Did your children help you wake up?

by Zyron 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  Zyron

  What help me wake up, (still PIMO) in addition to lingering doubts throughout most of my life, and I'm in my late 50s, was the questioning from my children when they became teenagers. I could not honestly defend the origins of the JWs, prohibition of birthdays and other celebrations; especially when you realise that the whole belief system is/was based on crazy teachings of a businessman.

  The real kicker is when you have a religion that has to produce its own bible to support its beliefs, that's when I knew the whole religion is an expensive and cleverly marketed belief system. Like most religions.

  Glad to say none of my children want anything to do with JWs and two of them don't believe in God. At least I had the foresight not to encourage them to get baptised.
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  moreconfusedthanever

  Yes my children have had a part in my realisation that the truth is not true.

  It also makes me embarrassed that I wasn't as switched on as they are at the same age. It would have saved me from wasting many years and saved me from anxiety and low self esteem.

  Thank goodness they are and are free to make their own choices.
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  finallysomepride

  Only in that I released that they were not interested & I didn't want them to go through the things I did that I stopped attending.
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  LisaRose

  Yes, same. They never bought into it, and looking at it through their eyes helped me break free myself.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Yes. Particularly the one with ADD. Doing the weekly Bible reading, he would come up with some of the damnedest question from way out in left field -- at least from a JW perspective. In reality, they were just some of the many things that don't add up, IF you're looking at the Religion (or even just the Bible) in its entirety. To this day he is well versed in the Bible and can twist up your best JW -- Elder, CO, whoever -- and isn't afraid to challenge any of them.

  Thankfully, they are all "out" and none of them slaving for WTS.
  
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  Still Totally ADD

  Hey Desirous I resemble that comment! Just kidding. No our children was no help in making us wakeup though our oldest son stop going to meetings for long time. He even told me he felt it was not the truth. But when we made it known we was leaving both of our boys was OK with it until their wives learned of it. That is when the shunning began. By both of them. The power of the cult is strong with those wives. Still Totally ADD
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  Phizzy

  My youngest son helped me start on the long road to waking up, with just a gentle comment to my wife . She was telling him something he was planning to do would upset Jehovah, he quietly said " Mum, Jehovah was made up by a lot of Bronze Age goat herders, he isn't real ".

  I didn't challenge his view, he was about 18 at the time and 6 foot 4, not that his size mattered, but I simply walked away thinking about what he had said.

  It took me another 6 or 7 years before I finally walked away from the Org, but that simple comment, and knowing I could not challenge it with facts or logic, started me on the road.

  Thanks son !
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  goingthruthemotions

  in 2013 our older son started my waking up. he told me he didn't believe that everyone except the jw's would killed at the big A.

  along with that and knowing for a fact that i would never shun or abandon my kids or wife for a cult. along with the multiple events of other things, i realized i need to get out of the cult.

  it has not been easy, my wife is a fanatic PIMI..we are still married and some days are better than others, i just hope and pray she will wake one day.