Posts by LisaRose

50

not ready to go over to the "dark side"

by nowwhat? in

after spending a lifetime in it, no one is as fed up with the wt as i am.

[my golf game would have been a hell of alot better if i was'nt banging my head against the wall on saturdays!

lol ] this forum has taught me alot more than i thought to confirm my suspicions.

LisaRose

I see the "Where else" argument from many JWs. This is something that the Watchtower uses as a way to keep people in. They demonize all other religions, while basically saying, "we are so much better than them" That kind of thinking kept me stuck for years, hating my life but afraid to leave.

There are churches that don't teach these things, although not common. I have investigated the Church of Christ, congregational, my husband was raised in it and my mother in law attends. They actually have no doctrine. It's more about Christian fellowship and support, and you don't even have to have a strong belief in God to be a member. It was hard to get my head around it really, but I have attended a few times and was impressed. It was a very loving, accepting congregation.

I suspect if you look around you could find a group of Christians where you would be comfortable. The WTBTS creates the kind of black or white thinking that makes everything so all or nothing. If a church was wrong on one doctrine, you are supposed to reject it completely, yet if the Watchtower is wrong, you are supposed to "wait on Jehovah", or "we are just imperfect men" or "the light is getting brighter". What a double standard! At least in the other Churches there will not be doctrine flip flops and crazy predictions.

8

The look down

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

at the office today i had a "came across" with a jw colleague.

i was greeting him friendly.

he was greeting me with a forced "hello".. while saying the word "hello" he looked down to me, like i was inferior.. do you recognize these "look down's", because you are an inactive jw?.

LisaRose

He is probably just uncomfortable. It is normal when you see someone you know to greet them. He thinks he should not be too friendly because of your status, but he doesn't quite know how to do that. I wouldn't take it personal, be cool and friendly, it will show him you aren't any different just because you don't go to the Kingdom Hall. They expect you to act ashamed, don't let him see you sweat

26

Are you still on a self improvement quest?

by Monsieur in

on another thread i asked about this life being all there is.

if so, what would you consider important to have done or accomplished before you die so that 'your time alive' would not have been a total waste?.

if you haven't done it, or accomplished it, are you currently on a quest to do so?

LisaRose

I am always trying to improve but I look for progress, not perfection. I also have a logical side and a creative side. I used to be a systems analyst, obviously I needed to be logical, but I found being creative helped in writing programs as much as logic. I now have a small creative, antiques oriented business. I dabble in a lot of different areas, floral, collage, woodworking, sewing, and painting and fixing old furniture. I am always looking for new ideas and use Pinterest a lot.

29

I didn't expect to be here at age 49. Here as in my employment

by wha happened? in

it's been a terrible economy these last few years.

i had a very successful loan brokerage and watched that crash and burn in 2011. i went back to my previous firm in the computer industry that was struggling after i left.

it seemed like a good match.

LisaRose

I lost my job at 50. I was a systems analyst in telecommunications With no degree an in a declining industry, the chances of landing anything similar seemed remote. I had a small part time business, so I did that full time for six years. This is a creative, antiques oriented business that is my passion. Unfortunately I do not make very much money at it, especially when compared to my former career. After a move to a different state, and a severe health crises I am struggling to get my business going again. I am in a tough spot, too young for Social Security, too old to start over in another career, and too sick to work full time, but nit disabled enough for disability. I am lucky that my husband has a stable job and money is not an issue, but still it is hard to feel sort of useless. I do some volunteer work and that feels nice, and it is a relief not to have to work full time, but I miss the validation of a healthy paycheck.

30

Help!!!

by marriedtoajw in

jw
friends

i have come here for any advice and support that anyone can give and i really need it now.

i don't talk about these issues with my siblings anymore because they have already told me that they have no advice and can't help.

feelings of anxiety have been overwhelming me the lat 2 years and it makes me feel like a scared little child.

LisaRose

I I was in an unhappy marriage for twenty eight years. I was Witness, my husband was disfellowshipped. I stayed due to the restrictive divorce rules of the dubs. I left the religion and him and my only regret is that I didn't leave sooner. My husband was whiny baby who refused to take responsibility for anything. He couldn't keep a job and was not interested in having any kind of real marriage. I enabled him by trying to be a good Witness wife. I was a doormat, in a prison of my own making.

If you value your marriage at all, I suggest you get counseling. If your wife won't go, go by yourself. The best thing you can do for your children is show them how a well adjusted person behaves, and open them up to other possibilities in their lives. Your staying under these circumstances is not good for them, children know more than you think, they are being affected by this even if you don't say anything. I doubt your wife will accept counseling as the JWs discourage it, but at least if you go you may be able to figure out a way for you to communicate better with your wife and children. The current situation is not fair to you or your children, I think divorce might be better for everyone. But you will need help to figure that out, and support if you decide to leave
.Good Luck

28

Do You Appreciate The Service Of Our Military?

by minimus in

jw
friends

being raised a jehovah's witness, i did not have any appreciation for the military or for veterans.. now, when i see a military person, especially in uniform, i am grateful for their work as well as the fact that they risk their lives for us.. do you appreciate our men and women of the military?.

LisaRose

My husband is a retired Army warrant officer. We originally met in High school, but got married after I left the religion 28 years later At first I found the whole military thing to be a bit strange, a little bit of dubbie think was still there. But gradually, I began to appreciate what he and the other service members sacrificed for our country. He served in Desert Storm, and his son was a marine who went to Iraq. I am proud of them both. My husband had reservations about both wars, but he did his duty, because that is what a soldier does.

I do sometimes have to remind him that I never enlisted, so I don't take orders well, lol. But he is a really great husband, and military training is not a bad thing to have in a husband. And that retirement pay and lifetime medical is great to have.

I will never forget my step sons graduation from boot camp. He went from a normal baggy pants sloppy teenager to a man with perfect posture, and good manners. Every thing was yes sir, no sir, or yes ma'am, no ma'am. He even made his bed. We were there when he came back from Iraq. When you see the families of these servicemen, you realize what a sacrifice it is for then to leave their wives and children for that long. Some were seeing their babies for the first time. the children were dressed up to welcome daddy home, It was very touching.

He spent eight years in the Marines, and got his college degree at the same time. He is still working in his military career field, making some serious money while still in his twenties. That is a great thing in this economy.

So hurray for red white and blue

28

Future Baby-Mama in a Rage!

by SophieG in

sosoconfused mentioned this vaguely in his thread and it upset me... i asked him to post where i could find the information, trust me i went looking!

now lets read this:.

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20121215/view-of-in-vitro-fertilization/.

LisaRose

This doesn't surprise me, this organization has a history of not new accepting medical procedures they find threatening. Very sad for those couples in the religion who have fertility issues. They had previously said IVF was problematical because some fertilized eggs are eventually discarded. This is what happens when you have a self appointed group of men who purport to speak for God. This is an issue best left up to the individuals involved, but sadly most dubs will accept it.

109

San Francisco or Bay Area Members?

by nibbled in

jw
friends

i did a search and came up with some posts related to san francisco, but i couldn't figure out how to find more recent onesthey were from nearly a dozen years ago!

i was wondering if anyone lives around sf, as well as if anyone is around my age?

i'm early 30's.

LisaRose

HI Nibbled,

Wow, a lot of posts since last checked. I don't know why they are saying you are this person. I guess they spent a lot of time talking to him and don't want to be fooled again, or spend time debating someone who isn't honest. I remember Dave Perez, he was not nice, however I didn't read enough of his posts to be able to say if yours posts are similar or not.

I am not as much of a bible scholar as you, but I do enjoy reading yours posts, they are very interesting. I tend to give posters the benefit of the doubt, if they are trying to change identities, they tend to show their true colors soon enough. I was accused of that on another forum. Their was another poster who had a somewhat similar style. Not only was he male, but he was a current JW, so it was crazy. I just found it funny that someone gave my posts enough thought to even think about it. I guess you could take it as flattery that your comments are made people take notice of you.

28

So thankful! Would have never believed it possible!

by coffee_black in

jw
friends

over 2 years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with end stage congestive heart failure.

she has come so far.... and even rides her bike 5 to 6 miles per day now.

here's how she looks today.

LisaRose

Wow, she is beautiful, I am so happy for you. You can never give up, because sometimes miracles do happen.

I have a good friend who was told he had 3 to 6 months to live and that was nine months ago. She has had cancer three times, they told her there was nothing more they could do. So she went home and waited to die. For some reason she didn't die, and then she realized all the drugs they gave her were making her worse, so she weaned herself off all her medications and started to feel better. Who knows what the future will bring for her, but for some reason she is still on this earth and she has decided to make the best of it. I am just grateful I get to have her for a little longer.

9

Mormon Apologist is suffering faith crisis - his comments are so true

by Qcmbr in

this is taken from another site.

kerry shirts has long been a staunch mormon apologist.

it seems he no longer is:.

LisaRose

Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias ) is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses . [Note 1] [1] People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way . The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. For example, in reading about current political issues, people usually prefer sources that affirm their existing attitudes. They also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).