I grew up in a family that wasn’t particularly religious, but attended church for a while. I never doubted the existence of God. I could never even imagine this world just coming into existence by chance. To be honest, I was very concerned about death. I knew God existed, but I didn’t really understand what was necessary for me to be in heaven when I died. So, like so many people seemed to do, I made some assumptions. I believed that if I lived a good enough life that God might let me into His heaven and I certainly hoped He would.
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Ray-unfulfilled
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jay-
fear not
I was born into a military family in Louisiana, moved to Germany, moved to Alabama and then finally ended up in Indiana at the age of 6. My mother did a lot of the parenting up until then, which caused a lot of stress on my parents' marriage. We did not grow up going to church very much; my mother tried to take me when she could. There was a lot of fighting in the home and my dad often was stressed or angry about work. I was also dealing with mean kids in school and often struggled to find genuine friends. Middle school was a very low period of time for me and I was trying to find joy in many wrong places.
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michele-
a craving
My parents were hard-working, faithful people who loved one another and us kids. They set a good example in many ways. We were middle class folks in a small city. My brothers and sister and I went to good public schools, and each of us had the opportunity for higher education.
