by TheMan 34 Replies latest jw friends
Welcome! We hope to hear from your wife at some point too.
Keep praying for wisdom to handle whatever comes your way. There are many other good exJW sites for those who still believe the Bible, to help you on your way out. The biggest thing will be that you know get to chew on the meat yourself instead of being spoonfed pablum. Get some good alternate Bible versions and read without the WT glasses on. You will see a whole new gospel, Saviour, and Father!
TS
Welcome! I hope everything continues to go well for you.
Welcome!
What a great story, I hope it continues to go well for you.
Looking forward to reading more.
r.
I was about ready for her to start crying, call me an apostate and slap me in the fact, but, to my surprise, she totally understood, and out come all of her doubts as well.
You are a lucky man to be able to "spill the beans" and not get a bad reaction. And, as your elder posters on here will be quick to tell you, you have nothing to feel bad about for deciding to leave the org at 25. You can feel good about yourself for seeing the truth this early.
I look forward to your insight, and welcome to the discussion, TheMan!
Welcome to JWD, congrats on the baby too. Am looking forward to hearing more from both you and your wife in the future.
free2think
Wow, so many responses already. Thanks to everyone for your support.
I know I'm about to send my wife reeling through a lot of different emotions, but I'm ready. Believe me, if I didn't think my wife could take it, I wouldn't have done it. I've read enough experiences on this board where that simply didn't work. Truth be told, although both of us have grown up in "the truth," we haven't been like others who went straight to pioneering or going to bethel. Instead, I chose full time work (yet I skipped college bec it was "bad"), and so did my wife. Yes, I still went out in service, all the meetings, and was "faithful" enough to be appointed to MS, yet many of my friends who did not choose to work full time developed that "holier than thou" attitude with us, and lessened their association with us. That hurt a lot, just because we wanted to work full time, own a home and have health insurance??! Give me a break. And then there's those that don't think we should have gotten pregnant. Unbelievable. Anyway, many of my friends now are in the "truth" but just go to meetings and do the minimum amount of service. They were all raised in the "truth" too, but I wonder if most of them even give a hoot about God, although they know all the right moves for being a witness. If there's one thing I've learned (the hard way), what people say about witness friends is true, most are not really your friends.
You The Man, The Man. Welcome!
My situation was vaguely like yours with my raised as a dub wife. Although we had been married about 22 years.
My personal experience is that our wives (i.e. my wife), respond much better to our feelings of shock, anger or disgust over the Society's behaviour than any kind of intellectual discussion over doctrine. They want to know why we are so hurt rather than why we let Satan get to us!
Congrats on that new baby. Bring him/her up in freedom.
Cheers,
Pete
First welcome we are sure glad that you decided to post.
I think your observation is correct when you say that many don't necessarily believe all of it. When you have been raised in the the "lie" you are programmed to go to meetings, service etc. You do what you have been taught to do without even really thinking about it. This religion also makes you feel like a failure. If you question anything you are not spiritual enough, you have to pray more, study more, have a better relationship with Jehovah..on and on it goes. It just makes you feel you will never be good enough. You can not live up to those favored ones at the KH. Just think what you felt like the first time you looked at an apostate board. Geee I really thought I had committed the unforgiveable sin. That is what I was taught....so that is what I believed.
Keep coming back....and congrats on your new baby. I hope your wife comes and reads the board also.
Leslie
Welcome to JWD, TheMan!!!
I was about ready for her to start crying, call me an apostate and slap me in the fact, but, to my surprise, she totally understood, and out come all of her doubts as well. I never would have guessed it....but it was so liberating. In fact, I swear I just fell in love with her five times over again, becuase she handled it better than I ever would have thought.
Awww!
Congrats "Man"
It worked the other way around for me. My wife came out first, and I was the one to then let her know I felt the same way.
RV
