How I was raised...

I was brought up in a time when discipline was very important. It was not unique to my home, or at least I don't think it was. We had fun times just like everyone else did, the only difference was that we mainly associated only with other families of the same church. As you may have gathered by now, the holidays were not celebrated in my home. When it came to religion my parents were very strict. You see they believed as my father still does, that this world belongs to Satan and taking part in anything having to do with this world is against God's principles. They also believe that this world is going to end soon and only those baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses will be saved and allowed to live on. So you see as I was a Child it was important for them to raise me in a manner in which I would soon get baptized and live my life as one of them. It worked since at the age of 11 I decided I had better get baptized since I also thought the world was going to end pretty soon. I do feel that the way I was raised did protect me from many things. I stayed away from trouble most of the time since I did believe in a God. Now that I think of it, we really had a strict family. But I am guilty of doing the same thing with my children at the start. I don't regret everything, I would however do some things differently. My parents did the best they could. My father was a very hard worker and always provided for our needs. He seemed to be mad most of the time, but just think of it, he worked 12 hours a day and then attended five weekly meetings at the church. Really did not leave much time to breathe. He and my mom learned the truth, that is what believing in the Jehovah's Witneness teaching is called, from his uncle. He sure did a good job teaching them since it stayed with them all their lives. Not that I was not taught well, I was, but I have always moved to the beat of a different drummer. Only time will tell if they were right or not. It is interesting that most of the families had at least one member like me, they are no longer in the truth either. I have spoken with some of them in the past, and we don't mind not being allowed to celebrate holidays and stuff, as much as we mind the fact that we were not encouraged to seek higher education. I as well as them, were offered opportunities to continue on into college, but we knew we could not even bring this subject up at home. That is one area where I completely say they are wrong, if our loving God gave us the ability to learn it was ment to be used, not only for religion but for learning all you possibly could. I have my own theory on why those who started this religion insisted on their followers strictly obeying such rules. I believe it was because as long as a person is being fed or taught one thing over and over, that is all they know and live. Once you learn something else you start to question the validity of those things you have been taught. I believe that if one is allowed to learn freely and to choose freely, one becomes a better person in the sense that we realize that the choices we have made are ones we made on our own and not those impressed on us by others who know very little of who or what we are.

So, i love my parents and understand why they did the things the way they did, however, now that I am much older and finally realized about 20 years ago that I could make up my own mind and still be accepted by the God I believe in, I don't totally agree with the teachings of the J.W.'s. I might be totally wrong but I often think that if my mother was alive she would see things a little differently also. You see I got my rebel from her and she was a thinker as I am. She accepted things but did a lot of studing to see if she was being told the truth or not. She did have a sincere fear of God. I may be totally wrong but I think my mom was more open-minded than most.

I guess most people regardless of what religion or faith they were raised in could find some good things and some they would change. Life is made up of choices. Those choices we make based on what we have researched rather than on those made for us will take us much further and may make us happier in the long run. If we are wise in making decisions we will succeed, if we just choose things because they are the easy way to go or because they provide the quickest and greater amount of fun, likely we are making the wrong choice and we are headed straight to hell. So, do your best and blame no one for your choices. Somewhere down the line we all must take responsibility for our own choices and actions. God Bless us in our endeavours to live and let live....