by truthseeker 16 Replies latest jw friends
Interesting question I think.
The Society says we "search out deserving ones" and "those rightly disposed", those who have "the right heart condition" - did you ever feel this was you when you accepted the truth? Did you feel that Jehovah thought you as a deserving one?
At the time, I actually thought I was a total mess and Jehovah took over straightening
it out.
As it turns out, I was a total mess, JW's often find people who are a total mess.
JW's take over- not straightening out the mess- but organizing the useful part of the
mess and teaching the student to ignore the rest.
Viola- Another publisher added to the fold.
I decided that I did not have the right heart condition.........I tried and tried to change.............there was only so much I could do though without totally losing myself.
My mind could not twist, mold .....shape to accpet anymore of the truth than I already could.
I probably feel I am still a defect in some way from not being able to measure up.
purps
I had an overwhelming heart condition which was so sincere it took far too long for me to realize how uninformed and misplaced it was. But then that's why I've so often ended up on the side of the road whilst most of humanity flies past. It's foolish for a football coach to insist a player carry the manual whilst in the middle of a game. I spent too much time in the manual whilst most folks who'd been in it for years were playing a game! I should've listened to Bill Shankly who was my teenage guru after dad died but at the time - so had he!
i dont know about when i joined because i was a child, but i remember beating myself up over everything when i was considering leaving, thinking somehow the problem was with me when the truth was, that i was 'getting better'
I'm with Onthewayout. I was a total mess. I had been studying with the Witnessess and didn't know how to break it off. They had me believing that they were better than me. My husband had to get the amputation around that time. I was pregnant with the twins when I got baptized. I remember thinking "what are you doing"? "You're trying to please man. Not God!" I got baptized to make everyone else happy. Especially, the people that were teaching me. I got baptized to make them happy. Once, I realized that and started seeing how much control they had on me, I started fighting it!
I dissassociated myself in 1988, but still believed in Jehovah up until 2004. When I went to a convention to see my girls get baptized, that's when I really woke up! The whole thing looked like a big "den of iniquity" to me! I had never seen it without blinders on before! It was amazing! Too late to get my girls out though!
The twins getting baptised. I think that man's butt crack was way too much for me to take! Both girls are in the water (blue t-shirt and pink t-shirt).
Umm... nope, can't say that I was in any shape to make an objective and intelligent decision about my beliefs - I had just been through the most traumatic experience of my life, 22 days in county jail at 17 years of age with 5 felony accounts staring at me and was so shaken up that the "troof" sounded pretty damn good to me fresh out of high school and being scared to death by the judicial system. Even though I was "zealous for fine works" - they delayed making me an upbaptised publisher until the "news" of my jailbird escapades had died down...no fun...
That's how the witnesses gain a lot of their recruits - they stumble on them at the perfect time through persistent hounding... If the catch you at a weak moment, shower you with mock "brotherly love" - then they have you where they want you and relationships will start to keep you there. Relationships..in my case anyway - I married a JW just months later - a regular pioneer sister who stepped into major taboo by starting to date me when I was barely 18 and still a "study" ... Too bad I didn't know then what I know now...
Nope, my parents force fed me. I never accepted it and left it asap!
Ewwwww, that guy has the ugliest but I've seen in a long time!
nj
No, I only got baptized because I was guilted into it. I was 12 y/o when my cousin got baptized the year before me at 11 y/o. Too early in my opinion. The day she was baptized several elders and "mature brothers" came up to me and asked when I was getting baptized. I was under so much pressure that year, I went through those qualifying questions for the following assembly. The worse mistake I ever made....
