Ludwika

First minute of first year in paradise!

For me it was the little blue book "The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life" 🥰

Amazing! Beautiful pictures Lori!

I grew up on Polish pickles, nothing like them in my opinion 😂

What great points! I think of it, not as rejoicing over the deaths of those people, but more as a deep gratitude for the removal of the wicked, and as the song says..."peace at last"!

Hookah pipes were, and in some places still are, originally used for smoking opium. Sometimes tobacco was mixed with opium. The connotations associated with that would keep me away. Even if I had no intention of participating, what would it look like to others?

My goodness, that's a worrying prospect, AI developing its own criteria over and above human instructions.... science fiction coming true! Quite an eye opener! 😂

Ok, so tell us the story 😂

I always think of what Jehovah told Gideon - "go with what you have". He wasn't told to try and rustle up what he didn't have.

Good coffee while manning the cart is wonderful too! ☕😂

Try growing your mint in a large pot. It stops it taking over the garden, but it's easy to keep watered.

I think you are going beyond what is reasonable, it's a conscience matter on personal grooming, it doesn't involve attending a sleezy "massage parlor" in a questionable part of town for example. At the other end of the scale, some years ago, at a congregation gathering at the lake where we were living at the time, a sister was walking around with a considerable amount of hair showing from her bikini bottom and it looked positively indecent! Out of those two choices, give me waxing anytime!

In our congregation, anyone who's very nervous will be partnered as a householder with someone experienced to give them confidence. Talk to the brothers and they will make sure you feel comfortable, and rest assured, they won't throw you in the deep end. 🥰

I have a Lenovo 10" and a Samsung 11", both have 128g storage and work brilliantly. I chose an Oppo phone because it has 254g (or 6? can't remember!) purely for the capacity, I never need to worry that I'm filling it up! That's what I looked at too with all of them, the storage capacity, and the quality of the tablet or phone.

We're watching 👀😳😂😂😂

Yes, same here in New Zealand, this look would most definitely keep you from being approved on the carts etc. And yes, you would be spoken to by the brothers.

For when they started looking old 🤣

It probably depended on who they married! 😂

We've had an elder here who lived a distance out. He didn't take care of a group, but he managed the responsibilities he did have. And did zoom when he couldn't get into town. And years ago we lived out at a hydro dam, I did the 2 country maps on my own for 5 years. It's possible.

Dentist, Doctor, psychiatrist.

To be honest, that's how I feel, and that would be the general consensus here. But there's no hard and fast rules.

Personally, I do keep abreast of the news, because how else could I talk to people on the doors about what's happening in the world? I find it very useful to be up to date, because then I can tell people " the news tells you what is happening, the Bible tells you why".

I pulled into the garage, the attendant filled up with petrol, I hopped out and paid, and discovered my car wouldn't go. So the attendant told me to pop up the bonnet, he was looking at the engine, said "put your foot on the accelerator", I did and said "see, nothing!" Then I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to turn it on! I slunk out of there feeling a right idiot! 🤣

Exactly why poor Jabez was named 'pain'? 😂

Reading through this topic, it's normal for human beings to want to feel 'part of the pack', generally accepted in the wider society. After all, Jehovah intended us to all be part of a global family in the first place. After Adam sinned, from Abel onwards, faithful people have had to stand out against the current of disobedience, and customs that displease Jehovah. Whether it was the fringe on an Israelite's garment, which made a person instantly noticed, to first century pressures put upon the early Christians, it's been a difficult road. https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/w19930701/The-Early-Christians-and-the-World/ So perhaps it's normal to want to fit in as much as possible. I know, when I came into the truth, it would have been so much easier if I could have continued to celebrate my mother's birthday! It caused friction and hurt feelings. What must be kept in mind is that little compromises in ancient times eventually led to child sacrifice, an unimaginable cruelty. They began to feel Jehovah's requirements were overly oppressive and unreasonable. They didn't want to starkly stand out from the surrounding Canaanites. They wanted to be accepted. And they lost sight of true worship. Anything contaminated by even a smidgen of spiritism, such as astrology and horoscopes, is as unacceptable now as it always was in the past. Even a drop of filth will poison a whole glass of pure water.