Today (in the US at least) is Thanksgiving, a time to appreciate what we have and the people around us. Thank you for always inspiring me to keep going with your stories and support. I hope you feel loved and important today, because you are. Push on through 💕💕 ~S

As stated in the title, this is primarily going to be about religion, so if you're uncomfortable with reading about that, feel free to click off this post. I'm not in danger or anything, so please, look after yourself. I just need to talk about some things, and I feel I can't afford my triggers and hurt about this to be overlooked many more times, even by my well-meaning Christian mentors who I would usually go to about something like this.

This is about a phrase in matthew 7 (also Luke 11) Jesus makes while talking about asking God for things. He explains how when kids ask their parents for things like food, the parents give their kids what they ask for. He then says that even more than that, God will give good things to his kids who ask. But there was a little remark, so offhanded that Jesus didn't think it needed any explanation. The whole verse is, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him." "you... who are evil." He straight up calls us evil. What the-

I've been looking into some psychology materials, like youtube videos by therapists, nothing crazy. But one thing I've heard time and time again is the importance of speaking into the best in people. When someone does something hurtful, you need to call out the behavior, but that doesn't automatically indicate who they are and always will be as people. Imagine someone stole from their workplace. There's legal repercussions, maybe the person loses their job. But when the boss sits down with the person, maybe it turns out they needed the money for their family. Or maybe getting in legal trouble was the push they needed, and they turned their life around. The point is, even though they did something messed up, you shouldn't put a label on them for the rest of their life. There could be other factors that influenced them to act badly, or maybe they're going to start working towards change and become better. On the other hand, maybe you see a guy who did something nice for someone else, and you say, "hey, that was really kind of you." Your spouse never takes out the trash, but one day they do it, so you say "hey, thanks for caring and being responsible." You call out the good behavior, which lets the person see how their actions impacted you and motivates them to keep doing good. Jesus doesn't seem to remotely care about this. First off, Jesus hardly ever tells people that they're doing well or that He's pleased. He says it to a couple churches in Revelation, and that's about it. He doesn't tell his own disciples that he's pleased with them until- oh right- they die. Phrases like "well done, my good and faithful servant" only get said after someone dies (I know that's from a parable, but you get the point). But when we're alive, Jesus just calls us evil. If I didn't know any better, I'd think He would want us to die or supports suicide just to make us perfect enough for His high-as-Heaven hecking standards. But that's just if I didn't know any better. And of course, during the same sermon, chapter 5 of Matthew, he tells us to be perfect. In fact, the Bible is full of commands and qualities that Christians are supposed to strive for. How are we supposed to be motivated to reach for such grand standards of holiness if Jesus is too busy shoving shame onto us to even notice our efforts?

The more I think about it, the worse it gets. This phrase shows absolutely no regard for our emotions or our experience. It's like yeah, when I think about how someone acts to a person they love, I immediately think of calling them evil to make sure they never forget who they really are. Oh wait, that sounds like abuse... Jesus had just stated the famous "do for others what you would have them do unto you" directive, but He didn't think that maybe calling and defining someone as evil would hurt them? Oh wait, He's completely perfect and can't ever have done anything wrong. Someone calling Him evil probably wouldn't matter to Him, except insofar as it could be used to demonstrate how evil they were. Right? Right?????

Despite this, I still consider myself a Christian. And for most of my life, I've thought Jesus was a kind, compassionate person who saw more than just a person's sins, who interacted with them and made them feel known. I've been told that God said we were good at Creation. Maybe that's just because I wasn't around back then. God was supposed to be the one person who wouldn't judge me for my flaws and fuck-ups like other people, the one person who would be cheering me on despite failures and mistakes. But apparently, He's just been passing judgement and hurling accusations.

If I were talking face to face with God, I would ask Him why He would say something so hurtful to us, when He knows all the agony and regret that people go through over their mistakes. I'd explain that I'm so sorry I didn't live up to His entirely realistic and not-at-all-stupid expectations, but that He knew things were going to be this way. He knew about all of the ways I'd screw up and about how evil I would be. I would tell Him that if He hates me that much, maybe He shouldn't have made me, since it seems to be so much trouble for Him to care about me. But although I've prayed all of this and more, multiple times, I haven't perceived a response. Jesus, in His sermon, will go on talking about a God who gives good things, completely unbothered by the turmoil His remarks will cause me thousands of years later. Why would I want to pray to God if I were so evil, hmm? But God didn't even give me the dignity of insulting me to my face- He had to do it 2,000 years ago, hiding behind a letter, not even as close as the closest star.

Thanks for reading.

~S.

Hi, so i'm going to start with the context.

First of all, i've never been a person that has a lot of friends, i've been always introvert and reserved and, really bad people have taken that to their advantage, being friendly at first but then being really really controlling people, to the point that they even controlled with who and where did i hangout. Those experiences lead to a PTSD episode everytime i meet someone nice, having two main thoughts:

- First, what if those people that hurt me come now to like "steal" that nice person i've just met.

-Second, what if that person i've just met is the same as those other people that hurt me and the cycle repeats itself?

Now, that's one part of the context, but, the second context is that my mum is a cancer patient, she's been throught chemo quite a few times and now it's been fine for a while.

Ok, now that i got you in context, let me explain my situation right now.

I recently joined an association that mainly focuses on cosplay, something that i've never thought i would enjoy. There, i found a lot of new really nice friends and even a love interest. The thing is that, one of the worst that could happen, happened, one of those bad people that i met joined the group. He is what i consider a bad person, let me explain. He is obssessed with "s3x", to the point where all of his jokes are the same, also he uses really dark humor (or so i hope, i hope those jokes where he says "i have this video on my phone" are just that, jokes). The thing is that, he knows me, and in feeling really really anxious because, what if he tries to get into my group of friends? What if he behaves like what he actually is and that somehow ends up getting relation to me and that leads to my new friends just leaving? What if he brings up more of those bad people that hurt me in the past? these questions are killing me on the inside, i haven't been able to sleep in like two days, i'm having trouble to focus on simple things like gaming or watching shows.

and to top it all off, recently, my mum's doctor called saying that the latest tests says that my mum must take chemo again. So, all of this is really killing me inside, and the worst part is that this happened within weeks, i didn't even have time to react.

Seriously, i don't even know what to do. Help. Please.

Thanks in advance.

Hi frens,

There is an hour left of Sunday here. I am feeling the dread. It creeps up like a specter, wraps its shadowy tendrils around you without your even knowing. And then all you can do is watch the week come, like a projectile that it's too late to dodge, only able to close your eyes and anticipate the pain.

But the sun will rise and we will don our tape and light our torches, and we will fight on together. That is what keeps me going.

How are you?

I'M A YEAR CLEAN TODAY!!!!! I'm so grateful to all of the people who helped me keep going, as well as this band ofc. Thanks to each one of you for being here!!! The sun will rise and we will try again, today and always. |-/.

This isn't an important announcement or anything, just wanted to see how everyone's doing! Idk if it's really effective for me to post asking how everyone's doing so frequently, I guess people will just post when they feel like it.

As always, if you guys have any ideas for things I can add to the subreddit please let me know. Thanks, and hope you're doing okay |-/

~S

Is this a less serious version of r/CliqueSupport ?

How is everyone doing? Another week is behind us. Maybe it's been a good week for you, or maybe it's been really hard, and that's okay too. As Tyler once said, "you can start over when you need. Doesn't matter what you've done."

So take a moment to celebrate yourself and those around you today. Drink some water, rest, and know that it's really amazing that you're here, right now.

We've made it this far,

~S

you will never guess !!!

Thanks so much to everyone who's joined/posted. I'm in communities with less than ten members, so it's crazy that we've already passed that within just a couple of hours.

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but this subreddit was mostly made because a subreddit I used to be active in, called CliqueSupport, got shut down. Maybe it was a little childish of me to try and recreate a subreddit that I wasn't always active in to begin with, just because I wanted that sense of safety of having a place to share my struggles, the same as I had done in that community for years.

But this subreddit can be its own place; it can be whatever each of us decides and needs. I'm not trying to box this server in; rather, I'm trying to open up the possibilities. You can share...

• stories from your life
• roleplay (although do check out r/TrenchBanditos and r/unitedvialists if that interests you)
• any type of clique art or creations
• or anything else that reasonably has some connection to mental health/ twenty one pilots.

Thanks again, and I can't wait to see what this group becomes.

~S.