Posts by reneeisorym

18

WHY I Keep Kicking when down....

by Sparkplug in

jw
friends

you get a letter like this and it makes it all better:

(from my daughter)

its all too hard to explain, .

reneeisorym

I wanted her to be independent and when she is as loud as I taught her to be, well sometimes it is hard to take. You know we can't really "Put that thing back where it came from." lol

I know that's how my mom feels about me too. Your relationship with your daughter reminds me of mine with my mom. I am 23 and not 14, but it still sounds so familiar. She finds my independence hard to take too. Because I became an apostate and she thought she was raising a Bethelite, she feels like she did a terrible job raising me I know. Your daughter probably feels like I do that I am very very grateful for the way my mom raised me to be independent and honest to a fault. A lot of my family blame my parents for who I have become in a negative way. I hate it so much that they do that.

I am so thankful to my parents for making me who I am. I hope that might give you a glimpse into the future. I think one day she will be very thankful to you for giving her confidence but I hope you don't think that you messed up. I think she will be a very happy young lady in the days to come no matter what problems come up. She will probably be happy inside no matter how terrible things on the outside may be. Congrats on raising such a confident, independent young lady.

11

One last act of separation

by jeanniebeanz in

jw
friends

well, i was cleaning out the last of the boxes from our move to texas and i came across my old new world translation.. i stopped and looked at it for a while, leafed through the pages to see the notes, hastily scribbled during some talk or another, little pieces of my life and world... some of the comments triggering memories of conventions, or relatives, mainly though, triggering feelings of... nothingness.. nothingness... that is what my time as a witness has boiled down to.

years of my life offered gladly to an organization that i believed would show me, and those whom i loved, the way to a better life where there would be no, "sickness, death or suffering" all meant nothing.. it used to make me mad or sad thinking about these things, but now there is just nothing.. not even when i think about my dad.

i used to get so upset at having lost him; i'd cry and hope that he'd see the light and leave the organization.

reneeisorym

I don't know about all of this nothingness feeling. When I was a witness, I was so very zealous. I had "Bible" studies out my ears. Thankfully, I was never able to convert but one person who I later converted to an apostate (funny, huh?). And now as an apostate, I am a very proud apostate. I have a new zeal to learn all I can about the Bible and I read it every spare moment I get. Along with that, it gives me great confidence that at only 23 years old, I was able to see it was wrong. I have seen so many waste years and years of their lives in that cult. I am so very proud of myself for having an open mind and not being sucked into it my whole life. I dearly hate losing my family but I hold tight to the hope that one day my parents will come out too. I can't see anyone else in my family that I talked to before I DAed myself coming out but I have hope for my parents. They know that I left because I felt the religion was wrong. A lot of other people think that I left for "the world" and "fleshly desires". My parents know I left after dilligent Bible study. My dad said, "I never questioned that it was the truth so I never asked the questions you are asking. You always had to be different." and my mom said, "I hope you are happy becaues you have gotten me to question everything I thought I knew for 30 years of my life."

That said, I am a very passinate person. I am proud of who I have become and hope I never feel nothingness.

13

If your child grew up and became a Witness?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i think we all think that our children would never do this, with us being so negative toward the faith.

yet in reality, these children grow to be adults and will make their own choices in time, as to what they want and believe.

i wonder though, would we spend all of our time with them trying to explain why we exited and why they should not believe, or would we just come to accept it?

reneeisorym

I think it would be rare for an apostate's child to become a witness. Most of the time it is the religion that makes them not have a relationship with their own grandparents. I know a cousin of mine has two children who think it is so crazy that their grandparents and aunts and uncles never come to visit and they don't have a relationship with them. They grew up knowing mostly the bad things from seeing it first hand that Granny never gave them Christmas presents or ever got them to spend the night with her. I am sure it would hurt to have your entire family disown you to start with and then have your child grow up and do the same thing and be alone once again. I wouldn't think this would happen very often because they know that if they get baptised, they can't speak to their parents.

44

who attends a church now?

by meems101 in

jw
friends

.

i'm interested in knowing how many, after leaving, started to attend a church.

if so, what one and how did you decide?

reneeisorym

I went to a church for the first time in my life last wednesday. It was a southern baptist church. I found it much more enjoyable than I anticipated. It was nice to hear a preacher who had actually been to school to do public speaking and was interesting to listen to. Jehovah's Witness elders can be quite boring and make me want to sleep! lol I liked that there wasn't a "dress code". People were wearing blue jeans and some dresses. I am about to move so I am not going to join a church where I live now anyway. I am going to try a calvary chapel chruch there because I have heard such good things about them. I wish I could find a church that taught what I believe now but as long as I can keep my independant thinking I'll be just fine. I just find it nice to worship God and not "forsake the gathering of yourselves together as some have the custom" (LOL!!) I never felt like I was worshiping God at the kingdom hall--instead simply to get an UNaccurate knowledge. At the church I felt like we were there to worship God.

I was a 5th generation JW!!..I did not have a hard time going to a church. I found it easy and natural. It was different but very refreshing. There was a relaxed atomosphere I always craved as a JW.

I think it is not necessary to go to chruch to be saved but it is beneficial to go. How else can you demonstrate the love for your brothers Christ encouraged? And associating with fellow believers encourages you.

25

What does the word "Apostate" mean to you now?

by JH in

jw
friends

.

how would you define the word apostate, now that you aren't in sync with the watchtower anymore?

reneeisorym

a·pos·tate (
n.

One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.

I am quite proud to be an apostate from the religious cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. Since all it means is that you left a religious cause, I am glad and proud that I left.

Proud apostate since January 14th, 2006!

I am not an apostate from God. I abandoned the cult in favor of Christ. That's a great thing.

25

Newbies

by TallTexan in

jw
friends

is it just me, or does there seem to be a flood of new people on the board lately?

i think it's awesome!.

welcome to all newcomers.

reneeisorym

I am a newb :)

Officially an appostate January 14, 2006.

5

Please welcome my buddy

by sass_my_frass in

jw
friends

hey, just hoping i can encourage my friend (a long-time lurker) in some way during a difficult time.

i'm trying to help my (anonymous, genderless, of mysterious location...) friend appreciate the joy of being true to yourself and thus discovering many kinds of freedom.

it's a rough time, more so for some than others.

reneeisorym

It was hard on me as well because I lost my whole family. I was a 5th generation witness! My parents (I am an only child), grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and long time friends in the congregation from childhood. I knew it was coming so I began to make "worldly friends" and that really helped me a lot. When I did get disfellowshipped (which I told them to go ahead and DA me ..) I had friends outside of the cult that proved to be more of a friend than any witness ever was. I was fortunate enough to have a distant cousin who is an apostate who was our PO at one time. He has helped me tremendously and showed me what real Christian brotherly love is about. It was sad though that I had surgery Friday and none of my family came to visit me or see that I was okay afterwards.

So, what have I gained now that I am out?

I had always wanted to have freedom which I tried to get through rebellion but I have learned that freedom in Christ was what I was really looking for.
Time!
A desire to go to church to actually worship God and not just to hear lectures.
No more guilt
Joy of helping others with their relationship with God which is amazing since I never was able to convert anyone as a JW knocking on doors but having not knocked on a single door, I have been able to help many. (2 of whom I helped get out of JWs)
Inner peace

5

Please welcome my buddy

by sass_my_frass in

jw
friends

hey, just hoping i can encourage my friend (a long-time lurker) in some way during a difficult time.

i'm trying to help my (anonymous, genderless, of mysterious location...) friend appreciate the joy of being true to yourself and thus discovering many kinds of freedom.

it's a rough time, more so for some than others.

reneeisorym

It was hard on me as well because I lost my whole family. I was a 5th generation witness! My parents (I am an only child), grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and long time friends in the congregation from childhood. I knew it was coming so I began to make "worldly friends" and that really helped me a lot. When I did get disfellowshipped (which I told them to go ahead and DA me ..) I had friends outside of the cult that proved to be more of a friend than any witness ever was. I was fortunate enough to have a distant cousin who is an apostate who was our PO at one time. He has helped me tremendously and showed me what real Christian brotherly love is about. It was sad though that I had surgery Friday and none of my family came to visit me or see that I was okay afterwards.

So, what have I gained now that I am out?

I had always wanted to have freedom which I tried to get through rebellion but I have learned that freedom in Christ was what I was really looking for.
Time!
A desire to go to church to actually worship God and not just to hear lectures.
No more guilt
Joy of helping others with their relationship with God which is amazing since I never was able to convert anyone as a JW knocking on doors but having not knocked on a single door, I have been able to help many. (2 of whom I helped get out of JWs)
Inner peace

21

Why do you read the Literature?

by lime05 in

jw
friends

as a non-jw why do you read the society's literature.

i do it because it saves me money, i dont have to buy comedy dvd's to have a laugh.

reneeisorym

I use the watchtower CD some. When I read the Bible and say, "Why don't they read this scripture and find out that that doctrine is wrong?" Then I look at it in the CD and find some crazy explination for it. A great deal of the time they have changed it in the NWT.

26

How many did you "bring in"

by slugga in

jw
friends

credit to

minimus

how many people did you bring into the truth, what was there reaction to you fading, daing or getting df'd and do you feel guilty about it now?

reneeisorym

I brought in my ex husband but he is not active any more. It is just a shame though that because of them he does not feel capable of living up to being a christian. I always found it odd when I was still in that he was so active in his church before and why he couldn't be active with the JWs. Now I can understand.