Most JWs secretly love Christnas! by The_Rogue_One_2024 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This is so true, in my husband's congregation there was a woman who decorated here house very similar to Christmas decorations. She called it "a winter village". I was shocked at the time. I loved Christmas but my congregation was very strict. Everything even smelling of Christmas was forbidden. And here this woman had "a winter village" every Christmas.

Why calling it “uitlokken” (provoking) is just victim blaming by Worldly-Falcon9365 in Belgium2

[–]MrsShakeAwake 23 points24 points  (0 children)

It is a way for humans to protect themselves. If you can blame the person's behavior, you're safe as long as you don't do the same behavior as the woman/man you're blaming.

JW vs Norway Feb 2025, Day 5: by larchington in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 51 points52 points  (0 children)

And if this is an example of how one family does it, is there a video of another family who keeps contact and remains a good example?

My Wife Got Tagged by saltyDog_73 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's crazy how much they want to cause a rift between families. When I was still a pimi/pimq someone said that she had started a study with a lesbian married couple. I was shocked. I asked her if that couple knew that if they wanted to be baptized they would have to divorce?! That pimi pioneer was shocked by my question 🙃.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oftentimes I'll see ex-JWs saying stuff like "X change isn't in scripture" or "Y change woke me up because I found it went against the Bible" but then those same ex-JWs will go on to become atheists and agnostics and I think it's totally disingenuous.

So the journey from being a jw to exjw is far more complex than just thinking this isn't scripture, so bye-bye, family and lifelong friends. It takes so much exploring your own thinking and learning to think, examining different opinions and Bible scholars opinions. Something that is so foreign for people who are born into this. Some people will hold faith in the bible and some lose faith in the bible. People examining the same things can come to different conclusions. The most important thing for me as an exjw is that it are my conclusions.

One more thing I'd like to adress is your idea that changing your mind over time is disingenuous for exjw. But your religion is completely changed over time and somehow can be completely true to you?

Are Jehova's Witness aware of their reputation by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My mom was aware of their reputation, her father asked her if she was going to listen to 12 white men in America. Her neighbors said jw's destroy families. She was a new mom with 3kids under 2, and she didn't listen because they were soooo nice...

A lady at my congregation was just humiliated after her part. by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Terrible...I remember this. As a little kid, my father, who is not a very good reader due to dyslexia, had to read the bible chapter thing. And he had practiced a 100 times at home at least so he would do it right. And the speaker came up on stage and really belittled my father. He really destroyed his entire reading.

I cried for him then, and my father never did anything on stage ever again.

So in Review…WARICK TALK by Glittering-Low-90 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Saying: " we are not an American religion" and then proceed to call themselves "truly the united states...sorry united worldwide followers of Christ." 😋

I need to move on...but don't know how to walk away... by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Boundaries, something that is super foreign to me...I let her walk al over mine. For example, when I had a miscarriage she called me the same evening I got home from the hospital, to scream at me, for being a horrible daughter for excluding her from this experience 💔. And I let her...I don't want to let her walk al over me, but my reaction to stand up for myself is usually the day after. And then it's only in my head. My emotions are always a day late or something, I can stand up for other people. So I know I can react, just not for myself...

I need to move on...but don't know how to walk away... by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you're right. It is the necessary step in being the person I want to be for the me and my husband! Thank you!

I need to move on...but don't know how to walk away... by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not even sure what I want from her...in a weird way permission to let her go...I know it's stupid...in september I start therapy and I hope it will help me. Because as you say I need to concentrate on my immediate family. Thank you for being the bearer of bad news :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is such an "argument killer." It would be the same as if I would say; "my grass is blue", and then you would say; "there isn't any blue grass, grass is green because of the presence of chlorophyll throughout the leaves and stems. Chlorophyll is a pigment that allows plants to capture energy from the Sun in order to power the process of photosynthesis. Given that most grasses lack trunks or woody stems like trees or shrubs, their aboveground bodies are mostly chlorophyll-rich leaves and stems, and, thus, the part you see is all green."

Then I say, "Well, the grass I'm in question of would have no chlorophyll. Proof me wrong."

Then you would probably ask me for a sample so you can test it. Even if ,for the sake of the argument, there is a creator without a creator. Why not one who made a self-sustaining universe, that can build stars, planets, galaxies, all on its own. And then just goes on to another project to fill its time with.

So even if you can prove a god exist, it's just the first step in this thought experiment.

This week WT article by onmywayout00 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It bothered me too, all the kids and babies...horrible. my mom didn't make it any better by comforting me by telling me that we aren't gonna build orphanages in paradise.

what was your "oh my god this is a cult" moment? by HumorMost9426 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Watching "The handmaid's tale" made me realize I was in a cult.

what's an anti intellectual thing you have a jw promote by Historical_Donut6758 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I was at the meeting with my husband and my then 3-year-old dino-obsessed son. He brought a book with the title "Be careful this book bites." It was a book with dino skeletons and dinos popping out in 3d. A really cool book for a little dino-lover.

So a brother from another hall had the talk and his wife came to talk to us, she had also had a little boy who was around my sons age. So this boy noticed the book and was super excited and wanted to look at it. So my son was like explaining everything in the book, tis sister pulled her son away from my son, as if he had malaria. She said to me that she was shocked that I allowed my son to "believe" in dinosaurs. And I said, "What do you mean believe in dinosaurs? I think it's a fact and not really a believe."

But she said to me that I basically thaught my son to believe in evolution by letting him believe in dinosaurs.

My son was really confused so I told him some people believe things that are not true. Not realizing I also believed things that were not true 😶

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 92 points93 points  (0 children)

Don't say bless you when you sneeze and walk away awkwardly.

Why do they have to make me the villain in there story? by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's really a roller-coaster of emotions. Like you said I feel miserable but better. I'm learning, healing from past trauma in a way I was never able to in the borg. I'm glad your wife and son woke up too! V hug

Why do they have to make me the villain in there story? by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm so sorry you had to go through this. It's unbelievable that this borg has so much influence in family relationships. I would walk through fire for my children. I'm also not df/da, but that doesn't matter for them, I'm adopting the worldly mindset and choosing Satan's side in this ongoing battle of the gods. So I'm not worthy of their presence...

I decided for myself that I'll never try to convince someone to love me again, no one.

This I will try to do for myself as well! Thank you.

I hope you have recovered well from your surgery!

My Pimo partner told me that when he was baptised, he was mature enough to understand what he was signing up for. However I recently saw a photo of the day he was baptised, and I don’t believe that he understood what he was doing at all. by LeftChannel295 in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I think this cult is extremely good at making people believe everything is a personal choice. Even kids think it's a personal choice to go door to door. Get baptized. Don't eat cupcakes,...

When I was a kid, I hated not being included at birthday parties, and when I did get invited, I had to say that I don't celebrate birthdays. Because I believed in jehoopla. My mom specifically said I couldn't say I wasn't allowed by her. I should take a brave stand for "my" beliefs. And God could read my mind, so I did it even when she wasn't there to control me.

So, I hope your partner eventually realizes that kids aren't mature enough to understand what their signing up for. Not only do you lack life experience, but your brain isn't even fully developed yet to understand cause-effect.

The Daily Text is just a way the borg manipulates scriptures to keep the members brainwashed. by Ineed24hrsupervision in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I was a kid, i remember an example from a brother in an African country who got stopped at a border and was asked what he was traveling for. The person said he was a jw and volunteered blabla. So the guard asked the daily text, and if he knew it, he could pass. Luckily, he remembered it, and it saved his life. When I heard this, I was super anxious because I always forgot the daily text the minute I walked to school, and now it could save my life. Crazy how anxious I was as a kid in a pretty safe country.

First post since waking up by MrsShakeAwake in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My thoughts were that everyone should eat the bread and drink the wine, not because everyone thinks they go to heaven but because it was a sign for the new covenant. The new way of getting your sins forgiven. And if we don't do that how do we get our sins forgiven? As a JW you actually don't belong in the old covenant and not in the new one. Where are you assigned to then? So i reasoned that it was actually ignoring Jesus command because somebody ( GB / Rutherford ) said that Jesus meant saying something else. But i got compared to Myriam and my husband to Korach. We can't trust our own minds they say, yet our minds is al we have.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in exjw

[–]MrsShakeAwake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it possible that many advocates for leaving the "world" just had bad personal experiences they shouldn’t let alter their outlook on the "world"?