Worldly Relatives

by sammielee24 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  JT

  When I was a JW I virtually ignored my "worldly" sisters, nieces, nephews, and their kids, even though they always tried to be nice to me. When I DA'd NOT ONE of them told me that I behaved like an asshole for 20 years. The act like nothing has happened. They were just happy to get me "back". I can't describe the shame I feel at the way I treated them all those years, and I'm at a loss about how to go about making amends.

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  your exp was mine as well all my nonjw family welcomed me back with open arms

  they tell me how sorry they felt for me being 8yrs old dressed up in suit and tie and a briefcase selling wt books every sat in 90 degree heat

  in my day we didn't have cute little field service bags, the ony ones were the adult bags and so you have some little kid dragging this huge black adult bag around
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  dedpoet

  When I was a jw, I still visited my relatives a lot at first, but a "kindly" elder suggested I limit such visits so as not to be weakened spiritually, and I took his advice. I still visited occasionally, and I am sure they knew why my visits became less and less. When I left the wt, my family breathed a sigh of relief, and never commented on my infrequent visits during the jw years
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  Es

  We never got an opportunity to really get to know cousins and uncles and aunties it makes me so angry. Only know am i getting back some of those relationships but not all. It hurts that i never got to really know my aunty before she died and im never gona get that back. es
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  rebel8

  when my mom became jw most of the non-jw relatives stopped talking to us for a bit. when relations resumed they were distant. we kids were instructed to preach to them whenever we were around them, so the relatives avoided us so as not to hear bible bashing.

  i have 'made amends' to most of them by initiating conversation about my current status and the reasons for me leaving. have also apologized for any nonsense i pulled while in the grasp of the wts. interestingly, most of them apologized back....saying they regretted not working harder to get me out of the cult but they weren't sure what to do.
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  Sassy

  While you were a JW how badly did you feel obliged to treat your non JW relatives? Did you not visit with them? Did you keep your kids away from them? Did you refuse to attend weddings and funerals? and now that you're out...how did you go about making ammends? Have you visited with them or explained why?

  I didn't really treat relatives any different, but my dad wasn't a witness either, so that helped... I did feel bad about not sharing christmas with them though. It was the one holiday growing up that the family on dad's side got together..

  I didn't make amends with anyone except my children. I apologized to all of them for raising them as witnesses.. Thankfully none of them ever got baptized...