The pressures of Jehovah's Witness life

by The wanderer 20 Replies latest jw friends

  • The wanderer
    The wanderer
    The pressures of Jehovah's Witness life

    Monday was set aside to study for the Tuesday night
    meeting. Wednesday was study night for the Theo-
    cratic Ministry School and Service meeting.

    Friday was set aside for Saturday morning field service.
    Saturday night was set aside for the Sunday Watch-
    tower study.

    More psychotic activities to perform

    This describes the life of the average Jehovah's
    Witness. It does not take into account both the
    circuit and district assemblies, nor the other
    numerous activities we were expected to per-
    form.

    Remembering the famous password

    Prayer, Association, Study, Service. This was
    one of those famous propaganda buzz words we
    all became used to hearing from time to time.

    Questions to Consider

    1. How did you deal with the pressures of Witness life?

    2. How did we keep up this pace for years on end?

    Please add your commentary and
    perspective on the matter so that
    all can learn.

    Respectfully,

    The Wanderer

  • Abandoned
    Abandoned
    Questions to Consider

    1. How did you deal with the pressures of Witness life?

    2. How did we keep up this pace for years on end?

    #1) I dealt with the pressure by keeing everything inside, hating myself, and praying to God that he didn't destroy such a despicable and pitable worm of a man such as myself. Oh, and football.

    #2) I kept up the pace because even thought the jw don't have anything that even resembles truth, humans are highly adaptable and can endure amazing amounts of dysfunction.

  • candidlynuts
    candidlynuts

    how'd i deal? I crashed and burned

    here's a post i made a couple months ago describing about 15 yrs of my married life..

    Monday, morning... read text w/ kids , send them off to school, get husband off to work.. take his suit to dry cleaners on the way to service..

    monday afternoon.. get home before kids, start supper, make sure laundry for tuesday night book study is done...

    monday night.. study book study with kids (with or without husband), do personal bible reading, go over service notes make sure i dont have any calls i have to make tommorow..make sure dishes are done and food taken out of freezer to thaw for next couple days..

    tuesday morning..read text with kids, send them off to school, get husband off to work, pick up dry cleaning.

    tuesday afternoon.. go to bible study with sister needsahand... get home before kids , start supper,make snack for book study, get kids bathed for meeting make sure all the books and bibles are ready to go..

    tuesday night.. do supper dishes, get kids ready, get self ready, get husband ready, HURRY UP BEFORE WE"RE LATE!!! its snack night so gotta grab the cookies i made earlier today ... sit thru hour of meeting..make sure kids comment, keep kids quiet, enjoy snacks..rush home and get cranky tired kids to do their homework and do personal bible reading, get to bed...

    wed morning.. read text with kids, send them off to school, get husband off to work. go out in service..

    wed afternoon.. lunch break then finish days service with back calls... get home before kids, start supper , do more laundry

    wed night...(one of the following was EVERY week) help kid get talk up that you forgot to do earlier in the week, get your own talk up, get husbands talk up , study kingdom ministry with kids clean up kitchen and personal bible reading...

    thursday morning .. read text with kids, send them off to school, get husband off to work , hide from the phone cuz there's too much housework to be done to go out in service today.

    thursday afternoon.. get clothes laid out for meeting, gather books up,get kids bathed and keep them clean till meeting time, cook dinner

    thursday night.. get kids ready, get husband ready, get self ready, go to meeting.. avoid eye contact with any sister who may be seeking out emergency householder fill in... get kids home, homework done, snack ,make sure dishes are done, personal bible reading, bed..

    Friday morning .. read text with kids, send them off to schol , get husband off to work, go meet for service, get with the old ladies who just want to do an hour of return visits...

    Friday afternoon, get groceries, get home before kids, read most recent watchtower and awake so i can prepare kids for family service saturday

    Friday night, wait for husband to get home to figure out if he made plans you dont know of with his buddies at the hall last night.. fix supper or hurry up and get kids ready (or get babysitter) and have dinner.. get kids to do homework,make sure they're presentation is ready for service,make sure dishes are done, do personal bible reading..sleep...

    saturday morning... drag kids out of bed.. NO YOU CANT WATCH CARTOONS... dress them, try to drag husband out of bed..if successful the whole family go out for morning service..if not, you take all kids out for morning service..

    saturday afternoon.. get home from service, do housework, find husband and fulfill what ever plans he has..

    saturday night... fix meal, feed family , do dishes ..bathe kids, lay out clothes for sunday meeting, family watchtower study (with or without husband) personal bible reading.

    sunday morning.. drag everyone out of bed.. fix breakfast..get everyone ready , get to hall before meeting starts (hopefully)

    sunday afternoon... meet for service, go to lunch, help husband get presentation ready quickly, go for hour of service so husband can get time in..

    sunday night... get stuff ready for dry cleaners or laundry for monday, get kids ready for school, husband ready for work , personal bible reading..bed...

    THEN add in a part time OR full time job for mom..still get the above done, run kids to and from their activities, be available when elders call and need you to do this or that, take care of extended family obligations , 3 assemblies a year and one or two special assembly days..2 weeks of CO visits that throw everything out of whack, memorial and help hostess elder schools, pioneer school, feed a speaker once a month, socialize somewhere..dont DARE be sick and have to play catch up......deal with sitting in meetings and assemblies being told to DO MORE, support husband who is trying to "reach out" ,and try to be submissive and STILL accomplish all the above..

  • Abandoned
    Abandoned

    candidlynuts, You need a (((hug))) and a cruize. I hope you've found time for the latter.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    How did I deal with the pressures?..How did I keep up the pace for years on end?..JW kids don`t have a choice..Unless you want a beating,or to be kicked out of the house,you`ll do as your told....WBT$ approved child abuse,dealt out by Idiot JW parents..Bastards!...OUTLAW

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    1. How did you deal with the pressures of Witness life?
      I convinced myself that it was better than being hopeless.
      That worked for a long time. For most of those years, I
      totally immersed myself in doing God's Will.

    2. How did we keep up this pace for years on end?
      The pace kept me from examining my doubts. I kept
      putting them off, promising myself that I would get to them.
      Eventually, I was not immersed in God's Will, I was going
      throught the motions, so I turned back to researching my
      doubts. It was worse for awhile. I kept up the pace and stole
      free time to research (sticking to WT literature and experts
      on Greek and Hebrew through the Library). I finally let the
      research take over and tapered down on study of JW meetings.
      Now, as a fader, I just show up at most meetings without the
      other nonsense.

  • candidlynuts
    candidlynuts

    candidlynuts, You need a (((hug))) and a cruize. I hope you've found time for the latter.
    I got a divorce..that was better than a cruise!! LOL thanks for the hug!

  • exwitless
    exwitless

    Wanderer - just an observation, not on the content of your posts, but on the format and formality of them: You have started dozens of threads in this manner; very formal writing, arrangement, etc. even with "Questions to Consider". Then you always put something on the end like "Please post your commentary for an interesting discussion..." (or something like that). To be honest, your posts are dripping with Watchtower style writing and format. Heck, you even have questions at the end of your so-called "articles" for us to consider. I'm not criticizing you or the fact that you want to post topics, but just consider RELAXING a little. Hang back, post some comments on other people's threads, post about fluffy bunnies and kittens or something. It would be nice to see posts from you that reveal more of the real "you", not just the formal Watchtower approach to discussing deep subjects. Respectfully ExW.

  • fullofdoubtnow
    fullofdoubtnow

    I just felt, or was persuaded to believe, that the witness life was better than the one I'd left behind, and the rewards for living that way outweighed any sacrifices I'd have to make. It was the hope of that reward that ebabled me to carry on living under that kind of pressure for so long.

  • restrangled
    restrangled

    Candidlynuts summed it up perfectly. That was the house I grew up in plus my mom constantly in rollers (for service or meetings) feeling mean as a hornet and my father angry all the time. It was a life filled with tension, hostility, anger and enough guilt to last a lifetime. My mom also aux. pioneered in the summer months, dragging us kids along. It was religion 24/7---365 days a year.

    My stomach hurts just thinking about it.

    r.

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