My Teen Years

Before I was a teenager we moved, once again, back to the country, twelve miles northwest of Indianapolis. Although many households now had TV we did not. My teen years were spent playing outdoors, working mowing lawns and later in a grocery store, and going to church.

During those years I developed a love for sports, ball of any kind, and I could hold my own with my peers and then some. However my parents would not let me play organized sports. To this day I still love ball of any kind. Also in my teen years I developed a love for fishing and hunting and to this day still enjoy both very much.

My heart was always tender and open to God. My teen years were filled with the normal ups and downs of a Christian teen struggling to resist temptation and follow Christ. I had my share of ups and downs, although at times I would stray from God's way, I would soon return to the foot of the cross. In my mid teen years God spoke to me and I heard Him say, not literally, but I knew it was God, that He wanted me to be a preacher of the gospel. A short struggle followed, but I soon said “yes” to the call of God.

My parents were wonderful and I value my heritage. I don’t know where I would be today if it was not for Christian parents. However, my parents did get into legalism. In my early teen years our family left the church I had always known, and began a church hopping journey from one legalistic group to another. My mother in particular could not find a church that was "strict" or”spiritual” enough. I did not realize it then but during those years the legalism was having an influence on me that would shape my future and bring some tremendous struggles in later years.

I always liked girls and began dating early. Two months after graduating from high school I married “my love”, I have often said, “we were kids when we were married, we have raised each other.”