by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends
I never felt punished, I felt ignored. Why is Jehovah letting this happen? I won't bore you with the details of a Hellish childhood.
I've concluded that He doesn't really get involved in the real world. Since he blesses the righteous and the unrighteous with the same rain, the same blessings, the same trials, then it's really just the same chaos under a different name.
From minimus: JWs are just like Catholics. They believe that God is either punishing them in hell or looks down on them and they go to heaven.
I was raised Catholic and I never once felt this way. It is true that I felt a lot of guilt, but I knew that guilt was induced by the church itself and not what I believed "god" to be.
I was blessed - I was appointed an elder !!
I didn't feel it was Jehovah's fault if bad things happened to me and neither did I feel blessed until I was at my rock bottom. In my despair I cried out for help to God and my problem was taken away from me. The strange thing was that when this happened I was not in an "approved" standing in the borg. Not sure if that counts though
Maddie
no such critter as Jehovah, so no I don't feel that he/she/it blessed or punished me. Of course, back in the org., I always felt I wasn't good enough, no way I was going to get J's blessing.
Neither blessed nor punished. Completely absent from my life. Refused to answer any prayers. Never there!
I have always felt that Jehovah was just yanking my chain because when I would pray, he seemed to never listen. I was admonished to keep praying, so I did. Didn't help. I worked along with my prayers and guess what? They were answered. I finally realized that I was the one answering my own prayers and that JH had nothing to do with it. What loving parent would expect this begging from their child before giving her/him what the child desparately needed? I eventually stopped believing he (sure he is a male???) was ever there in the first place. We got here somehow, but...
Stilla
Your avatar is a female and you use the sign for Venus and were appointed an elder? Am I asking a stupid or embarrassing question? Don't mean to.
I used to sing that song from The Sound of Music--"somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something...BAD!!!" My life went downhill in such a huge way after my baptism. I can relate to Maddie with the constant asking for Jehovah to help and being ignored...I put myself in a position where I sacrificed to get "blessings", but when I left everything fell into place perfectly. Apparently selling your soul to Satan really pays off. Sarcasm. I used to hate it when people would remark about people who were miserable in the congregation and tell them "sometimes the answer to our prayers is NO." Like White Dove said, what kind of a creepy god listens to you beg and beg for years then says no? If god is rewarding me now with a happy life, he must have been punishing me then, but I can't remember doing anything worth that kind of treatment so...maybe god (the universe) helps those who help themselves.
Me thinks Jah has been on a great long distance vacation in Margaritaville and obviously not "keeping his eye on the sparrow" polar bears, poverty, child abuse.......or me.
I used to pray. I used to give HIM the praise when things went right, and remember He won't allow us to be tested beyond what we can endure when things went wrong.
Now I have finally worked it out - HE DOESN'T GIVE A SH*T WHAT HAPPENS TO ANY OF US.
