Welcome to the Prodigal Movement! :)
Jul 7, 2014 17:49:07 GMT -7
Post by Akua on Jul 7, 2014 17:49:07 GMT -7
Hello all! Thank you so much for being along with our 31Women journey for so long. We are so blessed to have been able to interact with so many of you ladies, and we are excited to keep up our 31Women community, while still branching out into other territories. Without further ado, we are now bringing you "the prodigal {movement}", an interactive online community dedicated to bringing prodigal {sons}, prodigal {daughters}, prodigal {students}, prodigal {couples}, and more, back to the Father’s open arms. In a world like ours today, it is so easy to be led astray and forget the purpose that God has for our lives, so we hope that starting this prodigal {community} will be helpful in leading those who are willing back to His plan. We have given you quite a few tastes of what is to come on the prodigal {forum} on 31Women page, and this will be one of our final "tastes" before the site grandly opens.
Although 31Women was originally Anna's brainchild (annaimous), the 31Women tumblr page soon grew to add Akua (hey, that's me!), and then Nana (monkeyandbananas), and finally Adwoa (aka21)! The decision to come up with the prodigal {movement}, however, went a little something like this:
~iMessage, Probably at like 2 am on some random, sad night~
Akua: Did I really just finish season 8 of Grey's Anatomy in three days*?
Anna: Lol uhh...
Akua: ...I think I need divine Intervention
*= not even dramatized
And then after a few more minutes of discussing how Netflix is probably a government plot to brainwash and capture America's youths, the prodigal {movement} was born! Beyond the silly little anecdotes of spending way too much time getting sucked into the vortex that is Netflix, we realized that we could really benefit from a community that was focused on being able to recenter our lives and find our purposes as children of God. And with that, we truly believe that we are all able to push back the worries and preoccupations and the dramatic series finales of this world, and just return back to the Father. We find the same dilemmas facing everyday people like us back in Biblical times, of course. We see a story of a son who, much like ourselves, fell off of the straight and narrow path that was designed for him. We see a son who is self-interested, self-seeking, and self-serving, a paralleled parable that most of us see in our lives today. In Luke 15:11-32, we read:
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
"...he was lost and is found".... the perfect sentence that can encapsulate what the prodigal {movement} is all about. We are imperfect, we are broken, we are self-obsessed... And yet, through it all, He still loves us, in spite of us. We owe it to ourselves to allow ourselves to be loved and forgiven by the One who started it all. We owe it to ourselves to be the prodigal {people} that we are, and allow our God to welcome us back home.
So as promised, our grand opening for this wonderful online community- the prodigal {movement}- will commence on THIS FRIDAY- 07/11/14!
We are so excited to have you all participate in the prodigal {message & movement}, because we all need as much help as we can get to get back to His loving embrace. Because we are so anxious and excited to introduce all of you people to the place, we will be having some sort of a giveaway for everybody who signs up for an account! A giveaway? Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? *record scratch*
What's that, you say? What is the prize at stake, you may ask?!
Well, prodigal {child}, the winner of this giveaway will be a recipient of a $75 bebe gift card! *cue oohs and ahhs!*
All you have to do is:
1. Be someone who is wholly imperfect, but wholly dedicated to returning back to the Heavenly Father and His inexorable grace.
3. Make three meaningful threads or posts on this site, anywhere at all. Perhaps make a thread to introduce yourself in the prodigal {pronoun} section, ask a biblical question in the theological {discussion} section, or post in an already engaging conversation.
Once the first 20 people have completed these three steps, all 20 of you will be entered into a drawing for one of you to win the $75 bebe giftcard! We will then contact the winner for his or her physical mailing address, and deliver the gift card to his or her mail. I think that these are fairly simple tasks to complete for some fairly (and by fairly, I mean ridiculously) cute clothing, right?
We hope that the community we build here will be a strong one, and we are so thankful that you guys have decided to come along with us for the ride. Thank you for all of your support, and may God use his power to let this prodigal {movement} flourish.
#weareSOnotworthy #butweserveaWORTHYGod #amenandamen #theprodigalmovement