Do you still attend meetings? (page 3)

thinkers wife

Larc,
You and Zazz always know just what to say. You make me feel so good. Not like some freaked out weirdo with strange ideas. Thank you both for just being you!!!
TW

larc

Hey Thinker's Wife,

Actually, we are freaked out wierdos with strange ideas, but we keep it to ourselves as all strange people should.:) :)

I might be crazy, but I ain't real dumb.

You know I just like to have fun, and I haven't had this much fun since the eighth grade picnic.

larc

Thinker's Wife,

I find it hard to accept a compliment. I just hide behind my silliness. Thank you so much for your kind words.

thinkers wife

Anytime Larc. I am willing to accept you just on the basis of who you are married to. But you are starting to grow on me too!

Edited by - Thinkers Wife on 9 January 2001 6:38:35

peaceloveharmony

i don't regularly attend meetings. i've gone to the memorial a few times in the last 8 years and attended a couple of assembly talks. i only go the the memorial because my mom wants me to.

i've also attended mass at a catholic church for christmas, easter and mother's day. i like the ceremony of the catholic church but could never get into the religion. i've been to catholic and luthern weddings before. when i first left the jw's i was somewhat frightened of being in another church but since i wasn't struck down for sinning, i lost that fear!

now i'm looking into wicca. i also like eastern religious beliefs. i think the most improtant thing is to find a religion or a belief system that works with you. some people need lots of rules and regulations and ceremony with precise forms of worship, others like more a broader approach to worship and the freedom to choose how to worship the diety(ies) themselves.

just my two cents!

love harmony

Edited by - peaceloveharmony on 9 January 2001 11:53:11

Frenchy

I still attend meetings but not very often. I like to see old friends. I know that this will get more difficult as time goes on. They are growing more and more suspicious of me because I am irregular. There is even some gossip around the circuit that I am disfellowshipped. I enjoy seeing the surprise in the guest speakers when I walk around and talk to everybody!
I still love the idea of what 'the truth' was supposedly all about. I'm very sorry that it was only a fascade. I know that it left a hollow spot inside of me that is extrememly difficult to fill.
I don't go out in service anymore because it would be an advertisement for the Witnesses and I certainly don't want to be responsible for someone else being drawn into the net. I still study with a young man I was studying with while still serving. From the beginning with him I was very careful not to be dogmatic and to present the information as objectively as I could. I even gave him the opposing views on the issues. I was candid with him about what would happen if he were baptized and later changed his mind. I was also candid about the control that the congregation has over its members. He has told me that he does not want to be baptized as a JW but he loves the study that we have. We study out of the Bible.

-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-

thinkers wife

PLH,
I have to agree with you. We have a very different belief system from most people but it works for us.
Frenchy,
I can definitely relate to what you are saying. I feel very guilty sometimes about the people "I helped into the truth". Very helpless.
I tried to be honest with them too. But now they won't even speak to me. Very sad. Very frustrating.
TW

waiting

Hey Frenchy,

We study out of the Bible.

I think that's the first time I've heard that - from anyone. And it's really cool. If you don't mind - how do you accomplish the study? By book or by thought, such as trinity, etc?

I would imagine that the time spent studying and teaching the Bible that way would be very satisfying.

I like to see old friends.

I miss that aspect of the meetings more than anything.

waiting

JAVA

Hi waiting & Frenchy:

It's been years since I walked into a Kingdom Hall, but your comments about missing old friends made me think about the last time I met with a JW friend of many years. Our families vacationed together, we drove 320 miles one way to visit them when they moved out of state. Bill and I talked about everything, and I still miss him. However, the last time we visited I suggested some doubts about the Tower's 1914 generation and end-times prediction.

I could feel him withdraw before the words bounced off his closed ears. It was as if we had NOTHING in common within a second after years of friendship. I miss the person I used to know when I didn't know what I know today. That person is gone. The Eastern saying about "you can't step into the same river twice" is true when the bed of the river is the Watchtower, and you finally know "the truth."

thinkers wife

My husband and I had the closest thing to words last night that we have ever had. (reminder: I was raised a Witness, he basically knew nothing before meeting me) Since a lot of us feel the Society is cracking down even harder on association with df'ed and da'ed he feels I should be honest with my parents about why I left, i.e. I don't think it is the "truth".
I feel it would be a moot point. I don't think they really want to know the truth about how I feel anyway. He feels it could be my last opportunity to save them. I feel, it would cut them off forever. Any opinions. (in all honesty I think the cutting off forever is just around the corner regardless of what I do or say)

Do you still attend meetings?

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