"Worldly" Friends vs "True" Friends (page 2)

Faithful Witness

I also wondered about your friends. Do you have a wordly friend that you can talk to about your everyday concerns? Not just JW struggles, but a buddy who doesn't judge you... ?

If so, what are some ways you can spend more time with that friend, and LESS time under the watchful eye and indoctrination of the WT Society?

Are there any after school activities that can take up some of your time? It will really help you to have some social support outside the organization, even if you can't leave quite yet for whatever reasons.

thedog1

Faithful Witness, I love your posts. You seem to be such a nice person. I am still an active Witness. In fact, as you might guess if you read any of my prevous posts, I am an elder. But some of your posts have caused me to ponder about the nature of true friendship. I am a teacher, and in my last few years of teaching I have met some wonderful young people with great personalities. I live in Europe but not in my land of birth. What I have found is that the young people in the country I live in have a more innocent take on life than in northern Europe or in the US. They are just people. Sorry to hijack this thread a little bit but it has struck me that I am starting to see people now as individuals rather than through the narrow confines of a Witness perspective. When I was young I, like many if not all young people, had a sense of wonder about the world around me. I read poetry, listened intently to music and watched different types of movies. But all of that was somewhat stymied by the last 30 years or so as a Witness. Reading the varied and various posts here have helped me to re-evaluate what friendship really means.

DuvanMuvan

@faithful witness. That's really sad to hear.

And from what you've said you were about as much of a jw as I currently am. I've been going to the meetings for years im not even a publisher. (lucklily my laziness kept me from committing to anything before I learned the real truth)

With my friends at school and stuff. I generally complain about the religion to anyone that asks of it but I do have a couple that I talk to about this stuff. Also, my mum knows that my circle of friends is pretty small if I only have friends in the org so doesn't mind too much if I spend time with friends after school and whatnot.

I always have the option of pulling the "I have a lot of homework" to get out of every other tuesday meeting too.

DATA-DOG

An Eldub at my KH recently said this about "worldly" people.., " We need to be nice and friendly, but we need to be careful that they don't think we are their friends, because we are not."

DD

wasblind

Hello Duvan Muvan

Even though its been decade upon decades

scince I was a teen, my life as a teenager consisted of rules, curfews and chores

do this, do that or else

.

The one thing I can give my mom credit for, is that

she realized my sisters and I needed our own outlet ( Friends ) apart from each other

and she supported the school activities and things we had interest in

within the limits of what we could afford

.

From that I learned, there are two kinds of teens that

are at risk to fall into " Bad Association "

.

Those who lacked interest, and those who for one reason or the other

couldn't participate in the things that interested them

.

The kind of friends my daughter made in school were those

who shared the same interest and activities as she did

and thier close ties remained well after high school and

beyond the Universities they attended

.

It's not how many friends you make in life

but the quality of those friends

.

A true friend, will accept and respect each others differences

.

Vidiot

duvanmuvan - "I was just wondering if anyone else found the same thing when they were a teenaged jw or if anyone still in my age finds the same thing."

Welcome, new guy; I like your username.

Oh, yeah; in high school, I had non-JW friends (I refuse to use the word "worldly", because it is - IMO - a disparaging label) that I have to say I liked better. I was lucky; my JW parents were in some ways kind of liberal, so it was never really a problem.

duvanmuvan - "...they said something about how it was easy for jw kids to be popular at school due to their good biblical qualities or something like that..."

Wow; can't say as I've ever heard that one.

Usually you got the "whole world hates you 'cause you're a 'True Christian'" meme, and since in my experience, "good biblical qualities" don't neccessarily make you popular at school, that seemed like verification.

But then, I wasn't one of those in-your-face super-righteous JW kids growing up.

I even watched R-rated movies and cussed.

Vidiot

Data-Dog - "An Eldub at my KH recently said this about 'worldly' people.., 'We need to be nice and friendly, but we need to be careful that they don't think we are their friends, because we are not.'"

Well, at least he's honest and doesn't sugarcoat WT ideology; I'll give him that.

Apognophos

I had some non-Witness friends too, or at least good acquaintances. It was hard to really get too close to them, but I was allowed to go over their houses once in a while. In my case, we didn't talk about my religion at all. I was embarrassed when the subject came up (rarely), so we just focused on our common interests like video games. I was a true believer, so I had no complaints about the religion that I needed to share with them, but for whatever reason I had no desire to witness to them. They, and my schoolmates as a whole, were very non-judgmental when it came to my religion.

OUTLAW

Worldly people are just pretending to be your friend. They do this so that you will fornicate with them.....Data-Dog

.......................................When your in the WBT$..

................Your told everyone in the outside world is fornicating..

...When you leave the WBT$,go into the outside world and look around..

.............................................You ask yourself..

.

................................Where Did All The Fornicaters Go?!..

...

.............................................................................................................................. ...OUTLAW

Faithful Witness

DuvanMuvan: Do you mean to say that you are not a baptized member of Jehovah's organization? I know you are running out of posts for today, but I wanted to make sure you realize the amount of support you have found here on JWN.

If you feel so inclined, you can send private messages to any member here. You are among friends.

"Worldly" Friends vs "True" Friends

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