by AuntieJane 2 Replies latest jw friends
Any of you who went "in" as adult JW's, w. no or few other family members "in"...
did you ever have 2nd thoughts about how your being a JW affected your nonJW family members?
Do you remember ever caring that they were hurt when you wouldn't participate in holidays with
them? Did you have any true feelings for how they felt or did you quash those emotional thoughts completely?
I was 20 when I became a JW, no other family member was one.
It would not be till years later and married to a JW that I began to realise that I had totally lost touch with my family. I very rarely visited my father (mother dead) or my sister or brother. Become so tied up in meetings field service etc that they were pushed out of my mind. Old friends I grew up with I also never saw again. Never gave a thought about birthdays or Christmas having been constantly told these were pagan and evil things to celebrate.
Gradually you find that all thought for relatives, past friends fades they just become those in the "world".
Also you are constantly told that these people would leave you because you have become a JW and found the truth. Its not until years later you realise that your relatives and friends didn't leave you because you became a JW but that you left them.
My husband and i got recruited in our late teen's. Yes i did care how my family felt but i was saving my children and i felt they just didn't know any better , they didn't want to know the truth. I can remember walking around real smug like because i didn't celebrate holidays, i was a jw and i knew better now.
OH, the stupidity
