CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Affairs

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Star Wars: Redemption – VIDEO (Part 3)

This is the finale of the previous two Anakin Skywalker movies, Star Wars: The Fall and Star Wars: Tribulation.  One of the most fundamental items to understand about the Star Wars Saga is that it is not just a battle between rebels and an empire, it is all about the redemption of one man, Anakin Skywalker. 

The Star Wars Saga was probably one of the best film series ever created and had an amazing recovery theme.  Below is a short summary of the overall movie from Wikipedia:

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, mostly involving, but not limited to, the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker.

In this final part of the Star Wars Redemption Trilogy, we see Darth Vader continue to struggle with the fact that he has a son and the Emperor (the addiction) wants to cause harm to his son after years of tormenting Darth Vader.  Many of us in recovery have felt the Holy Spirit speak to us about our children and the effects that our addiction had on them.  For Darth Vader, it is just the same.  A struggle continues inside of Darth Vader.  He knows he has lost a lot to the Dark Side, his first master, Qui-Gon Jinn murdered by a Sith, his mother, Schmi Skywalker murdered by evil Sand People, and even his wife, Padmé Amedala who dies from a broken heart after Anakin chooses the Dark Side.  Now there is a possibility of losing his son Luke to the Dark Side, aka the unhealthy lifestyle.  Will he draw the line and say this problem ends with him, or will he allow the addiction to continue and pass on to his son?  Can someone so vile and evil be redeemed or is he destined to live a life of anger and rage?

One of the things I explain to my daughters is that my own personal story is a lot like Anakin Skywalker’s.  A lot of bad stuff happened to me when I was a child that formed me into an unhealthy individual that made a lot of bad choices.  For 30 years, I was involved in unhealthy behaviors.  But like Anakin, I was redeemed from my past with the help of the “Son” Jesus Christ and now do good for the Lord.  My small children seem to understand this and have compassion on Darth Vader rather than fear him.  Maybe we should all have compassion on those that have fallen into the pit.  After all, if I, “Darth Vader” can be redeemed than anyone can.  I hope you enjoy watching this video as much as I enjoyed creating it.  As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, & education, etc. This constitutes a ’fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their owners.

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Children Accessing #Porn in the UK

From www.breitbart.com on 3/28/14

Pornography websites were accessed by at least 44,000 primary school children in one month, online research showed Friday, amid calls for greater restrictions on providers.

The Authority for Television on Demand (Atvod) tracked the actions of children in Britain in December 2013 and found that one in 35 of six- to 11-year-olds online clicked onto an adult website.

Some 200,000 aged under 16 — one in 16 who went online — also accessed an adult website in the same month, while one in five teenage boys under 18 were clicking on porn, the online video regulator said.

One adult site, P******, which allows users unrestricted access to thousands of hardcore porn videos free of charge attracted 112,000 of the teenagers.

Atvod is calling on the government to act urgently to protect children from adult material and introduce laws forcing pornography websites to carry out age checks before allowing access.

The watchdog said sites that do not comply should be blocked from processing payments from British customers.

Atvod chief executive Pete Johnson said: “Significant sums are flowing from UK customers to foreign websites which allow children to access hardcore porn. In 2013, The Times estimated the sum could be £180 million a year.

“Cutting off that flow of funds to services which allow children to view hardcore porn would provide a powerful incentive for porn websites to put in place effective age verification and access control mechanisms in order to restart the flow of funds from the UK.”

The findings come the week after a group of MPs urged the government to do more to tackle under-age exposure to online porn.

Atvod already forces pornographic websites based in Britain to conduct age checks before users can view explicit photographs or video, by demanding credit card details or verifiable personal information.

But the regulator says the majority of online pornography is downloaded from businesses based overseas, which are beyond its control.

Atvod wants all adult sites to request a license that would only be granted if age checks were in place.

The government recently acted to protect child Internet users by forcing service providers to block pornography unless a household opts in to receive it.

Responding to Atvod’s demands, a government spokesman said: “We will continue to work with industry and others to look at where further action could be taken, including around age restrictions.”

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Self-Acceptance

Healing essentially involves self-acceptance. This is not only a step, but a life-long journey. People come to therapy to change themselves, not realizing that the work is about accepting themselves. Ironically, before you can change, you have to accept the situation. As they say, “What you resist, persists.”  In recovery, more about yourself is revealed that requires acceptance, and life itself presents limitations and losses to accept. This is maturity. Accepting reality opens the doors of possibility. Change then happens. New ideas and energy emerge that previously stagnated from self-blame and fighting reality. For example, when you feel sad, lonely, or guilty, instead of making yourself feel worse, you have self-compassion, soothe yourself, and take steps to feel better. Self-acceptance means that you don’t have to please everyone for fear that they won’t like you. You honor your needs and unpleasant feelings and are forgiving of yourself and others. This goodwill toward yourself allows you to be self-reflective without being self-critical. Your self-esteem and confidence grow, and consequently, you don’t allow others to abuse you or tell you what to do. Instead of manipulating, you become more authentic and assertive, and are capable of greater intimacy. By Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT http://psychcentral.com/lib/recovery-from-codependency/00014956

Who looks outside,
dreams;
who looks inside,
awakes.
Carl Gustav Jung

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Star Wars: Tribulation – VIDEO (Part 2)

This is a continuation of the previous Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader movie, Star Wars: The Fall.  One of the most fundamental items to understand about the Star Wars Saga is that it is not just a battle between rebels and an empire, it is all about the redemption of one man, Anakin Skywalker. 

The Star Wars Saga was probably one of the best film series ever created and had an amazing recovery theme.  Below is a short summary of the overall movie from Wikipedia:

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, mostly involving, but not limited to, the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker.

In this part of the Star Wars Redemption Trilogy, we see Darth Vader begin to struggle with the fact that he has a son and the Emperor (the addiction) wants to cause harm to his son.  Many of us in recovery have felt the Holy Spirit speak to us about our children and the effects that our addiction had on them.  For Darth Vader, it is just the same.  A struggle begins inside of Darth Vader causing him great internal suffering or tribulation.  Another part of this movie is where Luke Skywalker trains in the ways of the Force in order to be able to “fight” Darth Vader, but more importantly in order to help Darth Vader turn back to the Light Side of the Force.  Yoda is introduced in this movie as the “ultra sponsor” that helps Luke work his own recovery steps so that he can later help his father, Anakin Skywalker, through his own recovery program and ultimate redemption by the Lord.

I hope you enjoy watching this video as much as I enjoyed creating it.  As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, & education, etc. This constitutes a ’fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their owners.

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PERSPECTIVE AFTER THE AFFAIR

This is a very good write-up by a wife in recovery.  The only thing I don’t agree with is the two statements that her husband was the healer and her husband had to carry her.  Although a husband can facilitate the wife’s healing, I believe God is the only healer and that it is He who carries the wife through the emotional tornado.  Take what you like and leave the rest…

Originally posted by: huperecho: to rise above

I’ve decided to clean up my blog and just regroup a little. It’s been two years since my world starting falling apart and I see things a little differently now and definitely with a clearer perspective or maybe a different perspective would be more accurate. There are things I did or said that I wished I hadn’t but I have to give myself some grace here because the pain of infidelity is unlike any pain I have experienced before. Add Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on top of the pain and sometimes you just can’t think as straight as you would like to and you often act before your common sense can kick in. I am happy to say because my greatest desire was to serve God and be the example of a Christian woman, there were many things I didn’t do that I wanted to. I also attribute my faith to the amazingly quick healing process

I did learn that no one and I mean no one can understand the pain that a betrayed goes through except another betrayed spouse. You can sympathize but cannot come close to empathizing. It took my husband 8 months to even begin the process of being my healer because although he saw my pain he could not feel it. It hurt him to see how hurt I was but he could not put himself in my shoes since he never experienced being the betrayed. I remember when a woman and man in our church went through it. I couldn’t understand her rage, anger, hate or bitterness. I thought it was my job to remind her how important it was to forgive. I also was mentoring the Other Woman and allowed her to keep coming to our church not knowing how it was terrorizing the betrayed woman. I thought I had all the answers UNTIL I went through it. In my own pain she was the first person I thought of and ran to to ask for forgiveness because at that moment I knew what it felt like to walk in someone else’s shoes.

One of the things I had to accept was that my husband was not going to be able to walk in my shoes but he could be the one to carry me when I couldn’t walk any further. I think we betrayed can allow the pain of the affair to control our life because we are so busy trying to make the betrayer feel what’s impossible for him to feel. So it drags on and on until we recognize that our happiness does not depend on another person understanding our pain. It’s helpful for sure but WE are responsible for our happiness. Philippians 4:8 says Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Where your thoughts go there your energy flows. It is important not to deny your feelings but we have to be careful to not carry around unreal expectations of our spouse’s feelings.

Another thing I had to accept was that my betrayer husband was suffering pain too. My husband’s pain came from losing his job, career, integrity, respect etc….I knew he was hurting and I somewhat knew what it felt to lose the things you love because I lost all my ministries. Even so I could not truly understand what he was going through but God gave me grace and sympathy for him even while I was in my own pain. It was tough! I was dying inside because of the choices he made. It was his fault we were suffering. He chose to go outside our marriage rather then fight for it with a willing wife. Thoughts crossed my mind often that he had no right to feel sorry for himself but I saw him repentant and sorry for what he had done, so I never allowed those thoughts to take over and was able to extend mercy as well as grace.

I resolved it in my heart that whether Lee and I stayed together, I was not going to allow bitterness and anger to rob me of the plans I knew God had for my life. I was not going to let the enemy have my family or my husband without a fight. I refused to become and angry, bitter woman.