by haujobbz 16 Replies latest jw friends
1) I sacrificed work offered to me so i could earn more money
2) I sacrificed my job as a well payed DJ
3) I sacrificed weekend ly-ins to go out preaching
4) I nearly sacrificed my girlfriend (now my wife) to get baptised due to her being a worldling and not wanting to become a jw
5) I sacrificed all my copied cd,s and films with bad language or violence
I could go on a bit more but was it all worth it?
So did you have to make big sacrifices to be a j.w
Watchtower 15th October 1996 p13 "Singleness-A Door to Undistracted Activity"...singleness is undeniably advantageous for the Christian man or woman who wants to serve Jehovah with minimum distraction. Whereas the married person is "divided," the unmarried Christian is free to concentrate attention on "the things of the Lord."
I know a guy who took this sh*t very seriously, and is now the oldest ...ahem... in the world!
1.I sacrificed family get-togethers at holiday times.
2.I sacrificed being there for my daughter at times when she needed me .
3.I sacrificed all my real friends for ones who turned out to be phony.
4.I nearly sacrificed my marriage of 30 years.
1. sacrificed my entire childhood
2. any desire to go to college or university
3. any shred of independance or self-dignity
4. many, many, visits from santa, easter bunny, etc
When I was studying to become a JW, I pushed the love of my life, my boyfriend of two years, right out of my life. It was excruciating. But at the time I thought he was holding me back from progressing spiritually. Years later, he moved across the country, but now we are friends and keep in touch.
I'm the kind of person who only has a few close friends, and my family has never been close...so my friends have always meant alot to me. When I become a Witness (or a Witless, as it seems sometimes) I gave up the few close friends I had...and became very close to those "In The Truth" but it's been a few years since I was Df'd and I find myself very lonely because it's so hard to make friends.
I gave up friends, I gave up personal things like crosses and stuff, I got rid of music and abandoned holidays...all because I was told it would please Jehovah. I gave up my animals, at that time I had 8 ferrets and a cat, that was heartbreaking.
I gave up wearing jeans everyday and dressed up for the first time in around ten years, and I gave up my sleep and worked a night shift so that I could go out in service more during the day.
What I learned about life and God, and humanity was and still is valuable, but some of the costs, like feeling like I was going to lose my mind when I realized I was living in a fantasy and what I thought was reality was not what it seemed I paid a high price for.
Truth2Me
RE: truth2me
I can imagine how you feel when you say you feel like loosing your mind when reality kicks in and it was all a fantasy,i felt the sameway when i left, it felt like i was dreaming and i just woke up.
And all the things you gave up now that really irritates me personally basically i was giving them up to please the governing body in brooklyn,for instance dont have an unbelieving partner or he may take you away from the truth (more like dont have a partner or you wont concentrate on putting in more hours for field service and then our statistical figures will be less and look bad and he may tell you the real truth).
I agree some things i learnt helped but at the expense of being misled.
You couldnt wear jeans !!!!!!
My family has also never been close either but more judgmental than anything else and self righteous.
But look on the brightside your free and you have lots of friends to talk to on here who can relate to you.
haujobbz,
I sacrificied many things, some good some bad. In the end I can't tell how things may have turned out:
Those are some of the bigger things. In the end my marriage broke up as well but that would likely of happened anyway, regardless of my religious commitments. I retrained as a programmer and relocated to the USA. Despite my rocky career path I did gain useful experience in business. I worked for small sales and service divisions of international companies, worked with many customers and vendors. As a result when I switched to software implementation I was always in demand as a business consultant as well as an analyst and up until recently I always had plenty of head-hunters calling me. (I'd hate to be in that business today).
Today, I live comfortably, have a job I love, am re-married, enjoy vacations in nice places and even ski occasionally. Who knows what life would be like if I had continued in my chosen career? I have even managed to keep a friendship with a non-JW most of my adult life. I am bitter about all the time I wasted and all the friendships I let die. But that's in the past, its time to make up for it now and in the future.
Thirdson
I gave up a great job in radio to sell cable TV. Then after I came to my senses I got back in radio and quit again to work at a plant building tires in 104 degree heat. Even people in the truth said I was stupid to do that......diamond
About 20 years of my life. I can't complain really. It wasn't all bad. I got out with my wife and kids. So it could have been a lot worse.
ISP
Felony arrest, confiction and sentence for refusing alternative military service because that was Witchpower Policy(tm) at the time.
Good enough?
Farkel
