A good JW studies all material

by megaflower 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  megaflower

  I guess I was a lousy JW because I was never very good at preparing for all the meetings. The "special needs" talk would point out how a good dub will buy out the opportune time. How? Start the day with the Daily Text, next listen to the WT on tape as you drive to work. Also, daily bible reading during the lunch break. More indoctrination but we bought into it. Lets not forget the family study, personal study and your 5 weekly meetings(now its less), field service, incindential witnessing.

  Well, I never did do the daily text. Any takers- where you the model witness. It just wore me out and the guilt piled up and up, so I finally walked.

  What has been your experience?
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  Quirky1

  I never studied either, always cheated and made it up. All talks were copy and paste from the WT CD.
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  Alpaca

  As an elder, I used to do it all... TMS conductor, BS conductor, field service, studies, shepherding calls, phone calls, dealing with emergencies the members of the congregation were having.

  I barely had any free time for anything other than Dub stuff.

  And, I still felt inadequate. My stomach was always in knots. I used take off from work early on Tuesdays so I could finish preparing the material for the TMS that I didn't finish preparing in the 4 to 6 hours I spent on it on Sunday.

  I actually had it good because I didn't have children to look after. My heart used to go out to the poor Dubs who did it all with kids--it ran them ragged. And, then if they missed a meeting they were looked down on.

  OMG, I didn't realize how bad it was until I was out.
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  shamus100

  Good god, it was tough.

  It got to the point that I would underline the botchtower study without really understanding/ reading it. Had to keep up your looks.
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  WTWizard

  I didn't even bother wasting the time. Most of it was so familiar that I could predict the ending just from reading the first few sentences (and usually I was right). The stuff that was too "deep" to understand that way was always a complete waste of time to study, since they would change it the next time a washtowel comes up on the same subject. Plus, it didn't really apply to me (I know it is put there solely to confuse people, to give the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger the illusion of knowing something they don't.
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  viva

  At one time I was a good JW and did all the studying. For some time I read every WT and Awake cover to cover. Towards the end of that time it was more a critical review, even made notes of descrepencies and looked up any source that they actually cited, most were out of context or not respected. It was taking too much time and cutting into my double life so I stopped. I would say that in the time I kept up with it I got all you can out of the pubs, they are just repetitions of the same thing for indoctrination. I gave up on preparing for talks too, at best I would look over the material about an hour before the meeting, that would do for anything for the theocratic ministry school or service meeting. When I had a public talk I would work on it the day before, then our meetings go changed to the afternoon so I prepared in the morning. It is amazing how simplistic the talks are.
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  chickpea

  did about 90% of it...

  it does run ya ragged, esp when
  you are trying to get the family
  fed and read for the meetings

  plus hosting the BS

  omg! we even sent the kids off
  to school after they had drawn<
  from a little basket, a "fruitage"
  to work on that day......

  god! what a dupe i was!
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  Jankyn

  I must say that, even as a child, I read the daily text every day. That's because my mother kept the text book in the bathroom! (Seriously. She still does.)
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  Finally-Free

  I started off preparing for all the meetings and doing a ton of "personal study". I drew the line at the daily text, and I was vocal about my opposition to it. I'm not a "morning person" and my thinking ability sucks until I've had a few coffees. Yet some elders insisted that I HAD to read it at my breakfast table rather than later in the day. I thought it was too intrusive into my personal life to expect me to read a daily text before I even had time for my morning coffee. I soon refused to even look at the daily text, any time, any place.

  Very soon after getting baptized I realized that all the positive "experiences" in magazines and yearbooks were a load of crap. Real JWs didn't behave like the fantasy characters found in these "experiences". It wasn't long until I stopped reading everything the society printed. To keep my ex quiet, I occasionally underlined random sentences in study articles, but rarely read any of it. I spent most of my meeting time daydreaming, or going over Microsoft and Cisco certification questions in my mind to prepare for exams. I also ogled some of the hotter sisters™.

  In spite of my lack of reading, listening, or meeting preparation I still used to get most of the 'written reviews' perfect. That just shows how little brainpower it actually takes to be a JW.

  W
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  GoingGoingGone

  When I was in 5th grade, we moved to a new neighborhood, and our new school was just down the very busy road, so there was no school bus. One of our new neighbors drove his daughter to school on his way to work, and offered to take my sister and me as well.

  That was the year that my mother decided that we would have to do the daily text every morning before we left the house. She would drag it out so that we were ALWAYS at least 5 mins. late to the neighbor's house. She asked question after question, and I would get stomach aches as I watched the clock. It was so embarrassing to come late to our ride every single day. This neighbor was doing us a favor! And I'm sure he thought it was our fault we were late. We didn't exactly tell him that our mother made us late every morning by dragging out the daily text...

  I could never stand reading the text after that.

  GGG