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courageousloveatamazima · 3 years

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Time.

I am sitting on my parents’ couch with my sweet puppy laying on the floor at my feet. I have been blessed to spend the past 12 days here. It has been a whirlwind (even more than usual) as I reconnect with family, friends, and schedule meetings with churches to share my upcoming mission to Uganda.

Typically I try to squeeze every minute out of my time back in my hometown and somehow I came back thinking that I would find more time because I was adding another layer to my typical visit. However, I will tell you that I didn’t find an extra hour in the day or a secret door that held a magical gift of more time.

And I’ll also be honest with you that when my back is against the wall and I’m scrapping the bucket for more time in the day the pieces that tend to fall are those that I need. My self care and time with God. It’s embarrassing to say that the two easiest people to let down is myself and my Creator. I know that I’m not alone in this because others have shared the same struggle.

I have a to-do list that creeps into the last thoughts before I drift off to sleep and social pressures that I carry with me in my daily decisions and interactions. And the extra life change stress of moving to a different country to serve as a missionary has not made either one of these stressors less. Soooo all this to say is that lately I have been overwhelmed with a mix of emotions and constantly feel that I need to be doing something else or something more while I’m currently in the process of completing something different!

This is not how the Lord wanted us to live, friends. But, man, it sure feels like the only way to operate in our society today. Wearing many hats, taking on extra responsibilities, maintaining our emotions to only be positive, and showing up for others regardless. Recently, a small group of amazing ladies & I read Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. I highly recommend you order it for yourself & gift another to a friend because it is SO powerful to walk through in a community.

There are several take-aways that I want to share with you, but one piece that has changed my everyday was Jennie’s challenge to memorize God’s word. Growing up Catholic we memorized prayers and the actions in which to participate in church. However, it wasn’t until I was serving in children’s ministry that the lessons I would be teaching kids encourage to remember bite-sized verses. I learned so much alongside those kids 😂

But back to Jennie’s challenge of memorizing scripture. She wasn’t the first to call me to the table to do this practice, but her reasoning was enough to convict me. The negative thoughts we have engrained in our thinking are stemmed from our past, our beliefs, and ultimately rooted in what we believe about God. When I say that I am not enough for a person, then I am also believing that I am not enough to be called the child of God. When I feel useless and unloved, I am discounting the Lord my Father’s everlasting love and purpose for me.

By taking time and dedicating my cognitive energy to memorizing His promises, I am allowing God to take up so much space in my thinking that my fears will shrink in comparison. If my mind is actively digesting the great storybook of the Bible and applying His promises to my life, think about how much room is left for the lies, the comparisons, and the humanly desires to consume me!

I have forgotten while being back home and rushing around to find more time to recenter my desires and wants to be aligned with His. This typically looks like me being intentional in my silence and solitude, prayer, journal and reflection, and reading His word. When I break away from these practices I become more into me and less of Him, which is not the healthy way of walking in this life.

He is life-giving. His promises are everlasting. And His love is never ending. Sign yourself up for that thinking daily. You are valuable and a child of the one true God, so allow your mind to reflect the beauty He has made in you.

If you are interested in combatting the negative toxic self-talk daily I encourage you to follow shereadstruth on Instagram because they have weekly Scripture Memorization Challenges that help you practice in a few minutes how to remember a powerful verse!

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. -Joshua 1:9

#courageousloveatamazima

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superleeleehipster · 7 years

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After reading some of the 7x13 spoilers as well as some of your reactions, I figured I’d put in my two cents on what’s happening in hopes of helping everyone sort out their initial feelings.

I’m going to point out some negatives for a bit but I’ll try and make it hopeful at the end!

SPOILER WARNING (under the cut)

So the recent spoilers about Carol and 7x13 sort of highlight a still ongoing problem with TWD in general, and that is a huge issue with plot holes and missed opportunities.

It’s not just a shipper problem, for I can name tons of missed opportunities for Caryl. It’s a whole TWD problem, especially when it comes to relationships. I remember reading a good post from someone (can’t remember who) that talked about the lack in the ability to write good romance in the TWD, and it’s true. Most of the romances in the show haven’t had enough build up, or had mixed signals that threw us off so that when it did happen, we all threw our hands up like, ‘what?’.

But back to the missed opportunities. I just want to show you a few of plot holes that are not even Caryl related that show there’s problems with lazy writing:

1) We didn’t get to see Tara’s reaction to Denise. That whole relationship was kind of odd to begin with, for without any clues or hints, Denise suddenly kisses Tara after saving the other dude’s life. Then they became a loving couple... felt a bit forced and random.

2) We never found out whether or not Daryl read the ‘Survivors of Child Abuse’ book he found in ‘Consumed’. Yeah we found that out recently when one of the fans asked Norman and he said he did. But we had to find that out outside of the show, which is a bad sign.

3) Richonne canon moment was a bit sudden and surprising, and not necessarily in a good way. We found out from Danai (not the show) that there was a two month gap between 6x09 & 6x10. Soooo many missed opportunities within that time frame to show where Richonne’s relationship was heading. So when it did become canon, it almost felt forced. Like suddenly they’re making out, making love, and then holding hands the next day like they’ve been doing that all along. Don’t get me wrong, I love Richonne and they’re a powerful couple, but I felt bad for the shippers b/c it felt very anticlimactic.

4) We didn’t get to see Maggie and Daryl’s reunion. Yeah they’re supposed to have a talk in 7x14, but why not have both, ya know. I’m sure there were sections of 7x08 you could’ve thrown out in order to see the reunion, something the GA would rather watch but no...

5) We only got a fraction of character background for Glenn before he died. We knew he was a pizza man, we knew his mom used to cook good meat (3x01, when he said just like my mom used to cook it), and we knew the people that had an impact on him. But we got nothing else. He was an original character and he only got a fraction of background as the others did.

There’s so many more plot holes I can name but I’ll be merciful and stop while I’m at it. And don’t even get me started on missed opportunities for Caryl itself. GAH!

All of these examples are a good indication of not only the not so good cycle that the TWD keeps repeating, but also where their focus truly lies: Their main focus is to tell the broader picture of the storyline (aka Negan vs Rick & TF) by using random/pointless plots for our characters in order to maneuver the story to where he wants it. And the character arcs are suffering b/c of it.

A very good example of OOC would be this Carol self-torture arc, which (I hope to God) will end next week. I know she’s going to fight, according to spoilers, but I hope she is indeed better by the time 7x16 roles around b/c I’m tired of seeing Carol miserable. She needs to be better dammit!! But I think @leonstrenton is right when she says that Carol will get better but it’ll probably be very unsatisfactory for the viewers b/c Gimps only put this arc in her story so that she was out of the way from Negan... AGAIN, THE MAIN STORYLINE IS WHAT MATTERS TO HIM.

Also, according to 7x13 spoilers, Carol doesn’t go back to Alexandria immediately after she finds out about Glenn. Now that doesn’t make any sense b/c Carol was literally on her hands and knees during 7x10 asking about her family. Now it just seems OOC for her (credit for this valid point goes to the lovely @ocean514)

See, if I were a good writer, I’d make her go back to the Kingdom, make sure Zeke agrees to fight, and then go back to Alexandria to tell them that the Kingdom is joining them... but again, MISSED OPPORTUNITY!!

Another good example of a character arc being affected is not being able to see Glenn react to killing his first live person in the entire series. That would’ve been really interesting to see how it would affect his character, but they apparently had no time to do that b/c the Negan showdown was approaching.

Let’s have one more shall we. Abraham and Sasha’s whole... relationship? Holy crap that couple had so little couplish moments that it was hard to say if they had even kissed... b/c we never saw them kiss! It was implied they had sex I know, but it was probably the most random, rushed, and short couple I’ve ever seen on the show.

So this plot hole issue isn’t just with Caryl, it’s with everything that’s going on in TWD. So take comfort in the fact that it’s not just a problem with writing for Caryl, it’s a much bigger issue than just those two.

Now for some hope for Carylers:

I am a Caryl shipper till the day I die, and my mantra for any kind of couple I want to happen is this: If they are both alive, there is still a chance!

We are going to have to deal with some hate after 7x13 b/c people will see the Carol and Ezekiel scene with Ben’s little brother as a foreshadowing to a ‘family’ moment. Personally I feel like this is Carol making a step to coming back to herself. She’s willingly helping Ben’s brother, trying to comfort him with his loss, which is a HUGE breakthrough in how she feels about helping kids if you think about her history. And I’m glad she’s making that step.

Another issue with the Carzekiel business is that for whatever reason, when two characters of the opposite sex share screen time, it automatically mean they will be a couple. Khary Payton himself had said he was surprised at how quickly people began shipping Carzekiel, even though they only shared a small amount of screen time together. Honestly, I’m glad Carol’s spending time with Zeke b/c she needs a good friend, and Zeke is an awesome dude, so why not strike up a friendship?

Shared screen time does not = canon couple! ( @thaliasandy I know you’ve said this before)

Caryl will go canon eventually, it’s just that eventually is the keyword at this point. Will there be missed opportunities to show that? Of course yes, there already has been. Will it feel anticlimactic or out of the blue? There’s a possibility of that. But here’s the thing that we can look forward to:

Whether we get subtle/small canon moment, or (for the love of god, please) larger canon scene between them, Norman and Melissa will kick it out of the ballpark. It didn’t matter that they barely had any dialogue during 7x10, they don’t need it, for you can see how well they understand each other without even talking. It would be nice as the GA to hear what they’re thinking, but I’ll take lack of dialogue for a beautiful first kiss.

Don’t fret guys. I know it is very hard to keep shipping this couple, especially now with all the hate going around. I’ve honestly never seen an anti group so adamant at shutting Caryl down so badly... I don’t get why they hate it so much... but people are nuts.

But don’t pay them any attention. Do what Mel wants us to do and just get along with each other and celebrate the amazingness that is Carol, Daryl, and Caryl. Friendly debates? Sure! Hateful/nutty anons? Just delete the message and ignore them, for they got nothing better to do than to feed off of our insecurities that we unfortunately have from waiting this long.

Caryl on guys!

#caryl #caryl positivity #carol peletier #daryl dixon #twd

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