Any behavior you regret due to JW teaching

happpyexjw

Does anyone wish they could make amends for mistakes made as a JW? I tried very hard to follow the teachings very closely, right down to shunning some of my relatives who were DF'd. I also think I was very judgemental and hard on others.

The Berean

Bless all the "haves."

Yes, I regret the lack of respect I had for money and those who worked hard to get it. Now, I am of little means and deservedly subsist in poverty. Therefore, such a sentence serves as my amends.

Paid in full ...

jws

I lived 3/4ths of my JW life under the age of 18 and for the most part wasn't affected by DFings. There were two guys close to my age that got DFed. One guy wasn't real close, but I would say hi to him in public and ask how he was if it wasn't such a public place (he worked for a JW who had the cleaning account where I worked). The other was a good friend and I continued to talk to him on the phone or meet up and hang out as best we could without being caught by my parents or other JWs.

I have one thing that really gets me though. Living a double-life, I dated wordly girls. I remember breaking up with one once when there was this JW girl I met. At the time, I had felt I needed to straighten-up someday and live the JW life. As part of that goal, I needed to marry a JW girl. So I was giving JW girls higher priority in my dating. I tried to explain the religious reasons of why I was breaking up to her and she was really hurt.

In the end, the JW girl didn't work out either. And I don't know if the worldly girl would have been good for me either. I was young and she had a daughter. I was too young to get married and not really ready to be a father either. In the end, I'm happy now with the woman I married and the two kids we have. So I can't regret breaking up with the worldly girl. Just the way I did it and for the reasons I did.

no more kool aid

I do regret being so judgemental and saying "I miss you at the meeting". I regret my Df'ed family that I shunned for so many years that it is too late to get a relationship back. I regret loosing touch with my father because he was Df'ed. I regret taking my little babies out in service in the rain and snow hoping it would somehow save their lives. I regret not letting my kids bring birthday cupcakes to school in kindergarten. I regret waking people up on Saturday mornings.

palmtree67

I regret being so hard on my son while he was growing up. I guess I regret the reasons why I expected so much from him - pleasing and impressing others. Well, that and I thought I was saving his life.

Today he is 22 years old and not a JW. He's covered in tattoos (which I secretly love.....) and happy living with his girlfreind, who is a wonderful girl, whom I am trying to get to know better. He is a caring and sympathetic young man, who genuinely is good to others and I appreciate these good qualities in him.

I'm trying to do things differently with my daughter. And not freak out over every little "rebellious" thing she does. She recently told me she she had just gotten a nipple ring. Oh, well. She told me her reasons for doing it - a "freindship pact" with her and two freinds, no one intends to keep it long..... I get it. I had the "rebellious" second ear piercing as a teenager and the "rebellious" toe ring as an adult.

Steve_C

I was in since birth, left at age 39. I regret feeling so judgemental and superior, and for shunning my Mom while she was df'd. I didn't even invite her to my own (JW) wedding. Perhaps karma is true, because now my Mom's back in, I'm out, and I'm on the receiving end of the shunning.

jamiebowers

I regret allowing my jw exhusband to abuse me for the duration of our marriage and also for failing to warn people in the congregation about a child molster in their midst.

Mrs. Fiorini

I regret reporting people to the elders when I found out they had "sinned." I thought I was being loyal to God and helping them, all while protecting the congregation. Now I realize I was unneccessarily butting into their personal life, and causing them problems for things that were nobody's business but their own.

Warlock

Yeah, but it's too late now.

Warlock

WTWizard

Going to people's doors and waking them up with a message that has been "urgent" since the 1870s.

Any behavior you regret due to JW teaching

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