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There are too many vowels in my families' names...

YOUR DRAGON NAME

last two letters of your first name

middle two letters of your last name

first two letters of your mother’s name

last letter of your father’s name

mine would be Urlelan. Reblog and tag this with yours!

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As a German who pronounces it in an entirely, well, German way, what is the correct English pronounciation?

On the subject of Narnian pronunciations...

I once saw a play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in which they pronounced "Aslan" as "uz-LAWN." I almost died.

Ha! My first grade teacher, the woman who introduced me to Narnia (albeit in picture book form), pronounced in "AHZ-lawn." Awful, awful stuff.

I admire your restraint in presumably sitting quietly in your seat for the whole length of the performance. There's a good chance I would have walked out.

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Mine is a Martin Luther Bible (friendly reminder that I'm German 😉) I got it for Christmas when I was 11 or 12 and it continues to be my favourite bible. I highlight some verses that I really want to remember or at least be able to find again, but I actually don't like it when too much is marked, so it's quite rarely compared to other bibles. I always have a pencil in my Bible for tiny notes, though those are not many either. There's a funny story about the cover: My town used to have this tiny bookstore called "Christian Bookstore" (it closed forever a few weeks ago unfortunately) which was exactly what it sounds like... a bookstore full of bibles, books about bibles, christian literature in general. It's where I got almost all my Narnia books. I went there to get a cover for my bible. At this point, my bible was so used already that no cover they had there was fitting, they had to tailor me a cover. I'll always remember how the owner looked at me with a smile and said: "God is so happy that you read his word so much!" What a wonderfully positive view of a book that looks old and used.

You know what I love?? Bibles! New Bibles and old Bibles and worn out and shabby Bibles and shiny and well-designed Bibles and all the glories of living in an era where Scripture is super accessible (I’d consider that the greatest blessing of the 21st century). I also love that they always tell something about their owner. What sections they fall open too, what sections are most underlined, the obscure notes in the margins… It truly is the highest form of reading a book.

I love looking at people’s Bibles but most of the time people don’t want me to see them because it’s personal which is fine, but I know I can find people here with no such reservations.

So…show me your Bibles!

I’ll go first:

Mine is an ESV Study Bible I got a couple years ago when my previous (more cheaply made) Bible fell apart. I absolutely love the look and feel of it (it looks brown in the photos, but the color is actually a rich deep red) and the heft. My only complaint is that there’s not much space to put my own notes because the commentary takes up so much room, but I knew what I was getting into when I got it. I’m also really curious how you guys take notes! For me, it’s always hasty pencil scrawlings and crooked underlines. I tend to read my Bible in informal settings where there’s not lot of pens or highlighters within reach, but I always have a pencil (besides, it’s a great comfort to erase any notes that I later find are theologically off. I made a few notes in pen in my previous Bible that I always wished I could erase).

I also have an ESV Illuminated Bible that’s stunning but you can easily find pictures of that online so I won’t post any. I don’t do any coloring or drawing in it, I just savor the artwork inside.

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I don't know where I stole that quote from, but love is a decision, not a feeling

Love is not a feeling.

Affectionate feelings may accompany love, but love itself is not a feeling.

Love is an action.

I hear people say things like “I caught feelings” for them or “lost feelings” for them, and let me tell you something. That isn’t love.

Love goes so much beyond feelings into our outward actions. Biblical love persists with a person even after the feelings disappear. Biblical love stays. It stays through the hard things. It stays through arguments. It stays when feelings vanish. It fights.

That’s the kind of love Jesus has for us. His love is an example of what real love is.

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attempt at an reblog game that I think would be fun: tell me where you are from in the tags but only by how your place is displayed in hollywood movies 

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I've said this before on another post, but the "nylon stockings and lipstick" comment is not only misinterpreted but also overrated, as it is not stated as the ultimate reason Susan didn't come back with them. (That's something that is often forgotten, the passage talks about why Susan isn't with her siblings at this moment, it never mentions a forever and ever ban) Peter states the reason, which is that she is "not a friend of Narnia anymore", Eustace explains that she denies Narnia's existence and even mocks her siblings' faith in it. That is the reason she can't come back right now. She lost her own faith and ridicules those who still have it. That's the reason, not that she "grew up as a woman". Jill's comment is more of a throwaway remark as to why she finds Susan annoying, not a further reason why she's not there. It's more of a "Ugh, Tirian, why would you even want her here, she's become a horrible person!" kind of comment. Lastly, let's not forget that Polly (who is a grown up, elderly lady at this point) states her obsession with those material things as a sign that she is not very grown up. End of Susan rant.

You misinterpret the problem of Susan??? You assume lipsticks and nylons has something do with Lewis condemning female sexuality when in fact a. nylons were new after the war and linked with seeming grown up, and the real problem is that in attempting to appear grown up Susan was ignoring even the Good things of childhood, and b. that quote actually comes from Jill who never met Susan and though I love her has a “not like other girls” streak and so we shouldn’t take exactly what she says at face value??? Oh oh JAIL for foolish readers! JAIL for One Thousand Years!!

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Bonus points for having to figure out what my personality really is (or is perceived as) and what about it are lies my abuser told me... Like, my abuser always told me I was heartless and aggressive, turns out my friends and later my boss and colleagues think I am empathetic and gentle

Anybody else have no idea how their personality is perceived by others? Like am I nice? Am I mean? I have no idea.

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The Girl and the Dragon

Here’s my part of the @inklings-challenge . Posting it on my sideblog as it turned out quite long. Warning: I’m German, so my English might not be the best, I hope it’s readable. -toulouseec

The little girl looked down the way to her right, then the way to her left. Finally, she decided on the one to her right. After a while, the path got slimmer and steeper as she got deeper into the forest and higher up in the mountainside. She didn't notice the hours passing as she was too curious about where this tiny path would lead her. Suddenly, she was standing in front of a stone wall. In the stone was a hole. The sun was shining upon it like a flashlight, telling her to go inside. The girl hesitated for a minute; then she stepped inside the cave. It was a small cave, but it had something cosy to it. The girl was surprised as the cave looked like someone was living inside it. There was a huge bed on one wall (though it was shaped like a bird's nest), the walls were covered with books, and on one little cupboard was even a small tv. 'It must be a huge human that lives here' thought the girl to herself as she noticed the enormous size everything had. Then she remembered that she was the one standing in someone else's home and turned around to leave. 

But as she turned around, she was startled. A creature was stepping over the doorstep. A creature with four legs and two wings. It walked on two of its legs and carried a pile of books with the other two. A creature the girl had only read about in novels to this day. She didn't know what to do. The dragon only stared at her. The girl noticed it was wearing glasses. She was the one to break the silence. "You...you're a dragon." She wasn't sure whether the dragon lifted its eyebrows in anger or amusement. "Yes, I know. And you're a human who invaded my home." "Sorry, I didn't know this cave was inhabited. Especially not by a dragon." "Why not by a dragon? Are dragons not trustworthy enough to rent them your caves?" "No, that's not what I meant...it's just...I didn't know dragons existed." The dragon blinked. "You didn't know dragons existed?" he repeated."How could you not know, What do they teach you in schools?" "Well, usually that dragons are creatures of novels and fairytales... just like unicorns." The dragon scoffed. "Typical. I retire for not even two decades and they pretend I never existed!" The girl was a little confused. "You're retired? From what?" A shadow fled over the dragon's dark eyes. "It doesn't matter." He said after a while. "Yes, it does!" insisted his young guest. "No, it doesn't!" Smoke was coming out of the creatures' nostrils: "And for you, it's time to go home now!" As if to underline that their conversation was over now, the dragon dropped itself into a victorian armchair and turned on the tv. 

The girl was surprised by his sudden reaction. Something was keeping her from leaving him alone, she felt he hadn't retired by his own free choice and she had the urge to help this mysterious creature. Carefully, she stepped to his side. Without turning away from the tv, the dragon rolled his eyes and grumbled: "Why are you still here? You want me to eat you for dinner?" "You won't do this." The girl answered with a certainty she wasn't even sure she had. The dragon turned off the tv and faced his little guest. "Okay fine, what do you want? A fly home? A fly to your school to show your teachers I still exist? What?" "I want to hear your story." The shadow crossed the dragon's face again. "I have no story." "Yes, you do. Why are you hiding in the woods? And why did everyone forget about you?" "I'm not hiding. I am retired." "Why?" "Because I'll eat you if you ask me that again." "No, you won't. You're a good dragon." The dragon stared at her with a sad look on his face. He shook his head. "No, I'm not, sorry to disappoint you." "If you aren't, then why didn't you eat me on the spot?" The dragon remained silent for a while. 

He lifted himself, walked to one of his shelves and stared at it as if he had never seen it before. Then he whispered: "You have no idea what I've done. What evil I am capable of." The girl shook her head: "You're not evil!" Suddenly, life came into the old reptile's body: he turned around, a small flame emerged from his nose as he yelled: "I'm a monster! I don't deserve mercy or forgiveness!" His visitor tilted her head: "Why doesn't a monster deserve mercy or forgiveness?" The creature looked up, tears in its eyes: "What?" he sobbed. The girl shrugged: "I think you deserve forgiveness, no matter what you did. Especially since you truly regret it." "How do you know I do?" "Well, whatever it was, you've been hiding in here for the last decades. I suppose out of fear to hurt someone again." Now, the dragon looked at her with a face that almost seemed like he was smiling. And yet, it remained sad. "You are one smart girl, aren't you?" "I am...will you tell me what happened?"

The reptile sighed, crawled to his nest and patted it with his tail as a silent gesture for his guest to sit down beside him. Then he started talking. "I killed six people...and destroyed twelve houses. If you were born thirteen years earlier, I could have killed you." "What are you talking about?" The dragons sighed again. "You've heard of that big fire in your city back in the Eighties, right?" "Yeah, but...what did you do?" "The fire was my fault!" "But, I thought it was a truck loaded with petrol that crashed into a café." The dragon rolled its eyes. "Yeah, that's the story the newspapers wrote. But it's not true. There was no truck, there was no petrol,  there was just me, a young and stupid dragon who wanted to find out what happens if I breeze fire on the river floating through the city. Well, the answer is, the river was on fire...but so was half the city. A city I was supposed to protect." The dragon buried his face in his claws and started to sob heartbreakingly. 

The girl couldn't help it: she wrapped her arms around the desperate creature. Slowly, the sobs turned quieter. The dragon murmured: "Now you know. You still think I deserve forgiveness?" "Yes." answered the girl immediately. "But what do you mean, you were supposed to protect them?" The reptile stared at her and blinked, visibly confused. "You...you really don't know?" "About what? An hour ago, I didn't even know dragons existed!" "Alright, alright, I'll explain it.  We dragons have been the guardians of this country for about 1000 years now. Placed in service by the kings of the middle ages. I mean, the common people don't really see us anyway, I guess that's the reason they forgot about me that fast. We live deep in the forest and mountains. Since the forests are becoming fewer and noisier, the dragons have decreased in number. After World War 2 -you've heard of that one, have you? Good- 16 families were left. We made a pact with your new government. Every dragon family was assigned a state to protect. And every state had elected a council that was informed of the dragons' habitat and could contact it in times of need. My council was in your city, that's why I knew it so well. And I loved this city so much"-the dragon sniffed and rubbed his eye with his claw- "But now I can never come back there." The little girl remained silent for a while. It was a little shocking to hear that her country's history wasn't at all like she had learned it, that it, in fact, had dragons in it that somehow only the government and a certain council seated in her tiny unimportant city knew about. But putting her feelings aside, she knew she had to help this dragon haunted by its past mistake. But how? 

Suddenly, an idea came to her. "Hey, dragon? Why don't you come with me, back into town?" "No way! What if I burn it down again?" "You won't!" "I'd rather stay here with my books and my tv!" "You can return here later, but I really want you to meet someone. Please!" The dragon grunted, his nostrils smoked again. "Fine. I'll take you there. Climb on my back."

The dragon landed on the rooftop his rider was pointing at. The little girl slid off his back. "Wait here, I'll be back!" she said and went through a door. The dragon was curious as to what she wanted to show him. A few seconds later, the door opened again, and the little girl pushed an elderly man in a wheelchair onto the rooftop. The man had lost a leg, his face was covered in scars. Burn scars as the dragon realized. The old man looked at him. "Hello," he said with a strange sound in his voice. The dragon stared at him: "Who...who are you?" A sad smile crossed over the man's face. "I was there, the night you made a wrong decision. I lost my first wife and my house that night...and my leg." The dragon hid his face in shame. "Then why don't you just kill me now?" The man smiled again, this time, it seemed sincere. "Because I forgave you. I did so a long time ago." The dragon was confused. "A long time ago? But how did you know it was me? How are you not even surprised to see me? I thought this town had forgotten about dragons" A smirk crossed the man's face: "To be honest, we forgot about you on purpose. Yeah, sorry about that, old friend. You see, the common people had banned you dragons into the stuff of legends and fairytales a long time ago. By the time you set the river on fire, the only people who knew right away it was you was my friends and me on the council. Two of us saw that as proof that dragons were doing more harm than help and suggested hunting you all down.  We others couldn't let that happen, so we made up the story of a crashed truck, deleted all proof of existing dragons from the media and sent someone to all dragon families in the country to warn them. They hid, and it took only a few years of pretending they never existed to make those who hadn't forgotten anyway believe so. Those that insisted they did or even do were called fantasy nerds in the best, insane in the worst case. And those two council members who wanted you dead gave up trying to convince the world after they didn't even manage to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster. And you know your cousin Larry is not exactly trying to hide when he's on vacation." 

The dragon was speechless. "You...you did all of this for me? After everything I've done to you?" "We know you never had any evil intention. And we forgave you. It's about time that you forgive yourself." The dragon nodded: "Maybe it is. I'll try." "Good", answered the old man. To his granddaughter, he said: "Bring me back inside, baby." Before the girl could do that, the dragon asked her: "Wait, little one, what's your name?" The girl smiled: "My name is Grace."

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I thought I was the only one... Seriously, there are so many other ways to be intimate with someone apart from sex

yes i am a full grown adult. yes i will continue to skip unnecessarily graphic sex scenes in TV shows and movies.

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Queen Lucy of Narnia...or a cool knight with a sword and a bow and arrow

“You never pretended to be a bride when you were a little girl?” No???? Like literally never?

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The Casting Crowns

Some worship artists who I hear have great Christian theology are:

Sovereign Grace Music

Brook Hills Music

Gospel Song Union

Indelible Grace Music

Keith and Kristin Getty

Matt Boswell

Matt Searles

Norton Hall Band

Sandra McCracken

Sojourn Music

The Village Church

Enfield

Emerald Hymns

Shane and Shane

CityAlight

This is a significant topic—the Christian music we listen to teaches us and shapes our relationship with Christ. It is important to embrace worship artists and groups that are God-exalting as well as Biblically sound.

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Gorgeous, love it💖Hey, let’s reblog and spread this with more doggos. This is Ellie:

Wanted to post some pictures of my doggo because everyone needs to see doggo pictures sometimes (This is Phoebe 💜)

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Usuall, there are two directions of dealing with this issue among christian churches and unfortunately, both of them are unbiblical. Telling gays that they are not sinning is ignoring the verses that say they do (and those are found in the NT as well, not just in Leviticus), telling them they go to hell immediately and treating them with hate is ignoring the verses telling us to love our neighbours as ourselves. Especially treating homosexuality as the worst sin of them all that could never be forgiven is quite stupid since the whole point of christianity is that 1. we are all sinners and 2. Jesus came so that all our sins could be forgiven. There is one sin mentioned in the Bible that cannot be forgiven, but it's not homosexuality. That's never even especially mentioned, just in lists with other sins. Love the sinner, but detest the sin. The whole essence of our faith is that we are beloved children of God despite our sins, that no human being is sinless and that is exactly the reason Jesus came. On the other hand, no human being is ever too far away from God that he'd stop loving them or that they couldn't return. Moses, David and Paul were literal murderers and yet forgiven. Jesus treated sinners with love without pretending they didn't sin. So yes, of course it's possible and I am sorry you felt like it couldn't be.

Can you be a Christian and still love and support gay people?

Yes? Everybody deserves your love no matter what sins they engage in. And you can support somebody's soul and their right to live their own lives without condoning all of their individual actions. 

I’d argue as Christians it is even more important that we do so. If you care about someone’s spiritual health, you won’t have any success introducing them to Christian ideas if you aren’t treating them with love and kindness. 

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I can post all day long about the love and mercy, grace and beauty of God and get liked and reblogged like crazy, but if I make one mention of sin, the entire blogosphere goes silent. That’s this world we live in. I’ll say it again. God is all those things and 100% more. But He is also just, holy, righteous and does not deal nicely with sin. He abhors it. He loathes it. He cannot look onto it. It is contrary to His being. He is without sin. He hated it so much He wanted to redeem us from it so He sacrificed His son so He could allow us to be with Him. That’s how much He hates it. He loves us, yes. But He hates our sin. Talking about sin isn’t popular but it’s a major issue and it has to be adressed.

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The comparison of Lucy and Edmund is interesting, but I don't think it could have been Lucy the same way it was Edmund. (Maybe this has to do with your point that Aslan specifically chose him) The reason Lucy went with Mr Tumnus was kindness (and politeness); in the movie this is made even clearer when Tumnus tells her he doesn't make many friends before she agrees to go, but in the book she also only reluctantly agrees after the faun asks her multiple times. Admittedly, Edmunds reason to have a seat inside the sledge was fear, but his reason for searching the witch a second time was greed. And not just after Turkish Delight, despite what he is remembered for, that was not the only thing Jadis promised him. She promised him power, she promised him to become king of Narnia and that his siblings would be his servants. The issue was not just a simple "naive kid takes candy from a stranger". Edmund's heart was full of greed and spite. Remember that the first thing he did after going back to England was betraying Lucy by telling Susan and Peter that she's lying. Edmund was the perfect victim for temptation, Lucy's heart was too pure to be tempted. Lucy is an example of "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it", Edmund of "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save it".

By the way, I think this tendency to explain Edmund's betrayal away is a general problem in today's society. No one's bad, or has bad intentions, they are misunderstood. This tendency is not only untrue (as pure evil definitely exists), it can even be dangerous.

There’s a stance on Edmund that seems to float around Narnia tumblr a lot that doesn’t sit right with me. Something to this effect:

“Don’t hate on Edmund for betraying his siblings in LWW. The Turkish delight was enchanted, plus WW2 sugar rationing was a thing.”

All true, but reductionistic to the point of essentially missing one of the most crucial points of Edmund’s LWW story. Namely: Edmund is culpable.

Spurred on by the Witch’s lies and his own spite, Edmund betrays his family in exchange for enchanted candy and the promise of princedom. This is a crime so serious that Aslan must die to free Edmund of it.

And yes, “he betrayed his family for mediocre candy” sounds silly. It is silly! So are so, so many of the sins that we humans commit. We regularly betray kindness for status, truth for comfortable lies, integrity for money, and the God of the universe for idols. Is any of that, from a cosmic perspective, truly any less silly than selling out one’s family for Turkish delight?

Yet at the same time, it is reductionistic to discount the fact that the Turkish delight was enchanted. In universe, it is literally enchanted to make you want more of it, but I think that Lewis wrote it that way to make a broader point, one which is a bit more abstract. Sin is addictive. Once you have had a little, you will always want more (until and unless God changes your heart). This may be an explanation for many sin patterns, but it is not an excuse.  

LWW makes it very clear that there was spite in Edmund’s heart before the Witch got to him. Jadis, like Satan, saw Edmund’s predisposition towards sin and deceived him into believing that good was evil and evil good. Jadis is both deceiver and accuser, but Edmund’s heart was inherently spiteful, and the debt of his treachery could never be cleared with until Aslan died for him.

“Even a traitor may mend. I have known one who did.”

I know that the posts I keep seeing are meant to be a little tongue in cheek; I also think it’s important to point out that the sinner’s culpability is what gives grace its value. As Bonhoeffer wrote, “Costly grace […] is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.”

Also tongue-in-cheek, I know, but a lot of the posts I’ve seen point out that Lucy goes with Tumnus for tea and sardines, just as Edmund takes candy from the Witch. It’s the Pevensie MO to take food from strangers! There’s a deeper truth there as well. It could have been Lucy. When Lucy stumbled into Narnia for the first time, she could have met the Witch the way Edmund did, cold and alone and without knowing anything else about that world. Jadis could have been kind to Lucy, and tempted her with addictive food, and deceived her as well—perhaps preying not on spite and resentment, but rather on her feelings of inadequacy. Lucy could have gotten caught in sin just as Edmund was, and so could Susan or Peter. If that had been the case, Aslan would have shown them the same grace he showed Edmund.

(I do think that Edmund encountering the Witch and eating the Turkish delight was no accident; Aslan chose to justify and sanctify him specifically. But that’s another discussion.)

This has gotten a little long, so TLDR: LWW is a Gospel story, and by excusing Edmund’s culpability in his sin, we discount the sinner’s need for grace, and indeed the marvelous beauty of the fact that grace is offered.  

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Let platonic love be another coexisting kind of love that is nevertheless just as valuable as romantic love and not less in any way. Also, kill the phrase "Just Friends", there is nothing "just" about being friends.

Let platonic love be deep, weighty, moving, and nuanced without trying to make it out to be romantic 2k21