2023 Governing Body Update #8 / BEARDS!!!

[Cushi]

5 minutes ago, bagwell1987 said:

Honey, apparently you're not married. You can't know what you prefer until you are. It's swayed by your wife and her reasoning. Listen to her.

I may not be married but I’ve faced stuff like this with worldly girlfriends. Plus, I know myself very well.

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, lord-360 said:

Went to Walmart today and noticed so many beards so common around here.

Are they on sale?

I need to buy one...😁

[Ahuvah]

1 minute ago, Tortuga said:

Are they on sale?

I need to buy one...😁

Looks like you already have!!! I'm referring to your new pic!!! Shouldn't it be Grey BTW? Or we going into the realm of beard dyeing as well?

[Brother_Bliss]

17 hours ago, Cool Cat said:

Dear Bob, brother Lett explained that feeling like it was a long time coming and that it was a stupid social taboo is not how we should view this change or the wait we have had until now for it. 

 

Rather it is a well done to all those who have patiently waited for this change and for all those who were loyal and spoke of one mind and didn't verbalise their own view on this matter during that time. 🤗

 

I'm sorry that you feel that the tone of my post was along the lines of what brother Lett counseled against. I have to disagree that it was. I've been a member of this community for 17 years and in another JW community for 21 years and I have participated in a lot of "Beard" topics/discussions and have always voiced the same opinion.

 

See for yourself...

https://jwtalk.net/search/?q=taboo beards&quick=1&author=Brother_Bliss&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and

 

Brother Lett said not to feel vindicated nor to boast "See, I was right all along", and I am neither boasting nor saying such a thing. I am simply adding to the same conversation we've been having on this topic for over a decade.

[Paradise-Lover]

4 hours ago, Tortuga said:

I just received an image of brother Lett with a beard. Is that going to far? It feels disrespectful to me.

Now, Bro Richard, don't do this to us! 😂 You just made me to start "imagining" how it looks on him. Neatly bearded I guess.🤔 Can you save me the trouble by kindly sharing the image here. Why whet one's appetite if you can't ... ? 😂

[MM9106]

For me personally, I’m so happy about this. This means that if I oversleep and have to rush to get ready for the meeting, I no longer have to worry about shaving. I usually shave every Thursday and Sunday morning so now I only have to shave once a week! I won’t grow a beard but I’m ok going to the meeting with a little peach fuzz going on 😂. I know an elder who works 12-14 shifts and he’s said that he has to rush to shave and get ready when he gets home from work. Now he can relax a little bit and shave the next day. This change is very helpful and I’m appreciative for it. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by MM9106

[jwhess]

3 hours ago, *Jack* said:

I may not be married but I’ve faced stuff like this with worldly girlfriends. Plus, I know myself very well.

One thing about being married is the need to take care of your mate.  I am not specifically considering an emotional concern here but my wife's face breaks out when I wear a beard.  I could consider my desire for a beard as more important and just refrain from any close hugs or kisses and go my own way.  But I am sure (from past experience) that I will not wear any facial hair.

 

When we were first married (54 years ago), my wife knew I liked the look of her in long hair.  She tried to please me by wearing it long, close to waist length.  But as a poor, young, pioneer couples, it was an added expense to maintain.  Eventually she shortened it.  Later after a couple of children, it was shortened further.  Now in our middle 70s, she wears it 'bobbed'.  I adapted my personal feelings toward her needs as to hair length.  I will do the same as to my shaving.

 

Side point:  It is perhaps a poor example, but the old movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (starring Robert Redford) depicts a bearded 'mountain man'.  He is married.  And in one scene he notices his wife's face is broken out and he asks her what is the matter.  She reaches up and puts her hand on his beard.  The next scene he is shaving.

[Abigail]

On 12/15/2023 at 11:19 PM, Dolce vita said:

My personal impression is that the GB wanted to cut off the Dragon's head, because it was looking for every means to divide us, even on a subject that had little meaning in the end. Calm should return and the beard will find its place but be careful not to give it more importance than it has, on one side or the other.

Absolutely!! It was beards but it could have been many things ... we need to stop arguing and get on with the important things!

[Áine]

Some of the most important information given in this update is the counsel given at the very end ….

 

And I hope everyone applies it

[Fiona]

Please don’t take what I’m about to say the wrong way. But if I were married, I think I would rather my wife enjoy a hairstyle or whatever it is that makes her happy than for her to adhere to my preferences to make me happy. I would think her happiness is more important than my preferences. There’s one particular hairstyle I hate. If my wife wanted to have this hairstyle, I would try to talk her out of it. But if she insisted, and I knew it would make her happy, I would “let” her. I find that the loving thing to do.
 
I personally don’t like hairy legs or armpits on a woman. But if I married a woman from a country where women didn’t shave, and she temporarily shaved to “fit in” or to please me but wanted to go back to her old way of doing things, I would “let” her if that made her happy. If I wanted to grow a beard and my wife told me she would stop shaving if I did, I’d have to take her up on that.

The thing is though, we do things for.the ones we love. I have long hair. Do I like having to detangle my knots daily when I was my hair? Have it make me hot in summer? No, but I do it not because my husband makes me, and not because he won't love me if I cut it, but because I know he likes it. I do all sorts of things not because I want to but because he wants to or it makes him happy. And the same is said vice versa. He does all sorts of things purely because he knows I like it. This way we rarely please ourselves, but we are pleased because we please each other. This makes for.our happy marriage. Now if I KNEW my husband really wanted a beard, would I make such a comment to him, " you don't shave, so I wont"? Of course not. But it's a joke for us. He doesn't really want a beard. And I am sooooo very thankful.

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[Amygdala]

I think the brothers who grow beards have their reasons and naturally tend towards that way. Just the same for the brothers who don’t want to grow beards and like to shave beforehand and will stay that way. It’s all good. Just like some sisters who like to wear make-up for various reasons and some who’d rather not. 

[Parale]

3 hours ago, MM9106 said:

For me personally, I’m so happy about this. This means that if I oversleep and have to rush to get ready for the meeting, I no longer have to worry about shaving. I usually shave every Thursday and Sunday morning so now I only have to shave once a week! I won’t grow a beard but I’m ok going to the meeting with a little peach fuzz going on 😂. I know an elder who works 12-14 shifts and he’s said that he has to rush to shave and get ready when he gets home from work. Now he can relax a little bit and shave the next day. This change is very helpful and I’m appreciative for it. 

 

I think care and balance is need as TBH I don't believe simply having unshaven stubble quantifies as having a 'beard', rather it simply indicates that the man has either forgotten, been too busy, or simply hasn't bothered to shave, and therefore is unlikely to be considered 'well-groomed.'

 

That's not to say anything against having a very short beard - 4/64" for example? - but a beard is a 'beard', not really just an excuse to have unshaven stubble. And even a very short beard should be "neatly trimmed" (W Sept 2016, p 21, par 17).

Edited December 17, 2023 by Parale

[Barbara Anne]

Perhaps it's already been asked, but will there be another change where eventually the sisters will be allowed to wear trousers, at the meetings and in the ministry ?

[Dages]

38 minutes ago, Barbara Anne said:

Perhaps it's already been asked, but will there be another change where eventually the sisters will be allowed to wear trousers, at the meetings and in the ministry ?

"we don't know"  

[blue-jay]

14 hours ago, Hope said:

I'm in Oregon and no appointed brothers were wearing beards in my area. It will be fun to see who starts. 😊

 

I'm very happy that spirituality will not be connected to facial hair anymore.. 

Why did I think you're in New York/Brooklyn? 🤔

[blue-jay]

1 hour ago, Parale said:

 

I think care and balance is need as TBH I don't believe simply having unshaven stubble quantifies as having a 'beard', rather it simply indicates that the man has either forgotten, been too busy, or simply hasn't bothered to shave, and therefore is unlikely...

At least for a couple of meetings it will be stubble lol You can't go from smooth face to beard in a day

But yeah, going to the meeting clean shaven one day and then with unshaven stubble, and then clean shaven the next time... that's not ok

[ChrisW]

4 hours ago, jwhess said:

One thing about being married is the need to take care of your mate.  I am not specifically considering an emotional concern here but my wife's face breaks out when I wear a beard.  I could consider my desire for a beard as more important and just refrain from any close hugs or kisses and go my own way.  But I am sure (from past experience) that I will not wear any facial hair.

 

When we were first married (54 years ago), my wife knew I liked the look of her in long hair.  She tried to please me by wearing it long, close to waist length.  But as a poor, young, pioneer couples, it was an added expense to maintain.  Eventually she shortened it.  Later after a couple of children, it was shortened further.  Now in our middle 70s, she wears it 'bobbed'.  I adapted my personal feelings toward her needs as to hair length.  I will do the same as to my shaving.

 

Side point:  It is perhaps a poor example, but the old movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (starring Robert Redford) depicts a bearded 'mountain man'.  He is married.  And in one scene he notices his wife's face is broken out and he asks her what is the matter.  She reaches up and puts her hand on his beard.  The next scene he is shaving.

What you are relating is a living act that husbands and wives do for each other. Especially if an act by one causes physical discomfort to the other. But why would I PUSH my preferences on my husband if it's just a preference. He doesn't push house on me. I've cut my hair short, I've worn it natural, I've straightened it.He has a preference I'm sure but you know he's never said honey if you cut your hair short I'll.....

Why do that? 

[ChrisW]

Just now, ChrisW said:

What you are relating is a living act that husbands and wives do for each other. Especially if an act by one causes physical discomfort to the other. But why would I PUSH my preferences on my husband if it's just a preference. He doesn't push house on me. I've cut my hair short, I've worn it natural, I've straightened it.He has a preference I'm sure but you know he's never said honey if you cut your hair short I'll.....

Why do that? 

Loving act....

His 

[Floyd]

[LeolaRootStew]

4 hours ago, jwhess said:

Side point:  It is perhaps a poor example, but the old movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (starring Robert Redford) depicts a bearded 'mountain man'.  He is married.  And in one scene he notices his wife's face is broken out and he asks her what is the matter.  She reaches up and puts her hand on his beard.  The next scene he is shaving.

I remember her face being scratched, but yeah, that was a funny moment. 😅

[Lee49]

5 hours ago, MM9106 said:

This means that if I oversleep and have to rush to get ready for the meeting

This is why I've always used an ES, it's quick and easy and no cuts or rash on the face, also don't forget to zip up when in a hurry , it does happen, I know !  😂

 

 

 

[DancesWithWife]

11 hours ago, *Jack* said:

But if I were married, I think I would rather my wife enjoy a hairstyle or whatever it is that makes her happy than for her to adhere to my preferences to make me happy. I would think her happiness is more important than my preferences.

My wife is 5 years older than me. Has never bothered me a day in our life together. When I got severely injured 10 years ago leading to my current disabled status. During this time she decided not to dye her hair. Many brothers in the congregation we attended insisted that their wives dye their hair, so as not to make them feel old. One brother dyed his hair to look younger. That was their choice, but I felt bad for the sisters who had to dye their hair to please their husband. 

 

My wife has long hair, past her buttocks. To me it is a crown of glory. Some of the sisters in our Congregation feel it is inappropriate for an older woman in her 60s to have long hair. These are the same women who wear their hair extremely short. It's amazing the banter hair can bring whether it be on the face or head. 

 

I am not sure how many brothers will show up at the meeting with a newly started beard. Some may try to grow it, only to find out how they itch as they grow. My wife and I had a discussion yesterday about my beard.

Do I keep it full on my face or a full goatee. I valued her opinion since she has to look at me more than I look at myself! I put her first in all my choices. She is the best thing that has has ever happened to me. Why would I want to change her or insist on my view?

[Abigail]

19 hours ago, Fiona said:

On the other hand , I am a sister who HATES beards. I've begged my husband not to grow one. I've told him, if he stops shaving so will I. He can have my hairy armpits and legs.

Sent from my SM-A336E using Tapatalk
 

Sounds fair!! If a man is married I think it should be a family decision to wear or not wear a beard.

[Jerry]

I have always wondered why moustaches and long sideburns were acceptable and beards were not. 

This is really a good decision the brothers have made. No more question as to why or why not. 

We love Jehovah and as a brother once  said "hair doesn't grow on the heart".

 

[Hope]

5 hours ago, blue-jay said:

Why did I think you're in New York/Brooklyn? 🤔

I don't know.. I have Beaverton, OR on my avatar. 

 

I do truly love New York/ Brooklyn, though 🥰