i was just wondering what constitutes as being brought up in the truth.
my mom was baptized when i was 7 and my dad got dunked when i was 11. right now i don't really consider myself as being fully raised in the truth because even though i've been going to meetings since i was 6 i just slept/doodled through them.
my mom didn't study with us kids and my dad didn't start the family study until i was 12. i'm turning 20 in a few weeks... i've known life before the truth and it was much bettter, everyone was soo much happier.
That old geezer was way out of line, don't ever be alone with him again under any circumstances. His speech to you was totally inappropriate.
I always said I was raised 'around' 'the truth'. My parents had patchy spots and were always considered 'weak'. my grandparents were super devout.
don't let them get you into the baptism pool.. just do not do it.
glad you're here, welcome to the forum
hugs
essie
our dear friend, panda's, husband died of a heart attack a night ago.
she is a sweetheart, and she didn't want to tell us because she was thinking that it would make people feel bad.
she is feeling very bad, that's forsure.
((((((((((((Panda))))))))))))))))))
I'm so sorry...
hugs
essie
how did you get to the point where you are at now?
was it primarily new information that made you rethink religion and god?
learning about the ice age, the universe, the fossils out there?
Saki' I feel for you. I wanted those things too, for me and my children.
My mother is very bitter because she was promised she would not grow old before the new system came. She was told not to marry and have children. My grandmother, who became a JW in the 40's and was told she would never get old, died in her mid eighties a few years ago. She never thought she would be a great grandmother.
Far as my own mother goes...It's a good thing that she did get married, because the end didn't come and she is now a grandmother with children who care about what happens to her in her advancing years. At least one of her children do, me, and I'm the black sheep in the family.
We all want an ideallic life for our children in a world that we don't have to worry about them. Unfortunately, this is the one we've got to work with and that's why I think that all of us, believers and non believers, need to do what they can to make it a better place for the next generation.
Other things that occur to me as a parent when I used to lay awake at night wondering where Jehovah was;
Would you punish all of your children and grandchildren for one transgression if your 'first born'? Would you literally watch them suffer and die for millenia because of one bad decision if you had the ability to fix it?
Would you let them suffer and die just to prove that they needed a parent?
Would you demand that one child give up its life to forgive the mistake of the firstborn?
I wouldn't, I don't see how any loving parent could.
essie
ps if anyone replies to this and I don't answer today it's because the website keeps logging me out and then not letting me back in till the next day for a reason I have no idea of.
how did you get to the point where you are at now?
was it primarily new information that made you rethink religion and god?
learning about the ice age, the universe, the fossils out there?
I no longer concern myself with things I cannot "know", such as whether god exists or not, and prefer to focus on things I can better myself, and others with.
I really appreciate this, it's kind of like what I tell my child about evolution etc...I just posted about it in Dansk's Evolution thread. In the end nobody can know. That to me is the mark of humility in a human being, knowing that they do not know the answers.
Even if people do profess faith in something, it seems to me that where they go wrong with it is to say that they know all the answers. I mean, isn't there something that they have to 'take on faith?" so to speak? and if that is so, can't they just admit it?
I don't begrudge anyone their faith, if they have it. I believed for years, and I was absolutely sincere in doing so. Most of my friends believe in something, either they're Christian or Pagan or something. But they know that when it comes to religion I am like a person sunburned; that if they "share" with me what they think is a gentle pat on the back so to speak trying to sway me to their view, that to me it's like a hard smack on very sensitive skin. They just accept it about me, and we go on to other things and topics.
I find that the song "closer to fine" means a lot more to me as I get older. The less I spend my time worrying about why and how and Who got us here and just do the best I can to live a good life and help others when I can, the less any of those existential questions bother me in the least.
I don't know, and that's just fine with me :) Enjoy the journey!
hugs
essie
i moved back to beaumont to stay with crabby pants.
was in dialup hell for a while because the computer was attached to cp's phone line.
he couldn't stand for me to be online for any length of time because it might have interferred with him getting to scream, cuss and roar at telemarketers and slam the phone down over and over hard enough to break it.
Frannnnnieeeeeeeeee!!! *squish* Been wondering where you've been! Have missed you bunches around here!
hope you can stay around, crankypants or no crankypants LOL we need ya!
xoxoxo
essie
i've been trying for years, had the number programmed into all my phones and hit redial every chance i could.
so yesterday i'm driving along, bored with the radio, when i decided to try another redial.
this is a transcript of the actual call:
Brilliant, Gregor.
Kinda reminds me of the XTC song "Dear God." If you haven't heard it, look it up. It's a good one.
hugs
essie
Happy Birthday! if I had it handy, I'd serenade you with my kazoo LOL
I remember 25...LOL I can't believe it was a decade ago already. sheesh.
Enjoy the view while you're there!!!
essie
how did you get to the point where you are at now?
was it primarily new information that made you rethink religion and god?
learning about the ice age, the universe, the fossils out there?
Hi BSoM!
I can tell you that personally, it's the whole mankind trying to annihalate each other thing. The cruetly in this world especially toward children.
Any loving "parent" wouldn't stand idly by while two of their children killed each other, especially not over something as stupid as the issue of which child the parent loved best.
If there were a god, in my view, he/she/it should have DONE something by now to tell makind to quit it already.
That is why I am where I am. Which is agnostic leaning heavily toward athiesm.
hugs
essie
my mom called last night to tell me he passed on sunday.
he died peacefully and fairly painlessly.
my mom said she was talking with him, went to answer the phone, and 5 minutes later he was gone.
((((((((Brenda)))))))))
Thinking of you...
hugs
essie
continued from part one: .
the envelope was thick and so i knew that it had to contain pictures.
when i opened it, faded snapshots .
BTW, I've had the experience of being "downgraded" from "family scandal" to "minor embarrassment." It happened when my brother had his third divorce--three marriages and he's never had a second anniversary. Apparently, that makes him more of a "problem" than his lesbian sister. Oh, well.
is that anything like being downgraded from a hurricane to a mere tropical depression? LOL
I've been depressed, but never tropically...that I know of...
:D
Good for you sunnygal!!!!
hugs essie
