Recommending the Truth by Fine Conduct
CHANGE IN ATTITUDE
The apostle Paul, at 2 Corinthians 6:3-10, tells how true Christians recommend the truth to others by their conduct and fine qualities, such as kindness. Recently a Witness in the State of Indiana offered The Watchtower and Awake! to a householder and was told: “This time I’ll take them and read them.” She proceeded to tell the Witness that she was very grateful to one of Jehovah’s witnesses who had called on her mother and kindly comforted and encouraged her while her father was in the hospital. This householder had previously been very opposed to the truth, but the kindness shown her parents changed her attitude.
NEATNESS IMPRESSED THEM
A Witness, doing rooming work for an assembly at Americus, Georgia, reported calling at two motels: “I called on the manager of a motel and told him that I was with the Watchtower Rooming Committee. He said, ‘You don’t mean Jehovah’s witnesses, do you?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘My wife and I were talking about you people the other day. We had just had a group here at our motel who were attending a religious meeting. They and their children were very careless about caring for their rooms; they strewed papers and trash on the grounds and were very noisy. My wife had said, “Why couldn’t they have been like Jehovah’s witnesses?” When they were here they left their rooms so neat and clean that we didn’t have to do much after their assembly. Even the maids mentioned the difference in Jehovah’s witnesses and other people. We’re so glad to have you folks back!’
“I later called at another motel. The lady in charge asked me what I was selling. I said, ‘I’m not selling anything. I’m with the Watchtower Rooming Committee. We’re going to need rooms for an assembly.’ She said, ‘Well, we certainly want to welcome you back.’ She then showed me how neat and clean the rooms were and stated the rates. As I was ready to leave, she said, ‘I would like to ask one favor of you.’ She explained, ‘I would like for you to send the same people in here as I had at your last assembly. They were the nicest and neatest people I ever met.’ I told her that I could not promise that, ‘but I would like for you to have someone else stay here and see if they are not just as nice and neat.’ She replied, ‘I’m sure that they will be just the same, but I just thought so much of the others that I wanted to have them back.’”
NO PROBLEMS
A circuit minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in British Columbia, Canada, reports: “While serving the Lonsdale congregation I was doing store-to-store work with the magazines in the territory which included a hotel. I called on the manager with the magazines and he readily took them. He said that there must be something in these journals. I asked him why he said so. His reply was that he had had his hotel full of Witnesses during the assembly and he said, ‘Frankly, I wish I could have my hotel filled with them every day. You don’t know how good it is to have people in a hotel who cause no problems. So if these magazines teach people to behave this way then I want to read them.’”
CONDUCT THAT BEARS WITNESS
A minister in Alberta, Canada, tells how he and another Witness called at a home in Calgary and a lady came to the door: “The lady asked us: ‘Are you Jehovah’s witnesses?’ On finding out we were, she invited us inside and told us she respected Jehovah’s witnesses because of their conduct and thoughtfulness of others. She told us that at one time she was a lady detective and as such she was very observant of people. One day she and her husband stopped at a restaurant in British Columbia. While they waited for their meal, she was watching the waitresses as they went about serving their customers. Finally she said to her husband: ‘I can tell you the religion of that girl over there.’ He said, ‘Oh, what is it?’ ‘She is one of Jehovah’s witnesses,’ the lady told her husband. So they called the girl over, and it was true. After the waitress left, the husband asked, ‘What made you think she was one of Jehovah’s witnesses?’ The detective-minded lady said, ‘Her conduct and thoughtfulness of others, seeing to it that they were well cared for.’ As a result of that girl’s conduct, several magazines were placed and arrangements made for a back-call.”