by Jez 19 Replies latest jw friends
My best friend was worldly all through elementary to high school. We are still good friends. I wonder if that led to our being a tad bit more open minded and aided in our exit??? I use to sleep at her house, ache for her xmas tree, get spoiled by her parents at the holidays (in secret), hand out candy at Halloween (in secret) and go out with boys together (in secret). Looking back, I think it provided a comparision for my life with a normal life.
Any one else grow up with 'worldly influences'?
I did have some worldly friends. My mom would let me hang out with the neighborhood kids, but always commented she wanted me to be with jw kids. The problem was that for most of the time growing up, there were only about 5 other JW kids in my school...I was somewhat friends with two (who left, and went wacko) and the other three were absolute snobs to me. They didn't stay in either.
In high school I had friends, and did a lot in secret, but it really wore on my conscience big time ack! But I had some really good times hehehe.
I had some worldly friends throughout elementary, but I knew not to invite them over to my house. By the time I was in my early teens all my friends were worldly...it's safe to say I didn't feel very excepted by my JW peers.
All my friends in elementary school, high school, and college were non-JWs.
I have had the same friend for 33 years. We grew up next to each other. We are both redheads and the same age. My mom used to take us to the store and people actually thought we were twins. She is still my best friend in the whole wide world. It's quite tragic really what our friendship has had to endure due to the JW religion. She came to my baptism. She was always loyal to me as I went through my trials and tribulations in and out of the truth. I finally married a witness man and didn't have her as my maid of honor because she was a worldly person/girl. It still tears at my heart that she wasn't in my wedding party. She should have been, by right. It is a very sensitive topic for me to this day. Our friendship is something like you would see in the movies. So sweet, so true blue. I have a post card sent to me from her from 1988. There was a Earthquake in California while she was there. I was reading it the other day and it brought tears to my eyes. I actually gave up my other worldly friends due to being a witness but this friendship I would not. She is my friend today and will be until I die. I love her with all my heart and being. My very soul. I hope that you have the honor and delight in knowing someone like my dear friend. Friendship is a special thing, cherish it, always, I do! I love you Laura.
My best friend all through my school years was a worldly person. We stayed together all the time. He lived next door out in the country, about a half mile away. We went out about every night we didn't have meetings to movies, played pool, dated worldly girls, and just hung out together. We are still very good friends.
Ken P.
Totally! I felt that it was of great benefit to have as wider mix as possible! Including a non-JW boyfriend! It taught me a lot about other cultures and made me realise a lot more about the world
Nope, no worldly friends here.
I had tons of worldly friends. My dad was the head honcho in our congregation. I was the youngest of four kids so my parents never knew what I was doing. Alot of the people in the congregation didn't want thier kids to hangout with me. Eveyone thought I was a bad influence(how right they were). My best friend to this day was a JW with me. We always met all the bad JW kids from other congregations at the assemblies. We use to go to Yankee Stadium for the big assemblies all met up and leave and go to some park and hang out. Our parents didn't even know we were gone. It was in the 70's. pc
I had worldly friends I hung out with only at school. I was never allowed to do anything with them after school, unless I offered them a study....so this one girl I hung out with down the street, well, I started a study with her.... we didn't do much studying, mostly playing ball in the street, or dancing to music, etc., my mother started to question it, so I had to cut off my playtime with her.
My best friend that I've known since our diaper years was a witness of course, her mom and my mom were best friends. She left 5 years before I did....it was so great to see her again....she lives in the north suburbs, has been re-married has kids like me....and we've just picked up where we've left off.....she also introduced me to my husband now.
