Hello TGN
I was born in 1935 to a family with Presbyterian leanings.
I attended sunday school on occasion and learned to be "good" because it was right
and Jesus was our example. My Mom sent me to summer "bible school" and it
was fun drawing pictures and playing bible characters. As a normal teen I ran
around getting into mischief and being caught and being punished for it.
My Dad had been a Mason and I was invited at age 14 to join De Molay a youth
group attached to Masonry. I attended for a couple of years and also with the
Boy Scouts organization in the basement of the Presbyterian church.
Later I became a teen responsible for a part time janitorial duties at the same
church, cleaning the snow from the entrance and vacuuming the pews before
sunday services and attended fund raising dinners in the church basement to
clean up afterward.
Scout Oath (or Promise)
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Law
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty,
brave, clean, and reverent.
I don't recall ever reading the Bible even though we had a couple in the house.
If I did read the Bible it was just out of curiosity rather than seeking direction.
That is what I now refer to as baby babylon, but I doubt that one could say
that I was deceived; that is I didn't have any beliefs therefore no attachment.
I suppose that I believed in God, but didn't know what God taught.
When I left home at age 19 to enlist in the military I was alone for four years.
During this time I met many fellows from various church backgrounds and I
tried to study ancient histories such as Catholic and Protestant and that of
the Scottish Rite Free Masonry. Masonry only because the El Paso, TX library
had several books on that subject and I didn't drink much beer or hang with the cool
fellows and actually was afraid of the whores across the border in Mexico. Their
medical needs were supplied by the United States Army and Army Doctors, but
that didn't change the environment. Yuk.
I think God was protecting me even then. You only have to live in a barracks with
the brave fellows who get drunk out of their minds and come back to base with multiple
venereal diseases and scream out their pain in the men's room when they try
to use the toilet, to have a defensive reluctance to take chances like that.
There is more to say on the subject, but that will help to demonstrate how a
boy can grow up with Christian values and still be non-religious. I learned moral
principles from my parents and other relatives and at a City School. I tried
to behave my self most of the time because I didn't want to get caught and
be embarrassed and suffer the penalty. Of course I was only pretending to be
good, trying to look good to others and maybe trying to please God whatever
and whoever that was in my mind at the time.
I have been studying the Scriptures now for about forty years on a casual and
later a serious basis. There were many interruptions while my wonderful wife
and I reared four children and one grandson. Those tasks seem to take ones
mind away from the other important things such as obeying God, but all in all
it has been a fruitful journey for me and my family.
I hope that you will be just as patient with yourself as Lord Jesus is with all of us.
Indiana Bob
Author
Topic: Island in the middle of the sea (Read 6547 times)