by FREE-TO-BE-ME 7 Replies latest jw friends
It is something we all have & for some of us.. are finally using = the freedom of choice....so in hindsight if we had the choice to be a witness & learn from it what we did (the good, the bad & the ugly..) or never have been associated as a JW ever which would you choose?
How different would your life have been?
I am new so excuse this question if it has been asked before
Interesting question. Having been raised a JW, I couldn't really control my childhood beliefs. I guess the only thing I would have changed is not getting baptized. I don't know if it would have changed anything. I'd like to think that I would have more contact with my JW parents, but then again, I'm not sure that's a good thing. LOL!
i wouldnt change my upbringing.i have wonderful loving parents who did a great job raising us kids.
they were what jw's should be.. loving balanced kind people.
now..as an adult..i'd never have married a jw man ! took me 18 yrs to correct that mistake!
I asked the question so I guess I need to reply...for me I would have gone to college instead of becoming a pioneer and therefore I would not be in a job that I have to be in because I do not have a college degree.
I would have in general experienced life a little more...my values I treasure, and I think they have helped to make me a better person... but sometimes a little too nervous....i can remember having a beer underage & getting talked to by the elders & the CO & it being a big deal, I think I was always worried I was going to "get in trouble"...
Well, I'm sure you must've had the right connections to get away with whatever you got away with. Btw, pretty good question for a "newbie".
The Society taught me a very valuable fact, and that is that religions lie and play off the ignorance of their members. Very early on, it taught me that it was ludicrous to think that there was a bearded old man that lived "up there, somewhere" who watched and judged everything I did, that would reward me sometime in the future, and that did the impossible through magic. It taught me not to believe in the ridiculous idea that demons "spirits of the dead" haunt old buildings. It taught me to be wary of religionists like the Pharisees that take the Bible's counsel too far and invent rules that blow the principles at stake way out of proportion.
If I was never a Witness, I couldn't see them for what they are. So I guess they really did teach me the truth!
Well, I guess I'll know if I ever travel back in time, but then I don't know I necessarily want to do that either. Fortunately I am free from that choice as well.
Choice doesn't have that much freedom when it is already limited by certain beliefs. For example, imagine someone asking you a question like what kind of fool do you want to be? You'd be like I don't want to be a fool right, what kind of choice would that be. But when we entertain this idea of choosing something different back then, it is actually influenced by certain beliefs we hold now isn't it? So the choices we may want to make is really limited by those ideas we have now. They may be what we consider good ideas, but basically I'm suggesting we be open minded even about those. Freedom from the ideas of what might be considered a better life - I'll go with that.
so in hindsight if we had the choice to be a witness & learn from it what we did (the good, the bad & the ugly..) or never have been associated as a JW ever which would you choose? How different would your life have been?
No regrets - it's not what you were that matters but what you do now. be thankful that you now are blessed with your "hindisght" and know the truth about "the Troof".
