"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world" (page 4)

When I read Paul who expected the Second Coming at any second, certainly within his lifetime, he appears to have joy when he is not combatting with other Christian factions. He commends men and women in the congregation. There is a sense that alhto the time was so very short, Christians could enjoy life at least part of the time. The agape meals were important. He was more concerned with quality in the congregations than bringing in new converts. Life can be very bad but it is also very good.

Hearing your bf's statements all the time will damage your mental health. He will def. want you to convert if the relationship is serious. Why would you want to stay with someone who minimizes your vents. They are your statements of your feelings. He may not agree but he should never correct you . A vent is neither right or wrong. Who is he to judge. Perhaps he is trying to console you and is awkward b/c of the Witness upbringing.. Venting isn't about truth finding but revealing one's emotions in a safe place. His whole world view is affected. My paramount question to him would be, How can life be bad if you have me? Doesn't my presence in your life show God's goodness. It sounds as though he wants a gf but derives no joy from the gf.

He could be a very nice person with good values who is only parroting what the heard.

Sorry, I'm on the internet very infrequently and have the attention span of a puppy when I am, so I forgot to check this. To the person who asked me if my BF knows the lengths of desperation he's driving me to, making me consider listening to Hasselhoff CDs rather than him, he probably does. When he starts preaching, sometimes I just walk away. When I sit and listen, I probably look like I've lost the will to live. Or I just throw the Bible I carry in my purse at him. (Yes, I carry the Bible in my purse; don't judge me!)

I feel sort of compelled to explain us. When we first started hanging out, we didn't think it would even really be a serious relationship. We just started hanging out, and being in our early 20s, we hardly thought it would lead to anything serious. Definitely not marriage or anything. But then those darned feelings developed. I honestly don't know if I ever want to get married because infidelity rates scare the poo out of me, and also people in general scare the poo out of me. But we kind of just started having those feelings, without really expecting it. We've been together for a long time, but if we have an expiration date, I'll get over it. I'm not overly needy and I'm fine being alone, so I'll be sad, but I'll power on. That being said, I wouldn't marry him if he sticks to the JW thing. I've thought about it, and accepted that we really can't get married with such different beliefs. If I did have kids, I wouldn't want them exposed to the insanity. Or to be forced to choose between family and religion. That's a seriously screwed up way to be brought up. And the people who put those policies into play should be ashamed of themselves.

As for him, he's not a devout JW. He's not even baptized. His mother got into it when he was just young enough to still be going to church with her. He has other siblings, but only he and his sister were young enough to go. So he's been exposed to it half his life or so, and he accepts a lot of it as true. He doesn't accept all of it as true, and he tells me that the elders are semi-annoyed with him anyway because he asks questions constantly. (Which probably wouldn't be good if he was baptized; he can get away with it now. :P) But his mom is pretty slack because he and his sister have both dated non-JWs, and most of their friends are non-JWs, too. (I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that there are very few JWs under the age of 40 in this area. Most of the kids he knew who were brought up with it have left.) I know about the time we started hanging out, he was really getting into it, but then I kind of threw a wrench in his plans. I know one of the reasons he's starting to question so much is because he almost wants to leave because then we could be together, and I hate that. I'd rather have it be from legitimate doubts that it's right. He tried for ages to get me interested, but when I even looked at the basic doctrines, I had a lot of WTF moments. The worst part for him was that he would try to show me via the Bible why they were right, and I would just jump back and be able to contest it. It probably threw him for a loop that one of those "worldly" types who "don't follow the Bible" knew way more about the good book than he did. And I'm a lady! Oh no, alert the elders. A girl who successfully argues Bible with a man. :P

So he's not a devout JW. Not baptized. Not fully convinced of any of their stuff. He just says they're "the best alternative." I've been working at making him realize that's not true at all. I have found that talking to him via the Bible is way more effective than talking to him about the organization. And then I guess he doesn't read the magazines because I keep up with the controversial stuff with you fine people here, and I find stuff that I think should jar him. The recent one about people only receiving blessings from the 144,000 made him do this face: O_O If only the elders that he's asking questions to knew it was a mere woman putting all these ideas into his mind...

"You should never look for/expect happiness in this world"

Bella15

Band on the Run

ilikecheese

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