Thursday, December 13, 2007

Awake! Danger in Too Much Kindness?



The Jehovah's Witnesses have pegged me as a golden child. It's true. My mother always taught me to be kind to everyone and in this case, it has gotten me into a predicament. It is not as if I have not encountered them before in other stages of my life, it is just different this time. In previous meetings with the JW's, I was given an Awake! pamphlet which I gratefully accepted and they moved on.

The first time I met motherly missionary in her 50's with a flowery hat, I figured she would share a scripture, pass on Awake! and Watchtower and move on to save my neighbors' souls. I was right in the one respect, she did share a scripture give me Awake!, but she saw something in me that gave her cause to come back. And back she came, a week or two later with a new lady companion--this time asking if I'd done my homework and calling my children by name.

I called Jed. "I think the Jehovah's Witnesses think I am ready to convert."
"Well are you?"
"Is it mean to continue letting them come--giving them false hope?"
"Well, it depends on how long you let them come."
"Well, I'm supposed to be nice! And I respect them for their diligence!"
"But it's not nice to string them along."

I am still stringing them along. I have met with them one other time in which I tried to not show as much joy at the scripture shared, but still didn't have the heart to let them know I really love celebrating birthdays and even (yikes) Halloween. I have missed them two more times, I know because Awake! was left on my doorknob with a beige rubber band. They still have hope for me. Which makes me wonder: Am I one of the chosen 144,000?

13 comments:

Arin Rohrbach said...

I think you are totally one of the 144,000. They pestered me for about two weeks, but for some reason lost interest when I told them I was LDS and no intentions of switching faiths. I guess I'm just a lost soul now.

Anonymous said...

i don't know,dear. it's more painful to lose a golden contact than it is to get rejected at the door. not that i have any experience with a golden contact, mind you. but in my mind it's very painful.

jayne wells said...

Arin,
You did try and warn me--and I tried to stay on the phone as long as possible, but they STILL stayed! Sorry you're a lost soul--I could always send them back your way if you want! :)

Anonymous said...

I am one of Jehovah's witnesses too, Jayniemoon. Much of the time we can sense when someone is string us along. We are trying sincerely to help people. Does it feel good to lie to us by PRETENDING to be interested? Some JW's are inexperienced and don't sense your bad manners. Just tell us you are not interested. We can take it. We won't need to waste our time with people like you. You probably call yourself a good christian too, right? We take our ministry serious like Jesus did. There are nearly 7,000,000 who appreciate us. Next time do US a favor and just be HONEST with us.

J Wells said...

dear anonymous,

i am jayniemoon's husband and i can see that you were offended by her entry, but i want to step in in her defense. i'd encourage you to note her sincere worry about how to handle the situation that exists between her and the witnesses that are visiting her. she may have made the wrong decision by letting them share a scripture, but she felt it was the christian thing to do. before you let your bitterness cloud your judgment and you use language that labels my wife a liar, a pretender, a waste of time, and ill-mannered, i'd ask that you remember that she thought she was being nice. let's not use the Lord's name to divide us. you worship in your way, she worships in hers. bless you both. her mistake for using her personal blog to express her dilemma, your mistake for finding it.

if you had the first notion of the sweet little lady you accuse of dishonesty here, you'd have reserved your censure.

Anonymous said...

Dear jayniemoon and hubby despot,

Please do not take the words posted by the poster ~ anonomyous ~ to seriously as offensive. I think that they certainly chose the wrong words and expressed not the feelings of one of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses but let to much of their personal feelings into the post they made and that is only if they were really one of Jehovah's Witnesses in reality.

Thank you jayniemoon for your kindness and please excuse anyone who represented themselves as one of Jehovah's Witnesses who did not perfectly reflect Jehovah's love and all the fruits of his Holy Spirit which are listed at Galations 5:22 & 23.

I am going to quote them below from The New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures online and also invite you to compare the quoted verses with any version of the Bible you wish:

http://watchtower.org/e/bible/index.htm

Galations 5:22 & 23:
"22 On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Italics added by author of the post.)

I am sure you are aware of what is said at Matthew 5:5 about the "meek shall inherit the earth." By manifesting the fruits of the spirit one can actually show meekness and I do not think that the poster claiming to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses exhibited those fruits but as I said; being imperfect humans I feel nothing bad towards the poster and only wish they would ask OUR heavenly Father to grant them a greater measure of his Holy Spirit or active force so that they may better reflect the glory due his great and Holy name; Jehovah.

Warmest Christian love.
doofus hayhauler
PS ~ One of Jehovah's Witnesses; and I too am imperfect but striving to get better in my conduct all the time.

Anonymous said...

Dear jayniemoon & hubby,

This is a streaming video about a Law Case that was ruled upon by the Supreme Court of Thhe United States. It has comments vy attorneys who represented Jehovah's Witnesses interests in the case and I think their words describing the preaching work and ministry of Jehovah's Witnesses expresses it as good as it might be stated and I invite you to view the short streming video from

http://jw-media.org

it is below:

http://www.jw-media.org/vnr/7381722181/814323.htm

Also the web site where the online Bible is found has an abundance of good information on it and I invite you to view it and all that is their:

http://watchtower.org

& the Index there has hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects that I hope you will look at and be pleasantly suprised. Make use of the search strip there also to check out what might come to mind and you might be curious about.

Warmest Christian love,
doofus hayhauler

J Wells said...

mr. hayhauler,

thank you for your kind words. rest assured, we are not overly troubled by the comment left by "anonymous" but only a little unsettled. it's a hard way to face the reality that a blog is not as private a conversation you think you are having with your friends and family, and we are sorry that the reader was so shaken by the original post.

as an LDS family from an LDS culture, it is an especially difficult question as to how to respond to the Jehovah's Witnesses when they come calling, as so many of us spent time of our own proselyting in a similar fashion. some deal with it better than others, and some are woefully wrong in their behavior and attitude. what a blessing that none of us are called to be the final judge on that issue.

i'm grateful for the scriptures you shared and i wish more of us were possessed of the same spirit you seem to be. it seems the correct way to work out our individual salvation: in fear and trembling and in love.

thanks for your example and thanks for taking the time to post.

jayne wells said...

Dear Anonymous,
After reading your comment, I felt truly bad this morning. I in no way meant to offend you or any of those belonging to your faith. The truth is, I respect you for practicing what you preach and although I don't have the same beliefs as you, I appreciate your dedication to serving and preaching of Christ.
Yes, I do consider myself a Christian. I know I am far from perfect, but want you to know that I also take my ministry and service seriously like Jesus did. And while I was just writing in jest yesterday, it still wasn't right if it was hurting someone in any way. For that I am sorry. I guess we're lucky we can be forgiven right?

Anonymous said...

Jayniemoon you are the sweetest most giving person I have ever met and it is the misfortune of anonymous to have misjudged you. I know how hard it is for you to say no and be rude to people and you should never be judged for that. I am glad you have such a great husband to stand up for you, even if he does let Parley get yogurt all over the kitchen.

Lori said...

Jed is such a great husband.

ali said...

Is this all for real? look at the controversy you've stirred up miss jayne.

Jen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.