by LoisLane looking for Superman 39 Replies latest jw friends
In my small town, which has a lot of Churches, its not uncommon to see the local pastors in the Coffee Shops holding Bible Study classes, Prayer Breakfasts etc..
At one Community wide Prayer Breakfast the local pastors all rushed up to one city council member and put their hands on him and prayed aloud O Geeezus blah de blah.
The local JWs have their favorite Donut Shops ( and a Panaderia) they like to hang out at.
Couples in large groups would pray, the husband praying only so his wife next to him could hear. Everyone else just said a private silent prayer. This nut pioneer ( who converted in the throes of extreme emotion after his dog died) would give a silent prayer over just coffee! Nutters gonna nut.
I always give thanks for COFFEE!!!
( Matthew 23:23, 24) 23 “Woe to YOU, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because YOU give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cumin, but YOU have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things it was binding to do, yet not to disregard the other things. 24 Blind guides, who strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel!
How I used to regret the moment right before the prayer. If I was with the fam I would always have to do it and when we were with others I knew any dudes in the group would call on me to thank the lord. Most awkward thing is when I'd open my eyes to find the waitress just standing there, like hovering respectfully as we finished praying.
A number of times we would have the DO or CO out at a restaurant with us.
When my ex would defer to them to say prayer , almost always, they would say,
"Out in public, we each say our own silent prayer". lol
They didn't want to look weird, either! lol
Oh, come on somebody!
Who lives around me?
Let's go out for dinner, doesn't matter how many people join us,
and say prayer , out loud, lol
And I'll say hallelujah at the end... Real loud.
Oh... Let's all wear any old JW convention badge, so we can give all the credit to WT... lol
But let's not stiff the waiter. That is not nice.
LL
Even when I was all in, I would excuse myself to go to restroom and say I would pray when I got back. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Closer to my exit, I just looked around until they were done praying.
The married couple public prayer has always irritated me.
To be fair, other religious people (not just JWs) do this as well.
The married couple public prayer has always irritated me.
Me too! And every cong I've been in has been one for "obvious" prayers at restaurants...always seemed like making an announcement that WE were more religious than those sitting near us. In the South, we remarked about the loud Baptist prayers in restaurants as Pharasitical...ahh, such hypocrites we were. Our deep head-bowing was just as bad. And no one would speak to the waiter or waitress...they would have to stand there and wait on someone to finish.
We were sure wacko back in the borg....
Just a quick catholic prayer is good enuf to do anywhere "Lord bless these sinners, so they can eat their dinner."
I like what my dad did, relative to the ostentatious alternative. He just got his plate and said, "It's good that Jehovah provided this." And that was his public prayer.
