Thank you for sharing about your traditions ... I am from El Salvador, I was raised as a JW so I never participated in any Christmas traditions over there. I used to love to watch people doing the "posadas". I live in USA now and my children are half Greek ... after reading your post it just occurred to me to see if I can incorporate some Greek traditions in our family Christmas celebration for them to know about their heritage. They are 13 and 14 now, if you know of anything I could do, please let me know ... Greek grandparents passed away when my daughter was 6 moths old. Father is an only child and kind of cold when it comes to Greek Orthodox Church and has not passed down any traditions to my children ...
Bella15
JoinedPosts by Bella15
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Advent 2011
by ixthis inthe virgin now comes to bethlehem to give birth to christ .
who has become an infant in the flesh.. .
christ has voluntarily become poor.. christ has become visible.. let heaven and earth rejoice.
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Text message from a bro at the hall I got this morning as I woke
by shakyground inwe miss you, hope to see you soon.
your dad will be wondering where you are at the resurrection.
love, bro.
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Bella15
HOORAY FOR THAT CHURCH LADY THAT DROVE YOU OUT ZID .... LOL!!!
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Bella15
Awesome Timothy!
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Not sure what to tell my 4 year old about Santa
by jwfacts inmy adorable little son is very excited about christmas.
i have not made a big thing about it, but he must have picked up the christmas spirit from what he is seeing in the shops and on tv.
he loves the music, and movies and all the decorations.
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Bella15
@ Jackie ... so well said ... I feel the same way in the emotional part of me ... in the spiritual I think of that night when Jesus was actually born, don't know the date, but I think of what a divine night that was ... when GOD so loved the world that He gave ... wow!
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Not sure what to tell my 4 year old about Santa
by jwfacts inmy adorable little son is very excited about christmas.
i have not made a big thing about it, but he must have picked up the christmas spirit from what he is seeing in the shops and on tv.
he loves the music, and movies and all the decorations.
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Bella15
Reminds me of Paul telling some congregation how much he wished to tell them more mature stuff but they were not ready yet ...
I think that fantasy, innocent world in which children operate is there also to protect them from the world of the grown ups ... my children are 14 and 13 now, I have let them live their own life cycles and "seasons" ... and I can't ask for better children, all for the glory of God!
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Is it fair to label everyone who quotes a scripture as "self-righteous ?
by caliber inself-righteous...one definition....... self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, sententiousness, a holier-than-thou attitude[1]) is a feeling of (usually)smugmoral superiority[2] derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person.. the term "self-righteous" is often considered derogatory (see, for example, journalist and essayist james fallows' description of self-righteousness[3] in regards to nobel peace prize winners) particularly because self-righteous individuals are often thought to exhibit hypocrisy due to the belief that humans are imperfect and can therefore never be infallible, an idea similar to that of the freudian defense mechanism of reaction formation.
the connection between self-righteousness and hypocrisy predates freud's views, however, as evidenced by the 1899 book good mrs. hypocrite: a study in self-righteousness, by the pseudonymous author "rita.".
or criticism can be form of self-boasting (self-righteousness ) but does it not all come down to knowing the persons intent ... are all persons.
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Bella15
I ditto the following from Cofty:
"If a believer quotes scripture with an assumption that others ought to take it as authoritative then probably yes."
So let's guard our hearts.
I like the advice from the bible ... not many of you should be teachers ... LOL!
Love you all ...
I am very happy today ...
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Fatherhood
by xelder inif god exists and wants me to love him and view him as a father, then why doesn't he act like it?
why is his book so full of unexplained unfairness?
he has no duty to explain unless he wants me to love him.. the concept of god as a father totally escapes me.
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Bella15
Yeap ... you can ask God for explanations ... just this morning I was reading the book of Habbakuk (spelling?) ... He did ask God tough questions, like many other individuals in the bible ... I once asked (yelled at) God, I demanded an explanation for "allowing" my beautiful niece to be sexually abused for 7+ years by a female JW ... for my niece being in a psychiatric hospital totally broken ...(have you ever seen a human with the soul broken? Dead while alive?) I told God it was because of Him, or for trying to find him, please him that first my mom fell for this Watchtower cult. Why He was not there to protect my niece while my sister was going door to door in her blindness preaching him ... why why why ... and I told him NOW YOU FIX THIS ... I remember very well that stormy, gloomy afternoon when I came back from visiting my niece at the hospital, 7+ billion people in this world and during those days it was only my niece and I facing this huge monsters, this despicable evil, it was only me with a 19 year old that had regressed to a 5 year old, how I was going to put my niece back together when she was so broken?, when the pain was so that she used her own nails to try to cut her veins ... I had already found out about the sexual abuse coverage in the WT ... I had already read things about the "truth" that corroborated my doubts since I was a little girl ... I had already felt that pride of knowing that I was right and that God was nothing but a ....(i could fill in the blanks many terms) ... I felt to the ground crying like I have never cried before in my life ... my niece my niece my beautiful niece someone had done something awful to my niece and now she was broken ... oh how I yelled at God ... and told him now YOU FIX HER ... the most beautiful thing happened next ... I felt how my heart grew big, there was peace ... and a voice in my heart (not my mind or head) said SHE WILL BE WHOLE AGAIN ... the greatest feeling of peace came upon me, and the pain and tears went away and I rejoiced because of the the words impressed in my heart ... SHE WILL BE WHOLE AGAIN ... and God has been faithful ... my niece tells me how happy she is now that she can't believe it ... the word "beatiful" has a great meaning to her ... all of her life, because of the abuse, she felt "ugly" ... without me knowing it I always called her and made her feel beautiful ... but recently she started to attend a church with another young friend ... the first time she went she heard the Pastor says that God made a "beautiful" exchange ... His son for us ... when she heard the word "beautiful" she tells me that something in her went "weird", trembling, shaking, her heart rejoicing ... of course now I know it is the Holy Spirit working in her ... for me GOD IS GREAT, GOD IS FAITHFUL ... I don't know why after surviving the Watchtower cult and my niece's ordeal we came out like this PRAISING OUR HEAVENLY FATHER... I don't know
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In your opinion...
by iamwhoiam in...why do people choose to fade over just sending in a letter?.
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Bella15
For me ... # 3
They became a big JOKE to me ... what's the point of dealing with a joke ...
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Why don't JWs do much in the way of charity work?
by ilikecheese inso i argue with the boyfriend a lot about the fact that i think charitable work is every bit as important as preaching when it comes to serving god.
every church i've ever gone to has some sort of community outreach, if not several outreaches, that have little or nothing to do with preaching.
and i made the point that if these people know you're affiliated with a church, they'll think a little more kindly about christians, too, which would help in the whole witnessing arena.
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Bella15
There are no excuses for not helping others besides meeting emotional needs ... if you feel uncomfortable giving to charitable organizations ... ADOPT a needy family and help. Be a mentor. A children's advocate. Adopt a mile (and keep it clean). Call senior centers and ask how to help. Call jail's Chaplains and ask what can you do on behalf of inmates, etc. Volunteer at school. Be a mentor to an orphanage. Go with a mission abroad. I am sure you know of a military family...one parent away ... be their friend, invite the children to sport games, movies, out do lunch, give them a care basket; same for single parent families. I am from El Salvador and I can attest to many Charitable organizations doing their work down there and thanks God for these organizations !!!! ... that's why I like Children's International, Doctors without borders, Engineers without borders, KIVA, rotary clubs, and many others. Charitable organizations are more transparent these days due to past shameful schemes played by some of them ...
If you doubt all charitable organizations, start your own ... but do something ... I am not going to say what I do for others, but gosh the more I give the more I receive.
Yes there is always "the wicked" that takes from the poor, but God will judge them ...
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
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So my JW wife cheated on me. Need some help or at least a sympathetic ear.
by JonathanH ini have neither friends nor family to turn to.
the result of being born in a cult.
but i need to talk about this.
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Bella15
Sorry --- saying she was "unfaithful" is kind of too nice ... SHE CHEATED PERIOD!!! As far as your perception of having a happy marriage and great sex, let me tell you I am divorce and my ex thought exactly the same of us ... it was HELL for me ... sometimes two people can live together but operate in different worlds in their minds ... she obviously is looking for something ...
"But that's as far as it went she assured me" So in her book, if there was no penetration there is no cheating/adultery I guess. Saying Sorry doesn't make things right for you ... be careful how you proceed and let her know that you will try to work things out but you don't know how you may feel later on ...
Remember that JWs make everything right by confessing or praying about and then they go straight to sinning thinking that Jehovah "undestands"