For now I guess.
We also live in a fairly small community and have been amazed at how little we've been bothered by elders and others from the hall.
so today i go and see my mother after a day at work and she tells me my oma phoned her from germany a couple days ago.
it was shortly after that i just dropped in that i sent her some flowers earlier that day for same day delivery.
it's her 81st birthday!.
For now I guess.
We also live in a fairly small community and have been amazed at how little we've been bothered by elders and others from the hall.
so today i go and see my mother after a day at work and she tells me my oma phoned her from germany a couple days ago.
it was shortly after that i just dropped in that i sent her some flowers earlier that day for same day delivery.
it's her 81st birthday!.
So today I go and see my mother after a day at work and she tells me my Oma phoned her from Germany a couple days ago. It was shortly after that I just dropped in that I sent her some flowers earlier that day for same day delivery. It's her 81st birthday!
Funny enough my mother remembers it's her birthday as a year earlier she accompanied us to her 80th although a fully 'in' JW. She can't however be bothered to acknowledge my birthday a mere two weeks previous, funny that.
She goes on to say: 'Do you celebrate birthdays now then?' To which I simply answer that I don't see anything wrong with it :o lol. The subject is quickly changed...by her.
I've been waiting for this quite some time as we've now been faded for the best part of 8 months and made it abundantly clear we no longer believe it's the truth. Sad thing is she's probably too scared to aproach the elders about my paganism as she's too keen to be involved in her grandchildren's lives.
It's very interesting to see how my family have reacted in comparison to so many others on here. It seems that my mother in particular has made a point of not rocking the boat, yet still seems surprised that after such a long time were not still following wt doctrine. I mean why the hell would we restrict ourselves in the things we do now that we have finally found our freedom? It makes no sense.
i've been lurking for about 3 months now and thought i'd better finally sign up.
you have all been an immense help to me as i have come to realize that this isn't the truth so i want to say a great big thank you!
what a crazy, emotional ride it is to finally face the truth about the doubts that i have carried for many years.
When I first discovered TTATT I made it my mission to be as objective as possible. I like to think I can see through bs most of the time, which was very important in making my decision to leave all things JW.
With this in mind I would pray most days, (usually when out with the dog as this was the most quiet part of the day for me) asking Jehovah (if he really did exist) to help me find answers to the things I found out. Funny enough he's remained silent on all my requests for help...
I wish you both all the best for the future. It'll take some time to adjust but life's a lot less stressful, at least for us anyway ;)
i have thought about how ttatt came full circle for me.
how the connecting the dots was simple and just made sense,.
how silos of information are literally at our fingertips today.. why is it that the ones we love cannot get ttatt?.
I don't know if my experience is similar to anyone else's?! Looking back on things, I gradually stopped a lot of jw activity before learning TTATT. For the best part of 2 1/2 years before I first encountered the UN scandal I hadn't answered at meetings and only made a token appearance in service. Having our first child was great as i could now 'legitimately' count time without knocking on doors :)
I always felt I wasn't doing enough but at the same time couldn't bring myself to make more of an effort.
I believe I'd made a subconscious decision that things weren't right for some reason. Perhaps the monotony of it all just got too much, I've always got bored quickly when I was younger and remember the meetings droning on about the same old bs week after week. I don't think there was a week that went by when porn or masterbation wasn't discussed!!!
I totally agree with everyone though, the triggers seem different from one person to another. I guess it boils down to what TTATT someone is exposed to and what stage they're at in life.
The UN NGO scandal got the ball rolling for me... these days the protection of peadophiles is my no.1 pet hate of the org.
i was just invited.
i thanked my old elder friend and he left.
(i'm not going).
hello everybody, i was wondering if anyone has been guilted or emotionally blackmailed into attending the memorial this year.
something along the lines of "if you loved your family you would at least attend the memorial".
i myself haven't attended in 5 years.
So far nothing. The elders have been unusually quiet for us since our abrupt exit. My mother knows I don't think it's the truth and she hasn't tried to preach at me since!
Here's hoping it continues lol
ok here's the situation i know of.. a women was in a situation where she was forced to reveal a hidden sin and was given a private reproof for it.
before this she had an other wise clean slate.
btw the reproof was for an unrelated matter and had nothing to do with apostasy.
Hi Joe,
We've found exactly the same thing. I still do work for some wittos from time to time and till now (we've been physically out since August last year) only one of the elderly women has asked when I'm coming back to meetings.
It used to perplex us. Now we see it as more of a blessing in disguise. People still wave to me in the street and say hello but no one can be arsed to pop round or have even tried to get us to come back.
The really ironic thing, as was already mentioned somewhat, is that I see them out in service all the time trying to recruit new drones but they don't care about the ones who leave. So much for genuine friends and Christian love.
when it comes to a simple matter of no longer believing the teachings of jw's, it appears to me that it's more common for the husband to make the first move to leave the religion.
for those who have left and are still in contact with jw family, how do you usually respond when they bring up jw stuff, i.e.
start talking about the nearness of armageddon or things like that.. i usually say nothing and just let it pass but i'm considering changing tact to something more confrontational, less because i want to change their mind and more because i find it tiresome.
thoughts?
My wife and I made it clear that my mother is free to talk about jw stuff as it's part of her life, as long as she doesn't try to force her opinions us!
So far so good but her incessant dropping in of something someone said in a talk, or some other random jw bs is starting to wear thin. Watch this space I guess lol!
have lurked here for many, many years.
female, latina, middle-aged, born-in, 3rd generation jw, northeast usa.
my fate is to continue to play the game 'till death do us part because the very strong and tangled web of friends, family, business, etc.