joelbear69

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Posts by joelbear69

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  5

  Pride

  by joelbear69 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am a firm believer that pride defined as self esteem .

  or being aware of one's self worth is extremely important .

  to finding satisfaction and happiness in life.

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  joelbear69

  I am a firm believer that pride defined as self esteem
  
  or being aware of one's self worth is extremely important
  
  to finding satisfaction and happiness in life.
  
  
  People get mixed messages about pride. Pride is a sin.
  
  Pride cometh before the fall. But this pride refers to
  
  an arrogance that causes someone to feel self important,
  
  not open to outside stimulus. These are isolated people
  
  who are destined for dissatisfaction.
  
  
  There is no self esteem building mechanism within the
  
  teachings of the Watchtower. We are simply tools of
  
  Jehovah through the society.
  
  
  Self esteem comes from being happy with who one is. This
  
  is accomplished by acceptance of both our strengths and
  
  our weaknesses. I think its actually easier to accept
  
  our weaknesses. This is because they are typically easier
  
  to identify and because others constantly point them
  
  out to us.
  
  
  But it is more important to identify and accept our
  
  strengths and be proud of them. They are incredibly
  
  customized to the individual. Physical, intellectual,
  
  metaphysical, emotional, social etc. strengths are
  
  abundant in all of us.
  
  
  Make a list of your strengths. Think about how
  
  interesting they make you as an individual. Think
  
  about how you can use them to build self esteem
  
  and to meet your goals in life.
• 
  46

  Can any who grew up JW relate to this?

  by Mickey mouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  confession time!

  i was raised in the troof and therefor never "chose" it.

  i find it really hard to get my head around why anyone would ever join this organization as an adult.

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  joelbear69

  there are a lot of lonely people in the world.
• 
  32

  Can You Stand One More Thread on " Generation "?- Check this Out- Weird !

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  alrighty then .

  i'm as burnt out as you probably are reading more threads about the faulty witness view of the " generation ".

  but please hear me out from a common sense viewpoint here.

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  joelbear69

  The Watchtower reasoning accomplishes several things.
  
  1. It eliminates the need to set dates and puts in the mind of
  witnesses that the date is "soft" and fluid.
  
  2. It allows professed annointed to continue to run the society
  and the society can choose who to promote to annointed so they
  can be on the governing body.
  
  3. It intermeshes the idea of "the end" with "annointed" thus
  deflecting thinking from why there are more annointed now. its
  just because the end hasnt come yet.
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  26

  Jehovah's Witnesses can celebrate Christmas now!

  by sacolton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... birthdays too!.

  well, not yet, but if the governing body decides that it's okay to celebrate christmas and birthdays .... how do you suppose the typical jw would feel ... especially those who lived their whole life being told to not celebrate and.

  wishing they could?.

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  joelbear69

  i agree it will never happen because:
  
  1. not celebrating marks them as separate
  from the world.
  
  2. keeping attention off the self
  
  3. pagan origins
  
  4. keeps witnesses in the "feeling persecuted"
  therefore must be the truth mode.
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  43

  State A Simple Opinion About Jehovah's Witnesses

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think jehovah's witnesses are extremely judgmental.

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  joelbear69

  I think Jehovah's Witnesses are confused.
• 
  6

  understanding and accepting yourself

  by joelbear69 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think as witness kids we were taught so much .

  and so often that we should focus our attention .

  outward and on other people that we never were .

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  joelbear69

  i had hopes and dreams in high school because by then I had come
  to the conclusion that Watchtower teachings were a bunch of hooey.
  
  But I reattached myself to them out of fear of being alone and
  abandoned by my friends and family, which eventually happened anyway
  when I left the witnesses.
  
  my life has been a journey of trying to get back on track. i compare
  it to having taken the wrong path through the woods and now having
  to backtrack and cut through some bushes to get back on the track
  where my life should have been going in the first place.
  
  when i sit quietly looking at my flowers or lay in my hammock and
  quietly listen to the wind rustle the leaves in the trees i can picture
  the path. i'm getting there. and as i reflect back i have come
  to understand that all those years of struggle were actually very
  rewarding and at many points in the past I have really been on my
  path without knowing it. things that i know were on my path include:
  
  coming out of the closet
  seeing the landscapes of america through travellling
  seeing the cities, the art museums, the architecture, all things that i love
  finding a soul mate. yes, our souls are mated. its quite extraordinary.
  removing people from my life that produced nothing of value for me
  putting people in my life whose paths merge with mine
  constantly seeking new experiences that i know or at least think are probably on my path.
  (ie. board games, pottery, gardening, sexual and platonic bonding, photography, travelling
• 
  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  joelbear69

  Most people posting here are from countries where Christianity is the main set of superstitions people believe in. Muslims, Buddhists and tribal people and even non religious people have superstitions of some kind. As an atheist, I consider myself to be a realist. There is no logical reason to belief in the supernatural or superstitions. Reality is tough. Life is hard. I understand why 90% of people need to create some form of hope that things in their life will get better magically or that their next life will be better.
• 
  6

  understanding and accepting yourself

  by joelbear69 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think as witness kids we were taught so much .

  and so often that we should focus our attention .

  outward and on other people that we never were .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  joelbear69

  I think as witness kids we were taught so much
  and so often that we should focus our attention
  outward and on other people that we never were
  taught much about introspection.
  
  It is through serious and meditative introspection
  that we learn what it takes in life to satisfy us.
  Us, that is, each individual, because we each have
  a different satisfaction set.
  
  Of course on a Venn diagram many of our satisfaction
  sets would intersect as some points. We all have
  basic needs to survive. On top of that we have a
  set of needs to make us comfortable. This second
  set has substantially more variability in it than
  the first set. Third, we have a set of needs to
  make us content. This set varies wildly between
  individuals and we get little help from the outside
  world in identifying this third set. Sure, we get
  lots of information pushed at us as to other people's
  ideas as to what will make us content, but they are
  rarely valid.
  
  I have found that my needs for contentment are much
  more simple than I have thought at other times in my
  life. I am continuing to try and discover and accept
  these things about myself. The next step will be
  setting goals to obtain this contentment set.
  
  As witnesses I think we do this later in life than
  others for several reasons.
  
  1. We are taught that we are not a priority.
  2. We are taught that we are not going to live long
  in a system where contentment must be sought out.
  3. We are taught that the contentment of the "whole"
  is more important than the contentment of the "one".
  In our case, the "whole" is a combination of the
  society and the congregation.
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  44

  Witness Kids - Scared silly by the WTBTS

  by misspeaches in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i wonder if anyone else who grew up as a jw can relate with me on this subject.. i grew up hearing stories of 'faithful brothers & sisters' being tortured to a point where they were almost dead.

  all they had to do to be set free was renounce jehovah and their religon.

  the stories i heard of torture were graphic in nature and to this day i can not handle hearing about torture or watch it being portrayed in movies.

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  joelbear69

  i remember counting on my fingers how old I would be
  when it would be 1975 and I would be tortured.
• 
  12

  National Parks

  by joelbear69 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have visited 25 of the 56 national parks in the us.

  my favorites are yosemite, bryce canyon and yellowstone.. what are your favorite parks?.

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  joelbear69

  i feel closer to god in national parks than i ever did at a district convention