Posts by erandir

26

Positive changes in your life since leaving WBTS

by Mrs Smith in

jw
friends

for me it's the friendships i have made with people that would have been considered too wordly to be friends with while i was still a jw.

leaving behind the guilt of never been good enough or doing enough.

celebrating the birthday of my precious children making them feel like king and queen for the day.

erandir

I was just thinking about this on the way home from work this morning. (I work nights.) What a coincidence! Anyway, I feel like a free man...self-confidence is boosted, guilt is gone, and life is looking so positive now. My depression is almost completely gone (still have a bad day every once in a while, but who doesn't?).

I just got a promotion at work today (from grunt to management), and I was thinking on the way home that before when I was an active dub, I always felt guilty about trying for a promotion. Now I feel like life is worthwhile and that I'm good enough to succeed and move up in the company. That I can still retain my humility and have a little ambition instead of subscribing to the WT ideal of being an entry-level worker forever. I'm getting along great with people at work since I'm not trying to avoid associating with them anymore. I have true friends now whose friendship doesn't depend on what I believe or how regular I am in some "preaching" work.

I am also glad I am making my parents and brother happy again by being able to celebrate holidays with them again...like we used to years ago.

I just feel free and confident and...happy! When I was one of "the happiest people on earth," I didn't feel this way. How strange.

9

Thoughts while mowing the yard

by Undecided in

jw
friends

i was mowing the yard this morning and as usual i was thinking about life and such.

there were weeds with pretty little flowers and some cherry trees trying to grow.

i just mowed them down because i like the way grass looks better.

erandir

That is perhaps one of the coolest illustrations I've ever seen, seriously. I like the way you think. You'd do well in the theocratic ministry school, though. Use of illustration.

I have to mow the lawn today, so guess what I'll be thinking of when I do it.

15

I'm being hounded again

by Frequent_Fader_Miles in

my mom's bugging me again about "considering going back to meetings".

erandir

no one knows when they will die.

This line of reasoning is something relatively new for me that I'm hearing more and more of...it's a way to explain the following seeming paradox of the 1st century Christians being told that the end was very near, and 2000 years later, we being told the same thing that the end is very near. In other words, it's very near in the sense that when you die, it is the end for you regardless of when the actual end is. Simply put, if I die before Armageddon and then am resurrected into the "new system," from my point of view, I wake up and I'm there. The big A could happen in 3014, but for me, it will happen the day I die, and the next thing I know, I'll be awake in "paradise." So with that in mind, to say "the end is near" is always true, no matter when the end really happens.

I'm not saying I believe that way. I'm just explaining why your mom would contradict herself and say even if the end isn't near, and that part about dying. Witnesses have a "unique" way of thinking...of explaining away paradoxes and contradictions. Makes the mind boggle.

45

Kinda Bored- Lets Invent Future Watchtower Titles...

by saywhat29 in

since being open to the truth abou da troof, whenever i read watchtower articles, their titles are always combinations of the same thing, just rehatched and modified to say teh same exact thing... does anybody get what i mean?.

serve jehovah and have ever-lasting peace!.

serve jehovah and keep and mild spirit, always remembering jesus christ is your lord!.

erandir

The Danger of Library Cards

Good one!

56

Bad biblical names for a child

by erandir in

jw
friends

the practice of choosing biblical names for children is present in many forms of christianity.

in latin america, countless boys are named jesus either as a first name or second name.

there is even that singer jesus jones.

erandir

Mahershalalhashbaz (great for kindergarten age to learn their letters).

LOL...yep...that's certainly one plus side to that...too bad they'll be beaten up frequently on the play ground

I always wanted to have a friend called Nabel which sort of means "stupid". Then I'd make a t-shirt with an arrow pointing to the side saying, "I'm with Nabel."

Thanks for all the ideas...you guys are hilarious.

56

Bad biblical names for a child

by erandir in

jw
friends

the practice of choosing biblical names for children is present in many forms of christianity.

in latin america, countless boys are named jesus either as a first name or second name.

there is even that singer jesus jones.

erandir

The practice of choosing biblical names for children is present in many forms of Christianity. In Latin America, countless boys are named Jesús either as a first name or second name. There is even that singer Jesus Jones. A lot of witnesses have biblical names as well, even Michael (who is supposed to be Jesus, according to the WT). Has anyone ever heard of anyone, witness or not, being named Jehovah?

Anyway, the topic in mind here is bad biblical names for your newborn child. Let's hear your favorites. Sometimes during the meetings, my wife and I would start picking out some of the funky names from the bible such as Tryphaena, Rufus, and one of my favorites, Phlegon...just to pass the time.

44

Blessed be the name of Jehovah forever and ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by unbaptized in

jw
friends

i just wanted to bless jehovah's name, the only name that is above the heavens that can save mankind!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!.

erandir

Um...this topic is a joke, right? I mean, it's a sarcastic little prank?

Oh...and please edit out some of those exclamation points. One would have sufficed. Three is ok, but only if you really, really wanted to over-emphasize your point. However, 13 exclamation points in a row is punctuation abuse.

22

HOW MUCH TIME SPENT ON JWD

by snowbird in

about how many hours per day or night do you spend on this forum?

i spend about 2-3 hrs per night actively participating and browse throughout the day.. my boss allows me to do this because i 'm very good at multi-tasking.

he thinks i'm the greatest thing since grits and gravy.. snowbird.

erandir

Sweet Pea, don't make me have to fade from JWD, too!

There is nowhere else to go!!!

12

Voting on hall decoration?

by stapler99 in

jw
friends

i was just wondering what people's experiences with how the congregation decided how to decorate their hall, colour schemes and so on.

was the decision made by the boe without much consultation?

were many in the congregation upset at the choice?.

erandir

A couple years ago, our hall went through a remodel. This was another reason I chose to fade out.

We, as a congregation, ended up voting a few times on certain decisions like color schemes and seating types. We were presented with, I think, 4 different color schemes from the society's regional building committee, and we wasted a good portion of the service meeting voting on them. The thing that kinda pissed me off was the vote on whether to choose more expensive movie-theater style seats or cheaper stacking-style seats. There was a $10,000 difference, and at the time I remember a previous meeting with a letter from the GB begging for money for Kingdom Hall building in other, poorer lands. Our hall voted for the more expensive, theater-style seats instead of donating the difference to some other more "worthy" endeavor. Meanwhile, the halls in Africa use wood benches and thatched roofs. Not that I care anymore about all that, but it is just another hypocritical thing about the witnesses. I think the materialism in the congregations I've attended here locally is appalling.

A couple other votes had to do with more minor details concerning the remodel, but you could tell the elders already made up their minds about what they wanted and gave us two options ("Resolutions rubberstamping decisions already made")...what they wanted (played up to sound appealing) and some bogus other option (very obviously down-played to not sound so appealing). The brother in charge of this was a manipulative one...and it showed.

This same elder and his wife and another even more manipulative elder and his wife managed to sneak in a couple modifications to the decorations in the hall without a vote, too....so it's not all handled democratically; sometimes it's done totalitarian-style, too.

14

07/07/07

by tijkmo in

on o7/o7/o7 there will be a series of concerts worldwide for the live earth cause..this is my contribution to it.. please take 7 minutes to listen and make a comment or email me..if the song doesn't play then please click on the irony where the song is the first in the playlist.

thankyou..and could you also tell as many people as possible to stop by and listen.. cumulu ian x .

www.myspace.com/ianstewartgill.

erandir

...and on this day 07-07-07 will be announced the new 7 wonders of the earth. www.new7wonders.com will fill you in on this. It's pretty cool. We were at Chichen Itza about 12 days ago and learned about this.

oh...and this day should be a perfect day because of the threefold repetition of the number 7 which represents perfection according to WT theology. Check it out in the "Insight" book if ya don't believe me. Of course, 06-06-06 was supposed to be an absolutely sucky day, but I don't remember it well. 6 represents imperfection according to the WT. :)