in reading these posts, it sounds like a lot of you are very jealous of the wt.
society’s annual income and the money they/we have in the bank.
jehovah has indeed blessed us.
Soon, very soon
That's what the Witness who studied with my parents when they were in there 20's said, he told them it was impossible to for them to die of old age, they can live on into a paradise earth never needing to die. They died in their 80's lying incontinent in their beds, some paradise.
on the door frame, on the door, door knocker, bell.. loud, very loud, regular, soft... gentle... or just pretended and never knocked at all?
we just had a city worker come a knocking on our front door and my responce after she left was, she should go down to the local kingdom haul and give lessons.
her knock was so loud, she could raise the dead.
When I was preschool my father would try to make field service more interesting by having me ring the doorbell and offering an invitation to the householder he's just had an hour's argument with before we left. It didn't work and usually I was being told off for looking uninterested in what he'd been talking about on the door. What a bad witness. Of course he was telling the householder how he would never grow old and die. Well he grew old and died.
I would knock or ring the bell when I pioneered with the intent of finding someone home. One elder was known to pretend to ring the bell.
was there anything positive about your jehovah's witness experience?.
Positive.
I joined the School in the congregation in 1966 and gave a bunch of bible readings and small talks, I have also read the Watchtower on the platform at the meeting in the 70's, said prayers at the meetings and taken the arrangement for field service and done the opening part in the service meeting been in demonstrations on the platform at the circuit assembly and spent hundreds of hours in field service talking to a variety of people.
20+ years later I was no better than when I started in 1966, probably worse. I got a couple of G's for my talk in 1966 and W's for the last few. I always hated getting on the platform and wasn't too keen on going into the Kingdom Hall. I don't like crowds. I am supposed to meet some friends and relatives at a pub later today before seeing a play and it's 50/50 as to whether I will actually make it into the pub.
One time my brother and I had a discussion with my parents about the benefits we felt the 'Truth' had made for us growing up and not getting in bad ways and bad association etc, My father and mother felt there was some input from the 'Truth' but also felt it was more their parenting as he could point to some who had even though raised in the 'Truth' had fallen into bad ways and I have to admit my father was never going to be easy 'Truth' or no 'Truth' He was a fascist before the 'Truth'
So on those two things I can't cite them as examples of how I had benefited positively.
The one thing I can say I feel that I benefited in a positive way is my praying. I am positive with it and I think that relates to being a Witness.
how do you view your upbringing as a witness?.
most of us who were raised as witnesses would appreciate that some aspects of our upbringing were ok. a foundation and measure of stability came with it.. but, it struck me too, that we also lost so very much!
and we lost a lot of potential.. by this i mean, we need to look at not just what we lost, or what was deprived of us, but what that ended up costing us as adults into the future.. if i take $10 from you, you have lost just $10.. but, if you were going to use that $10 to buy something that would end up earning you $1000, then i actually took $1000 from you!.
How do you view your upbringing as a witness?
I think there is a view that if you are raised in a christian land or muslim or others you are most likely to have the religion of your parents.
I know when I was a young witness I felt lucky that my parents were witnesses and had accepted the 'truth' as I felt there was no way I would ever have gone to the kingdom hall and or the meetings and assemblies and I think the truth of this was borne out later when I left home. I attended the meetings and field service but most of the assemblies I missed and elders came to see me at one point 10 years before I left the witnesses and questioned me as to why I wasn't reaching out. I had no interest in privileges that I saw as a means of control that could be revoked in order to get your obedience.
I'm glad I came to know Christianity.
I think my relationship with my parents and other relationships could have been better. My upbringing affected my work decisions and my marriage, dating and other relationships I wouldn't say for the best.I think it affected my health.
how do you view your upbringing as a witness?.
most of us who were raised as witnesses would appreciate that some aspects of our upbringing were ok. a foundation and measure of stability came with it.. but, it struck me too, that we also lost so very much!
and we lost a lot of potential.. by this i mean, we need to look at not just what we lost, or what was deprived of us, but what that ended up costing us as adults into the future.. if i take $10 from you, you have lost just $10.. but, if you were going to use that $10 to buy something that would end up earning you $1000, then i actually took $1000 from you!.
In the late 1960's my parents decided they wanted to have a simpler life and devote more time to their sacred service. So they sold up and moved. They rented a house and my mother and father devoted more time to the field service, study, and raising two children to be regular pioneers. My father was an elder and temporary pioneered and so did my mother.
The house they sold is now valued at £1.2 million the flat they own now is worth about 10% of that, our inheritance.
In the late 1980's I had a man from the bank come to my house to discuss insurances and he talked for along time about pensions. I declined and after he left I chatted with my parents who were visiting regarding how I would not need a pension based on our faith in God and message we preached. Over 10 years later I had left JW and I started a pension. The financial adviser whilst setting it up noticed that I had been offered one in the years previous and said if I had started it then it would be worth double when I take it.
These are two examples of how my beliefs as a JW have affected my life i believe
As for what would have happened in other area's of my life if we had not been witnesses of course I can never know.
However looking at my cousins and now my grown children I find no reason to suspect that anything like drug addiction or alcoholism or such things would have been anymore likely.
As to whether I would have been a christian I don't know. Both my children are, as are some of my relatives.
just been reminiscing about how c/a's have changed since we were young.
i remember when they started friday night in some rented hall , as well as the two weekend days.
saturday morning was a brief session then field ministry (which only a few performed ) and sunday sessions.. in the free time around the venue we just used to hang out socialising and eyeing up the girls.
We had to sit through all the sessions, no going to the toilet while the sessions were on and take notes from a young age, asked questions on the ride home to see if you were paying attention. No playing in the intermission either.
just been reminiscing about how c/a's have changed since we were young.
i remember when they started friday night in some rented hall , as well as the two weekend days.
saturday morning was a brief session then field ministry (which only a few performed ) and sunday sessions.. in the free time around the venue we just used to hang out socialising and eyeing up the girls.
I really disliked the assemblies as a kid and remember getting home from school and thinking, no weekend.
the world health organization states that in the year 2015 ,5.9 million children died under the age of 5 years of age.. in 2010 the death rate for children under the age of 5 years of age was 7.6 million.
thats over 13 million in just 2 years .
i dont think you need to be a rocket scientist to conclude that since mankind has been on the earth for however long you want to believe and i`m just going on a conservative estimate of 6000 years by the above figures i quoted their would be billions of children under 5 yearsof age that would have died.
do you think it makes a difference if the past present and future all exist at the same time?
i grew up in the org and never got baptised, however i was wondering recently about how much money my family and old friends are wasting in all that.
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i remember of course never talking in amounts, that it was important to give from what you can not what you have etc but i admit i have no clue how much the average witness gives (say in % of their income).. i'm sure it varies greatly, i'd love to hear what you guys have to say..
i would get some tickets for food at the assembly and if I hadn't used them ( I usually ate at a restaurant) i would contribute the remaining ticket. that was it.
I didn't go every year to the assembly.
noas a current or past jehovah's witness, do you / or did you feel part of a spiritual paradise with full liberty in christ as the watchtower society/organisation describes?.
or do you / did you feel you were wearing a proverbial straitjacket in the sense you feel / felt restricted and controlled by the watchtower society / organisation?.
I would say that as I had understood how the spiritual paradise was defined I felt that I was in the spiritual paradise when I was a JW.
I understand that the word paradise originates from a word meaning walled enclosure and as such I believe I would be somewhat restricted, I felt restricted.
Being restricted I felt was for my best interest when I was a JW.
