Posts by indispair

25

just saying hi!

by bonnzo in

jw
friends

just to say hello.

been lurking awhile.nice site!

will tell my story real soon.

indispair

Eagerly awaiting. I hope life is treating you well.

Indispair

25

hi every 1 im new here i would like to chat to a jw as i would like to have sum questions answer i do belive in god & prayre every night 2 him hope u can help me as i feel a little alone at the moment take care xxx thank you xx

indispair

I am a df'd JW but if I can be of any help I can probably answer some of your answers as to the stance witnesses would take. I do not beseach you your beliefs, and I would not say anything to upset your beliefs or to put you on the defensive. Keep praying. Your prayers will be answered.

Indispair

102

Fuming, Angry, seething, seeing RED!!!!!!!!!!

by Gill in

my parents went to the assembly this weekend.

they were telling me about disciplining children... the speaker was saying how all babies are born selfish and demanding for their own needs and not anyone elses.

the jist of the talk being about discipline, and training children ...ie taking them out for a good beating.. well, i don't know if any of you have ever 'just seen red!

indispair

The word discipline means to teach. Spanking can be effective with some but not with others. If you do it all the time, too hard out of frustration it loses its effectiveness.

I actually worked for the Division of Family Services and saw uneducated people try this method. Their kids just disrespected them or feared them and waited until their backs were turned and did whatever they wanted to do again anyway. I also had to write a thesis paper for a psychology class so I did mine on the very topic of "At what age do we begin to look out for our own selfish intrests." Mind you I did not have a very big subject matter, only 200 children but this is what experiment I used to try and draw a conclusion about this.

I baked several same sized chocolate chip cookies and then purposely baked only a few really big chocolate chip cookies and then took them to several preschools and started with two year olds, then three, then four, then five. Two year olds did not notice, some did not even take a cookie at all. Three year olds took a cookie and ran off to play while eating it, some came back and asked for another one. One child only in the four year old group (who I found out later was the baby of seven sibling boys) saw that one of the cookies on the plate was bigger, looked around to see if anyone else noticed and then took it and finally the five year olds fought over the big cookie so much that they destroyed all the little cookies until all of them only got crumbs. I would have to guess selfishness is a learned behavior.

Where does the society get its information on discipline from. Don't say the bible, they stopped throwing stones a long time ago and Jesus would simply walk away from wrongdoers, not punish them. I doubt any studies were done on this scientifically or psychologically to divulge this information.

I have two children and I only have to threaten spankings as I did it the first three times, when an undesired behavior occurred, I explained why, told her I love her, gave her three swats on the bottom and did this consistently everytime she did this behavior. Now I can just threaten a spanking and she knows I mean it and walks away. My other child could care less if she is spanked but take her night night puppy from her and whatever behavior desired, she will do. Whatever works for whatever personality. Babies cry and throw temper tantrums when they are uncomfortable or need something that they don't know how else to ask for. It is called frustration. When we can't communicate what we want or need, we sometimes as adults out of frustration throw little hissy fits too.

Indispair

34

confused Im a non JW and my boyfriend is one of the JWs

by sun_dae in

i'm 21 years old and currently in a relationship with a baptised jw.

i have been studying with the jws for 2 years before we met.

well, i have to admit, i did not enjoy studying with them until about 10 months ago when i became interested of digging the "truth" although it means my sources was only the jw.

indispair

Why would anybody who is claiming to believe what the Witnesses write is truth be on this forum to begin with. I am not saying it is wrong but you must at least be questioning things.

15

What is Paganism?

by Gretchen956 in

i personally think it's a pantry that pretty much every non-christian belief system gets tossed into.

there are so many perceptions of paganism, and although i pretty much want to open this discussion to those who label themselves as such, anyone's thoughts are welcome.

this topic can become a can of worms, hopefully it won't denigrate to that.. thoughts?.

indispair

My mother is a JW and she says Pagan means man made and not constituded by God. I then reminded her that marriage is constituted by God as is birth but Anniversary's, wedding rings, honey moons are all pagan yet JW's celebrate them. Birthdays are considered pagan and are not celebrated. I do not understand. Isn't a special day for the couple as idolatrous as a special day for the birthday boy/girl? Bad examples of birthdays are not all that is in the bible. A good birthday is mentioned, Christs. The angels opened up, the trumpets sounded, the wise men gave gifts, hello!

Do you know that if you look in the back of the JW bible in the index there is no bold topic called Holidays or Disfellowshipping. I guess this would be where you have to turn to the Watchtower's index for the rest of what the bible must have accidentally left out. By my mother's very definition, the WT is pagan.

7

Righteousness vs. Unrighteouness: "Preachers" of Which?

by AGuest in

jw
friends

to the household of god that is israel, and all those who go with them.... may you all have peace!.

i recently received the following from my lord and have been directed to hand it down to you.

however, it was not the pharisee who was declared righteous, but the tax collector.

indispair

That was such a beautiful display of what witnessing should be. I never thought of it that way. I have been in so much fear because only Noah and his family survived? Do you think in the end days, on that narrow road to salvation that anyone will be pleading for those on the broader path? Do you think this God of mercy will forgive?

Thanks for the thoughts and I will certainly add this to my prayers.

Indispair

18

Does anyone make any money out of the Watchtower org..?

by Qcmbr in

jw
friends

i presume most of the peple ar eunpaid clergy but does anyone actually get paid or live a life of luxury paid for by the org?

on other words is anyone standing to make a profit by continuing this work..?

indispair

Has anyone noticed when you go to Jehovah's-witness.com that to the right of the forum board there is an option for single JW's. Is this for real? I find it interesting that this is posted at a mostly "apostate" sight. I know this makes money. Check it out. I can't believe this is a real sight for JW's. It seems so, well, you know, not JW like. I thought being single until after Armageddon and no children was still being taught. Someone please reply.

Thanks,

Indispair

56

Are there any 'true' churches ?

by Qcmbr in

just a question because of course we all either believed we were in the 'truth', are still in the 'truth' have left and found the 'truth', there is no 'truth' or that the only truth is found in the trailer park with a bottle of bud and a bunch of 'pozzies:)

indispair

Let me explain with a question. How many diet plans are there in the world? They all claim to work. Some with quick fixes, others with sheer will power, still others that make you eat nothing but tree bark and water. And of course there is heroin and brown rice, vegetable mix only as a lot of models have tried.

My point, the answer is balance. What works for some might not work for others. We each struggle with different metabolisms (religious topics of discussion) and you have to pray and have faith that until Jesus comes and tells you which one was right everyone is only guessing anyway. The holy spirit works in all of us. I have struggled with this issue myself and now I am raising children and want to know what to tell them. I am going to teach them what I missed being one of Jehovah's Witnesses which is - God is as merciful as he is just, he loves us and if we are working to have a better understanding of him and try to live our lives in accordance with his plans and most importanltly keep it simple. This is not works related but faith related.

Just a thought.

Indispair

4

Prank Call Made With The Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard

by ColdRedRain in

jw
friends

a prank call made with napoleon dynamite .

sounds .

too funny.

indispair

Where do you go to hear this prank call. My sister is still a JW but that is her favorite movie. I sure would like to send it to her1

Thanks,

I am a newbie- Indispair

49

I debated with my "devout" JW mom and her JW elders for 5 hours

by booker-t in

jw
friends

as most of you know by now i have told you that my mom has been a "devout" jw for over 40 years and i can't get her to budge.

well the last time we debated she left me totally confused and in a daze.

i did some fast research and this past sunday we had a free-for-all debate that lasted 5 hours.

indispair

My mother, like yours, could be an elder if she were a man. She is very well versed. I have argued with her many times on various subjects and have managed to stump her when the elders aren't present. I did not use any reading materials or even the bible. Just good old fashioned logic. On two points she got up to blow her nose and use the bathroom, I think to regroup her thougts and the third time she finally looked at me and said "That is a good question, I will have to look up some information or speak with the elders who might have more knowlege in this area and then I will get back to you. The discussion or question I asked her ? Where in the bible does it say we can not celebrate birthdays?

Answer number one - Shelley the only two birthdays mentioned in the bible resulted in beheadings or terrible events. I responded this was not true that when Jesus was born, on his date of birth, the heavens opened up the trumpets sounded and the angels rejoiced and celebrated. True it does not give a date, but none the less, the angels knew what day it was and celebrated.

Answer number two - it is idolatrous and the bible says God forbids idolatry. I asked how is celebrating a persons life idolatrous? My mother responded that it is worshiping that person and taking away the Glory of God. I reminded my mother that just two months earlier, not on my JW neices birthday (she is 6) but a day none the less, they had a "special" party for Zoe at Chucky Cheese with cake, ice cream, gifts and pizza. A lot of JW's love Zoe and came. Uh, gee, would this not be idolatrous by the way she described idolatry above.

Answer number three- You are only born once and pagan holidays are forbidden by God. My response, this is true but then why do JW's celebrate anniversaries. My mother replied - marriage was constituded by God. I responded, and birth was not? Then I further mentioned that while most holidays are of pagan origin, and the very definition of pagan is man made, then really it is wrong that Anniversary's be celbrated as the ring, and flowers and cake at a wedding or anniversary all hold pagan meanings.

She said she would get back with me once she could get some more info. I asked her if she could just use her mind, and logic and answer me now. She left.

The second thing we debated was war. Now I am writing my opinion so if you are Republican or a Bush fan you must understand that I do believe these men are puppets on strings and I don't even vote anymore but I still have my own opinions on the way the government is handling things so forgive me if I say anything that steps on anyone's toes because it was for a great cause-defusing my mother's brain washed mind.

My mother stated of couse "beat your swords into plowsheers." This is true. War is bad and nothing ever good comes from it except more death but like self defense, someone is going to lose but you still have to protect yourself. My mother replied "yes, but I would not go out and buy a gun. I replied, no but you will call a police officer who carries a gun to save you, so what he dies for helping you and you live conscious free because you did not do the shooting. Such is war. If we were really fighting Bin Ladin in Afghanistan and it was really for him and the events on 9/11 would we then be justified in doing what we could to defend ourselves and keep ourselves safe? Even God waged wars and helped certain peoples to win wars. My mother replied she would just hit the intruder over the head with a chair or something. I replied, you could still kill them and I could come in with my gun and shoot them in the leg and they could still live. She then got angry at me and said I was picking apart what the point was and excused herself to the bathroom.

It seems to me if you are interpreting the bible you are picking apart what God says in a way. He just meant for you to read his word, take his teachings (which is what discipline is) and try to apply them to our imperfect lives as diligently as we could and love him and give him glory. I don't know why disfellowshipping is beneficial then, because you are cutting people off from God's love when you do this and you certainly can't get better without God according to their teachings.

This brings me to a new question. My step father is on reproof right now for cheating and going to girly bars. He use to be an elder. He is also divorcing my mother right now without scriptural ground. He came by the other day and asked if the elders have ever came back by to make a shepherding call as they are supposed to do that with disfellowshipped people. Is this true? I can't wait to point out how wrong they handled my situation. I also wonder if I can get them to understand that my baptism should be a "do over" as I was only 14, and can only be as sincere as a lost 14 year old can be with one believing parent and one non beliving parent.

Thanks,

Indispair