This is a good question. I would say my list of benefits would've been much longer while being a jw. To be honest many of those supposed "gains" would have come though most any way you choose to live life. Why wouldn't you work hard? Why wouldn't you generally be honest and show "fruitages of the spirit"? As for understanding your bible, why wouldn't you have gone to differnt churches and had at least a experimental phase of looking into religion? Now I view the experience more like a returning solider would view a war. The solider might have perspectives and training that the majority of society doesnt have. But once you leave the military all your trying to do is restart your life and fit in with normal people.
Did you gain anything, for being a JW all those years?
by JH 19 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
misspeaches
no... nothing. all my gains are my life post JW. friends, unconditional love, learning who I am, happiness.
-
Beep,Beep
Yes I did. I met the young woman that would later become my wife and the mother of our children.
-
Honesty
Not anything useful for life.
-
misspeaches
Yes I did. I met the young woman that would later become my wife and the mother of our children.
That, Beep,Beep has got to be the best thing I've read on this thread so far.
-
c5
I learned how to be a better public speaker than if I hadn't been a witness. I was very shy and being forced to speak to strangers was an interesting learning experience.
-
jwfacts
serendipity said "I learned to be comfortable and even celebrate my uniqueness - cuz let's face it, JWs are different."
I used to think that was a positive whilst I was a JW. Now that i am not a JW I still feel "unique" or "a misfit" and just wish I knew whether i would feel normal if i hadn't been raised a JW. -
katiekitten
At the risk of copying - I met the man who donated healthy genetically sound sperm to make the most wonderful child ever born. (Oh OK, I married him, but lets not dwell on that fundamental mistake).
I suppose I gained a set of experiences that made me determined to survive and not waste my life. Its hard to unpick the past as even the worst things contributed somehow to making you the person you are. If I took away all the uncomfortable bits, im not sure I would be as resourceful as I am. I would probably be a very nice complacent person, doing no bad but neither doing any good. But then again who knows?
-
diamondblue1974
A healthy awareness of cult mentality!!
More importantly though...an ability to communicate with people...the bad definately outweighed the good in my view.
Db74
-
jwfacts
I think life is a wonderful experience that is based around learning and growing, and I think I would be fundamentally the same person regardless of being a JW or not. I have had good and bad things happen in life and after the situations are over there is growth as a person, I think that is important. Therefore I do not resent having been a JW, though feeling the Org is shameless in it's wrongful manipulation of people.