"Encouragement" from my mother-in-law to my wife

garyneal

My wife did not attend the holiday celebrations with my daughter and I and instead chose to spend the time with her parents. She told her mom how she saw nothing wrong with the holiday celebrations and my m-i-l told her that she was right in that the things people do this time of year are very beautiful indeed. However, it is the reason why people do these things why we are not suppose to partake in them. My wife did at least come with me to my extended family's dinner Christmas night where only the kids received presents from their secret Santa. However, my wife has made it clear that her presence sends a message that she is 'condoning' the activity when she should not be. She may not attend next years Christmas dinner.

Upon reading her Bible last night, she found the following note of 'encouragement' from her mom.

Remember:

As you start your journey in serving Jehovah, the world will be fill with lights and glitterings. Know this at the end of day there will still be darkness. Don't let Satan win! Glitterings and lights are not the most important things in these last days. What is missing at the end of day "How did my life give honor to Jehovah?"

Ecc 12:1, 13 and Proverbs 27:11

Here are the verses that her mom cites:

Ecc 12:1 -- Remember, now, your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood, before the calamitous days proceed to come, or the years have arrived when you will say: “I have no delight in them”;

Ecc 12:13 -- The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: Fear the [true] God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole [obligation] of man.

Proverbs 27:11 -- Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.

journey-on

Oh, yes. They have an answer and a scripture for everything to support whatever thing it is they need to support at the moment. Funny thing is, there are just as many scriptures that could be twisted to support the opposite thing! Your poor wife must be torn to shreds trying to balance it all. Your mil thinks she is doing the right thing by pushing and pulling her daughter, but in reality, she is making her life miserable. So sad what this religion does by butting into family affairs.

garyneal

So true, JO. What's even funnier is that the WT itself is guilty of twisting scripture and reasoning to support the opposite thing in similar circumstances (pagan pinatas anyone?).

lisavegas420

I think of her attending as "respecting" others beliefs/traditions.

no one cares if she "condones", they just want her company, they want to include her in the festivities, because they love and care about her...or would if ever given a chance.

lisa

Heaven

The WTS does not want JW family members to love their worldly family members.

garyneal

Thanks lisa,

My thoughts exactly. When she asked me what would my family think of her being present, I just said that no one really knows that much about the religion and no one cares what you really feel about it. They are just simply glad that you are present whether you partake or not.

OUTLAW

Her mom is a 1st class AssH*le..

(I mean that in the nicest way possible!)

Those Scriptures have nothing to do with enjoying the holidays..

And..

Your MIL is screwing with the peace in your family..

That often leads to a break up in a marriage..

With any Luck..

Your MIL will be run over by a Bus..

(I mean that in the nicest way possible!)..

.....................

dgp

Gary Neal, first of all, I wish you man a happy new year. Then, may I suggest ("in the nicest way possible") that you tell her she doesn't have to come to your celebration, but you will go with your daughter? That you can perhaps spend one Christmas and one New Year's even doing whatever the witnesses do on those days, but then you expect her to come to your family's the year after? It's called "compromising".

garyneal

dgp,

I tried compromising. I told her that if I was willing to go with her to some of her meetings and even some of her assemblies multiple times a year then I see no reason why she could not be with me and my family once a year on Christmas. I even suggested that we spend Christmas morning at home while my daughter opens her 'Santa' gifts and then we ride to my family's house later for the annual dinner. We can then spend the rest of the week between spending time with her family and spending time with mine. She 'dogmatically' proclaims that by her being there she appears to be celebrating the holiday to outsiders. Never mind the fact that by my being at the assemblies, some individuals might mistaken me for a JW. I even had someone call me 'brother' at one of those assemblies.

Outlaw,

I hear what you are saying and I do hope that you are wrong. My MIL does seem like a caring person and a somewhat tolerant person. However, she is mislead by an organization that sets itself up as God's sole channel on the Earth.

Lady Liberty

Dear GaryNeal,

I thought I would share this with you regarding Christmas. I was really surprised at what I found, you may be too. I would be interested to know what you and your wife think about it...HAPPY NEW YEARS".

Here is a post I made some time ago:

Hello everyone,

My Mother and I were talking about Christmas being in December, and how the Christians felt it was truely a victory to have Christ Jesus birth still celebrated, unlike the pagan Sun god that was celebrated by the Pagans at the same time. We got to talking and realized that if you count backwards from when scholars really feel Jesus was most likely really born (in September), and count back 280 days of pregnancy, it would actually be late December!!! So I did some research, and came across this article. Could it be that the birthday was from the date of conception, not delivery??? Makes sence to me?? How about you?? Here it is...

December 25th has absolutely no biblical foundation as a day of Christian worship?
Or does it!Conception would have taken place 9 months prior, (modern research studies show 266 days has been determined as average human gestation time). 6Sept. 22, 3 B.C. ( 15 Tishri 3759 )
-266 days
=December 30, 4 B.C. = 14 Tevet 3758
This falls well within the range of Dec. 25 for the day of conception. By celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25th, we may well be celebrating the conception of Jesus. Remember the miricle was not in the Birth of Jesus but in the conception of Mary by the Holy Spirit.

The transcendence of time for God allows him to know the future as well as the past. In this knowledge, God knew the issues facing our generation. This information puts a new spin on the abortion issue, when does life begin? Many courts say that life doesn't begin until birth, but here we see that God considers the day of conception shall be the day that life begins. Do you know anybody who would allow children to be killed after birth. And yet the issue of life and the fetus seems to create such a gray area that many courts have settled on the birth date as the day for the beginning of life and in many areas of the world abortion is legal and used as a form of birth control. Therefore, Christmas day may be Gods answer to our modern dilemma about life beginning in the womb.

Heres the site, there is more to the article then what I posted here. http://www.direct.ca/trinity/christmas.html

Sincerely,

Lady Liberty

"Encouragement" from my mother-in-law to my wife

Share this