I suffered through 3 hours of JW-dom by going to the meeting with my wife because my daughter wanted to go and my niece was being carried too. A part of me feels a bit obligated to go when my daughter goes out of protection for her and a part of me feels like I should go since my wife had two small girls going with her and my daughter alone is a handful.
A visiting brother in the neighboring city of Suffolk, VA gave a talk today and some of the people wanted to take him out to dinner. My wife was invited to go along and she was real excited about that. Normally, I would not be bothered to go but since I felt like this was the only way I'd get a real meal tonight, I went. We went to the chinese buffet restaurant and since I did not have chinese in a while, I rather enjoyed it.
Some of the highlights of the 3 LONG hours at the talk, the WT study, and the dinner:
- I was impressed about how the brother started his talk. It centered mostly on Jesus and how we were suppose to serve Him.
- Frankly, I'm use to most talks centering on Jehovah and the Faithful and Discreet Slave that for a moment. I was beginning to think he was one of those 'maverick' Jehovah's Witnesses. The type that comes here on this board but are still very active in the congregation.
- However, it did not take long before the faithful slave came into the talk.
- How do we serve Christ Jesus? We do it through His visible organization and His Faithful and Discreet Slave.
- How do we serve His organization? Locally, we do it by following the elders for if we follow the elders who follow the Faithful and Discreet Slave, we follow the head who is Jesus Christ.
During the watchtower study, I labored as I tried to keep my niece preoccupied in the meeting room and my daughter calm when I was out in the outer area that I frankly missed most of the study. Thank goodness for small favors (literally).
Finally, before we left the hall, I became bored and I wanted to go home. However, my wife still wanted to go to the dinner 'feeding of the visiting brother' and I knew how much it meant to her so I suffered a little longer. Finally, it was all over, and my wife went and talked to people after the meeting.
I noticed a woman who was at the meeting who I did not see since the KH wedding that I attended. I asked her how she was doing and asked if she was doing okay. Her mom is ill so she had been missing a lot of meetings to tend to her. When I last saw her at the KH wedding, she kept saying over and over (as if she had something to prove) that her mom was ill and that was why she missed so many meetings. I wished I had thought about it at the time because I should've told her that Jesus understands and is there with you every step of the way. Sometimes, I think I go only because I feel that these are people who truly love the Lord and are sadly being misled. I know I cannot say too much or else I would be marked and told not to return, but sometimes I cannot help but think that some of these people would truly benefit from a small uplifting feedback. I wonder if they get enough of it in the congregation?
At the dinner, the visiting brother was told that I was a 'visitor' and when he asked me about it I said, "Yes sir." He replied, "No need to call me sir." I say yes sir and yes ma'am as a custom of respect to anybody. The conversation we had was 'deflected' as the elder's wife interrupted and began telling him about how my wife is a study and boasted about how she progressed into becoming an unbaptized publisher. Perhaps she was just boasting o