GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I
New Member
Weeellllllll, this past 2 weeks, I've been on vacay and I truly missed the ladies here. I went home to deal with some estate issues and I feel that since I was honest with it, my brother just let me have some valuable property...just gave it all over to me. I wasn't expecting this at all since we don't have a close relationship. He also looks like he's gotten much of his life together...getting off that "stuff" since his surgery. We can only hope and pray. But I'm happy to see his progress.
After the estate settlement, I went to visit my other side up in G.R. and we had a blast just sitting around talking and eating. Man, can my cousins cook! But there we were and I find out that 1 cousin was actually JW. I hadn't known that. Uncle C. is not and some others have just jumped ship totally from most anything religious. Imagine a round table discussion
of Jehovah's witnesses, a few catholics w/a Jewish slant, a catholic with a Native traditionalist slant, a baptist, agnostics, 7th Day Aventists and others 
!
We got into some conversations that just revolved around the scriptures. I was able to have an intelligent conversation with my JW's (cuz they're my family...we're smart and think things through
) "sans" arguments whatsoever. Not like some dealings with JW's spoken about on here. I was suddenly defending our faith in such a gentle but on-target way. Like, where on earth did that come from? LOL. Things just came to me explaining the first revelation to mankind and the succession through apostolic tradition. My son told me afterwards that I gave answers his theology teacher in catholic h.s. would have given. I was shocked because I feel I don't know the faith like I should but since we rely upon the interpretation/teachings handed down for millennia by the magisterium and not based upon individual interpretation, it just all clicked! Sometimes, you don't know how to repond to people who question things but this was the first time I truly experienced something on this level where I actually knew the answers 
.
I hadn't expected answers to flow so easily...the Holy Spirit??? It fortified my beliefs on what I know to be true. It made me so much stronger that I'm simply amazed. You can defend the faith in love and with theological soundness in a non-offensive way and you never know when your opportunity is coming...when G-d might be wanting you to defend it (what we do and why we do it and how it's biblically sound). I know that most family arguments stem from discussion of politics and religion...but we just had the best time finding theological points of convergence and divergence.
Towards the end, we all agreed that we were different...but we also are very much alike spiritually and have found what we individually know to be true with several points the same, crossing our various faiths. It was a beautiful time and I just love my family. I feel so rejuvenated, so revived and I wasn't expecting it to have occurred through a religious discussion. There is always much to learn from every individual.
Anyway, it's good to be back.
After the estate settlement, I went to visit my other side up in G.R. and we had a blast just sitting around talking and eating. Man, can my cousins cook! But there we were and I find out that 1 cousin was actually JW. I hadn't known that. Uncle C. is not and some others have just jumped ship totally from most anything religious. Imagine a round table discussion
of Jehovah's witnesses, a few catholics w/a Jewish slant, a catholic with a Native traditionalist slant, a baptist, agnostics, 7th Day Aventists and others ! We got into some conversations that just revolved around the scriptures. I was able to have an intelligent conversation with my JW's (cuz they're my family...we're smart and think things through
) "sans" arguments whatsoever. Not like some dealings with JW's spoken about on here. I was suddenly defending our faith in such a gentle but on-target way. Like, where on earth did that come from? LOL. Things just came to me explaining the first revelation to mankind and the succession through apostolic tradition. My son told me afterwards that I gave answers his theology teacher in catholic h.s. would have given. I was shocked because I feel I don't know the faith like I should but since we rely upon the interpretation/teachings handed down for millennia by the magisterium and not based upon individual interpretation, it just all clicked! Sometimes, you don't know how to repond to people who question things but this was the first time I truly experienced something on this level where I actually knew the answers . I hadn't expected answers to flow so easily...the Holy Spirit??? It fortified my beliefs on what I know to be true. It made me so much stronger that I'm simply amazed. You can defend the faith in love and with theological soundness in a non-offensive way and you never know when your opportunity is coming...when G-d might be wanting you to defend it (what we do and why we do it and how it's biblically sound). I know that most family arguments stem from discussion of politics and religion...but we just had the best time finding theological points of convergence and divergence.
Towards the end, we all agreed that we were different...but we also are very much alike spiritually and have found what we individually know to be true with several points the same, crossing our various faiths. It was a beautiful time and I just love my family. I feel so rejuvenated, so revived and I wasn't expecting it to have occurred through a religious discussion. There is always much to learn from every individual.
Anyway, it's good to be back.
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