Since I'm still getting to know all of you, tell me about an incident when you were pulled aside and counseled. Not having a formal JC meeting, but just an instance when some elder took it upon himself to "adjust" your thinking (or behavior).
Here's one of mine. It still is infuriating to me two years later.
There was a sister who had three young daughters (4 to 9 years) and a husband, all in the org. She is my age. Rumor had it than when she was 12 or so, she nearly drowned. They said she had a little bit of brain damage because of that. This brain damage excuse was used to defend her irritating and abrasive nature. By abrasive nature, I meant that she constantly said hurtful things to people such as "That dress really makes you look fat!" She said that to a diabetic sister who constantly struggled with her weight. Or she would say things like "Keeping up with the Jones', eh?" She said that to a financially poor family who had saved up a couple of years and just purchased a 4 year old Chevy Malibu.
Point is, she was just a bitch. But, no one ever "counseled" her because of this supposed "brain damage." And if they did, no one ever knew about it.
Anyway, she would smack her three young daughters very frequently. Out in the main hall. In front of everyone. For absolutely no reason 90% of the time. Like if one girl would adjust herself in the seat, SMACK! Or if another girl giggled at something, SMACK!
She would physically push her daughters too. Like when they were picking their seats out, and one girl was busy looking at something or talking to someone, she would grab the girl and push her into the seat aisle.
I have a problem with relying on physcial punishment to discipline children. A swat on a butt occasionally to shock them and get their attention, I understand. But this woman always seemed to have her hands on her children for even the slightest infraction. It made me so angry that I would just cringe and grit my teeth during the meetings.
One night, they were sitting right in front of me. One little girl dropped her song book on the floor under her chair. I reached down, picked it up, and handed it to her. When the little girl turned around and smiled at me, her mother reached over, grabbed one of her hair's pig tails, and pulled it!
After the meeting, I leaned over and whispered to the mother "If you hit another one of those girls, I'll hit you." No cursing, I didn't raise my voice, I just said that as calmly as I would say 'I'll see you later.'
A week later, after a TM school meeting, two elders came up to me and asked to speak to me a moment. They told me that she had went to them saying I was threatening violence toward her and how she didn't know why. First I told them my exact words. I proceeded to tell them that, in my opinion, she was very abusive to her children and that I had a reflex reaction and couldn't help but say that to her. It was a knee jerk reaction.
I was counseled, with scriptures too, about turning the other cheek, not being violent, showing love, yap yap yap.
I highly doubt anything was ever said to her. They switched congregations about 6 months after that.
I'm still steamed about that incident.
Maybe I was wrong to "threaten" her (it wasn't a threat, it was a promise LOL) but I really couldn't stand to watch her constantly beat her children.
What's one of yours?