For 🤔 guy, it's from Roald Dahl and he was a cool dude. You should check his stuff out he's like a grumpier Anglo version of Dr. Seuss.

I am of the opinion that introspection, especially looking down memory road, should be a rare indulgence. The same way that smoking too much can ruin your lungs, drinking too much can ruin your liver, and eating too much can ruin your heart, too much reminiscing can poison your attitude.

What starts out as just remembering something can quickly turn into remembering bad stuff, remembering guilt for sins that have already been forgiven, and becoming all too aware of the good that we didn't get – which of course we believe we should have. The saints in Scripture looked forward (Hebrews 11:10), and the Apostle St. Paul talked about his drive to forget what lies behind while “straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13). Of course, we are called to remember lots of things from Scripture, and it is good to take account of one's life, but our spiritual orientation for our individual lifes is forward – we focus on the blessed future ahead, not the tragedies of the past.

For 🤔 guy, let me put it to you this way.
I have met a whole lot of old people in my life. The elderly people who are doing the best are those who live in the moment and for the future; they keep busy, almost unaware of their old age, as they do their best to spend time with other people and be active in their community. Whether their health is good or bad, they do their best to maintain a good attitude and to stay busy. The elderly that are focused on reminiscing? They're not doing so well.

Starting up the stream VC!

Here is the updated prayer list. Let us pray for one another!

The poor man and the oppressor meet together;
the Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
-Proverbs 29:13

By "oppressor," Solomon means the sort of man who extorts. The usurer, rent seeker, highway robber, loan shark and so forth - the method does not matter, only that his relationship with the poor man is a hostile and parasitic one. This type of person hurts the poor man in particular, hence his title *oppressor.*

The poor man here is understood as anyone suffering from lack. It is a broad term that can range from total destitution to merely going through hard times. He may or may not be able to provide for himself and, if he has one, his family. The specific level of poverty doesn't matter as much as the fact that this poor man is a target for the oppressor.

Yet God has created all men, and Solomon pauses to meditate on this. He offers no instruction, so application, no so what to the observation he makes. But he wants us to meditate on this fact, that God gave life to each of them. It seems to me that this makes the oppressor a greater mystery than the poor man. A poor man continues living precisely because he knows enough good to keep it up; he knows that life is worth living for its own sake. But the oppressor has the same gift of life, yet chooses to use it for harming others; it is not living life per sé that he enjoys, so much as draining life and money from others.

Wisdom is for the man learning it. I believe that Solomon implies choice here. We are born under certain circumstances, God choosing our parents and economic status from the beginning. But since He has given us life, we ought to ask ourselves, which man would we rather be? Would we rather remain poor and trust in Him? Or get rich by victimizing others? The answer to this question, even if it does not immediately apply to us (perhaps the one reading is neither poor nor rich, does not have opportunity to oppress, etc.), will nonetheless tell us a lot about ourselves.

"Open up," she said. Then he did, seeking comfort in her arms. Immediately after, she felt nothing for him, and their relationship ended.
Stories like this are commonplace, leading to men buttoning up and holding their own women in suspicion. After all, why open up emotionally to a wife or girlfriend if it will either her feelings for you?
At the same time, women want that emotional connection, and have started getting frustrated at the result when they get it.
Let's chat about this paradox and talk about some solutions for the sake of marriages everywhere:
https://youtu.be/aCEvanA_Wpw

The latest in the Evaluating Gnosticism series is now up!
They say that if you don't remember history you are doomed to repeat it. Well the same goes for answering bad doctrine, especially the garbage polemics that come from dead cults like the guy who wrote the paraphrase of Shem. That crap still shows up to this very day.

https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/evaluating-gnosticism-pt74-garbage-polemics-from-a-dead-cult

Detransitioner

@GenderDystopia

I've interacted with countless people like this. Crippled or otherwise disabled, overjoyed if they can have a job to do, and even if they can never have a normal life they still count themselves as blessed. I met a blind woman once who praised God every day that she got to work at a pen factory. I've seen people born with no limbs who had great, positive attitudes.
We should learn gratitude from people like this.