I still underline. Please help

by mtsgrad 8 Replies latest jw friends

  • mtsgrad
    mtsgrad

    Whenever I read a book I still underline as if it was a bookstudy or watchtower. Aargh. Do you have any habits leftover or am I just a crazy freak?

    mtsgrad

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    I prefer a highlighter. It's not as distracting.

    I always highlight areas of my books when I find info I think is noteworthy or something I know I can't always trust to memory.

    I think its a good habit and very useful for reference when you need it.

  • yknot
    yknot

    Well I am sure your former English Comp Professor is very proud!

    While I can mindlessly highlight/underline WTS material, I cannot make myself ever mark in a non-JW publication.....weird!

    I think the thing I will have the hardest time letting go of using the term and mental designation of 'worldly'

  • mama1119
    mama1119

    I still where a dish towel on my head when I pray.

  • oompa
    oompa

    lmao mama1119!....but mtsgrad...you may just be a crazy freak or an upcoming rocket scientist.....or circuit overseer.....oompa

  • sweetstuff
    sweetstuff

    Once in a blue moon while I'm housecleaning (no I don't mean I clean once in a blue moon, I wish!) I'll start humming a kingdom melody and then realize what I'm doing and stop ASAP.

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney

    I still pray sometimes before I go to bed. Not a meaningful, thought-out prayer, but a mindless prayer I got into the habit of saying when I began to drift away from JWism. It basically goes something like this: Thank you for this day you've given me and forgive me for my sins. Help me improve in my life and live according to your will. I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

    Sometimes I catch myself while I'm doing it, but I don't feel the need to stop. I'm now inclined to believe that there isn't a God (or at least not one who cares much about us), so what difference would it make if I silently repeat some memorized 20 second prayer?

    I still have feelings of guilt when I break certain JW rules, especially if it's a new rule I've never broken or one that I haven't broken in awhile. I hung out with some inactive/double-life-leading JWs a few months ago. We were at a cigar bar. We all drank and smoked cigars. The next day I had feelings of guilt because my JW-trained conscience told me I should confess to the elders and report my friends as well.

    I had absolutely no intention of reporting them, nor did I believe what we did was wrong, but my reaction was deeply ingrained in me, mostly because I faced a few situations back in my JW days when I had to agonize over turning over friends to the elders. I became really paranoid about it because I never wanted to be put in the position of having to either turn over a friend or feel that I was sinning against God for keeping knowledge of sinful behavior to myself (Leviticus 5:1 and what not).

    I was publically reproved for public drunkenness once, so I became quite paranoid about drinking in excess. I wanted to make sure I never crossed that line into drunkenness (just exactly where that line is drawn is an ambiguous standard that varies from elder body to elder body, but that's another story), so every time I drank I seemed to become excessively worried about whether I was at any point Biblically drunk. Therefore, even though I've been inactive for over 3 years, I still wake up with feelings of guilt after a night of heavy drinking. It doesn't happen very often, but it still comes up. I guess it takes a long time to rid ourselves of our JW past.

  • Hope4Others
    Hope4Others

    I still like to highlight things of importance that I can pick out quickly in

    any book I am reading.


    h40

  • SnakesInTheTower
    SnakesInTheTower

    I quit highlighting sometime before I quit going to meetings. It goes against my nature to mar a book...even my college textbooks....

    Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Try HA (Highlighters Anonymous)

    Snakes ()

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