by poohbear1962 22 Replies latest jw friends
Flip,
I was very happy to help. This one of my favorite subjects. Yes, I have been there and done that, and if I can help you and some other people on their way, it makes me happy. I am now a retired college professor, and I am so thankful that I put in the time to get an education. One last piece of advice (I think). One half of getting an education is intelligence and study habits. The other half is persistence.
Poohbear, your schedule certain shows very vividly the schedule jws are expected to keep all week. The fact is, few jws can adhere to this, and yet they are constantly "encouraged" to do so.
A few months ago, I decided to 'redouble' my efforts jw wise, and try again to do what was suggested in the form of what is mentioned here. I lasted one week. By the end of that week, I couldn't imagine possibly keeping it up.
When I used to attend the elder's schools, another elder and I would ride home and he'd always say that after he attended those schools or the meeting with the CO during his visit, he always felt like resigning. One of the phrases we heard was the one mentioned here, 'an hour's research for each minute of your public talk'. When you hear stuff like that, it makes you feel inadequate.
One time, I spoke with a friend who is an elder about how much there is to do, read, etc. He said, 'it's like a buffet, you just take what you need to satisfy you'. Nice, but I never read anything like that from the pages of any jw literature, because they never would want to promote such a notion.
What also got my attention is how some articles in the past mention keeping up with this routine and then the scripture at 1 John 5:3 is used - "the commandments of God are not burdensome" - yet no proof is offered that God commands all this stuff. The way that scripture is used has always been, to me, very manipulative. They state what they want you to do, then bring in that verse to make it appear that it's God who is commanding it.
Edited by - jack2 on 14 September 2002 6:22:25
OMG Does that ever take me back. Even after 17 years I remember that gruling schedule.
Now if you are a working mom or a single parent this schedule means you have 3.5 hours to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry etc (no "marital due" to worry about though) and add the time from Prepare to study with spouse and prep time for a talk
No wonder some of the sisters are so sick - and esp the elders wives
gonna go lie down for a bit
I'm tired now
