before Emilio could again say Deus vult with anything resembling joy. Bitterness gave way to grudging acceptance, and there he remained for a good long while. Grudging acceptance made a good midway point. It allowed him to stay the course for many years, somewhere between Christian and apostate, clinging to a God that he loved and hated in equal measure.

But one night, when Emilio was sitting with a child on his knee pointing a telescope up at Rakhat, he realized he could do little but laugh at the observation that perhaps God had always known what He was doing.

God is waiting for you, in the ruins.

Aslan was bigger than Susan remembered him: bigger than an elephant, bigger than a mountain, bigger even than the whole world. He stooped and the sweet, wild smell of his mane surrounded her.

“How can you still be so good to me, after everything I’ve done?”

The Lion spoke in a voice like summer thunder. “Dear child, I did not only die for Edmund. I paid for your treachery and for his, and for all the faltering hearts of my children. I purchased you out of the hands of evil and death. You saw.”

Susan brushed her hand across her cheek, feeling the stiff tears drying there. “I didn’t see. I covered my face.”

“That is not the point. I am Myself, child. Even when you have been faithless, I have always been faithful. Have I not told you? Things must always work according to their natures.”

But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

The boy in Naomi’s arms had chubby hands and perfect little fingernails. Her grandson was big and well fed. He cried loudly, but not often. He smiled like his mother, Naomi thought. Her little Obed.

He was not a replacement. Nothing could ever replace the sons that Naomi had lost. Yet the Lord had not left her empty. He had filled her arms again, another yeled to cradle against her breast.

Ruth came in from the fields, laughing softly at something her husband had said, and took the child from Naomi’s arms. Obed blinked up at his mother in the slanting light as she tousled the wisps of his hair. “Have you been good for your grandma today?” she asked.

“He’s been a joy, as always,” Naomi replied.

“Yes. The Lord is faithful.”

Blessed be the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer.

Her Ungit face began to change. Slowly at first, but then more quickly, her features began to shine with all the things that were most beautiful in them. Her eyes, always bright with intelligence, grew brighter still. Her brow spoke of wisdom; of a country governed well and the respect of her people. The greed washed out of her lips as though it had never been, until all that remained was the pure, glorified love that had always lived beneath it.

Orual reached a trembling hand towards the God, bright and terrible. He was every answer she had ever sought, the Truth beyond all the Fox’s clever words and all the light that had ever poured out from the sun across Psyche’s mountain; the only dread and beauty that there was or could have been.

The queen fell to her knees. For a moment, she recoiled, a soul at once reaching out for its creator and climbing back into a body now made perfect. The Judge bent down and offered her his hand.

When Orual arose, she was altogether righteous.

Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?

When he heard the whirlwind-voice of God for the second time, Job stretched out his arms and danced.

#once again a piece that has an audience of me #i've had something like this percolating in my mind for a while now #incorporating a few little snippets from a few years back having to do with migraine #but bringing in both Scripture and fiction to try to make sense of #theodicy #on an intimate level #keen eyed readers may notice that I kind of tiptoed around Children of God in the emilio section #that was intentional I really don't care for Emilio's trajectory in that book #anyway #narnia #the sparrow #till we have faces #leah in attolia #(might need to split that tag one of these days it's getting a bit convoluted) #Leah stories #(kinda) #pontifications and creations #long post #Bible humans

[readersmagnet]

Rockabye Jesus by Teresa Haven Pelinski

In Teresa Haven Pelinski's "Rockabye Jesus," children find a friend in Jesus who is always there to keep them safe, listen to their prayers, and share his story. Jesus lifts them up, promises that their dreams will come true, and assures them that "Jesus hears children's prayers."

Teach children about faith, hope, and the comforting presence of Jesus in their lives. Grab a copy at www.teresahavenpelinski.com.

#Teresa Haven Pelinski #Rockabye Jesus #ReadersMagnet #Children's Book #Bible Stories for Kids #Jesus Loves Kids #Christian Book for Kids #Answered Prayers #Miracles #Heartwarming Tale #Kid Lit

[misforgotten2]

“Oh, what a lovely basket. Dispose of this Hentmereb, and then bring the basket to the palace.”

Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories Vol. 3  by Arthur S. Maxwell  ©1928, 1935, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1956

#Illustration #vintage illustration #children's illustration #moses #bible stories #reeds #funny #humor #humour

[takineko-arts]

I made this for church

#my art #art #church #children's story #sda #seventh day adventist #7th day adventist #christian #jesus #god #bible #animation #animatic #Youtube

[1327-1]

staring at a wall thinking abt my devout christian upbringing and how unknowing it was and how it hadn’t quite stopped nor completely developed into an “identity” piece

#whatever <3 #hat that says no one knows i was a christian horsegirl and im in a dykey outfit #the back can say and no one knows how i feel abt it #i think its funny and fun #did i read the bible? no. did i hyperfixate on a particular part of the childrens illustrated bible stories? yes #.jrnl

[black-rose-irl]

You know what's kinda fucked up?

Having your cutesy book about Christmas time saints feature a story about three girls in danger of being sold to a brothel because of their father's debts. (St. Nicolas, whose myth of saving those 3 girls from being forced into prostitution by giving them money has turned into the story of Santa Claus)

I mean, it's accurate to the supposed story, but also, looking back at it, it was kind of a fucked up thing to have your kid (like 8 or 9) read out loud to your other children (6 or younger), when you're trying to learn where your names came from.

#irl stuff #chirstianity #i guess #my family isn't even religious #my mom just likes traditional czech names #which happen to be names of Catholic saints #and happened to name all of her children after saints whose day is celebrated in the Advent period #not intentionally it's just kind of a happy coincidence #why did I remember this in the middle of May? #a meme about saint Nicolas I randomly came across #all I remember from it is that Saint Barbara's attribute is a tower #and that she's the patron saint of miners #but that's unrelated to the book in question #i knew that before then cause we live in a mining region #anyway the point is #catholic lore is fucking weird and dark and why the fuck are they making cutesy children's books about it #and if they can make children's books about the weird bible and saints stories #what's the problem with queer people existing in books for the same demographics #i learned the word for 'brothel' at the age of like 9 from a christian children's book #the kids can handle two men holding hands in an illustration

[mynameisbluenotjane]

Okay, I know not a lot of people (on here) watch the stuff between conference sessions, however this has got to be the cutest thing I've seen in a long time:

There are like 10 of these videos, and as is usually the case, the innocence and simplistic way these kids explain concepts and Bible stories is better than what most adults can come up with. (and they're so cute)

#ldsconf #blue ramblings #A Bible story for children #Kids explaining concepts is always the right choice #If they can understand it so can adults #Youtube

[llycaons]

im so glad I didn't have to go to church when I was young. we had first-day school which was vague and fun enough and didn't make me think about god at all. and then by the time I was 14 my parent's couldnt make me go to meeting anymore. I did read a lego bible one time that was fun

#I read some children's story about some bible stories when I was really young I remember. but it was like whatever #the illustrations were nice #I stopped believing in everything when I stopped believing in like. santa #xtians this is not an invitation to try to convert me. fuck you. I'll block #anyway meeting is boring as hell for a 12 year old. my mom tried so hard to get us to read george fox's journal #but I was like. mother. I'm not getting anything out of this #she wanted us teens to participate sooo bad. well I go to meeting now when I have time so I guess she won #but I don't consider myself religious and I certainly don't call myself a xtian #cor.txt

[elijones94]

🇵🇷 This morning, my parents and I kickstarted our VBS in Augadilla. More activities will follow tomorrow. ✝️

#vbs #vacation bible school #Aguadilla Puerto Rico #friday morning #friday evening #july 2022 #summer 2022 #arts and crafts #painting #worship songs #hot dogs #cookies #capri sun #parachute games #Bible stories from the New Testament #jesus loves the little children