Chapter One - As a Child

As early as I can remember my parents took us to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening.  I grew up going to Sunday school, Children’s Church, and as I grew older sitting in the main services of the church.  I loved God with all my heart.   I couldn’t wait to learn the memory verses in Sunday school and the songs we learned and sang in Children’s Church. 
I trusted my teachers, my pastor, and most of all my parents.  They taught me from the time I could remember to trust and respect those in authority over us.  My parents were devoted Christian believers and read and lived by the scriptures from the Bible and the words of Christ. They taught me right from wrong.  I would not want to be raised any other way than I was.  I thank God for my parents. 

I remember at the age of four learning my first song.  

“Jesus loves me yes I know

for the Bible tells me so

little ones to him belong

they are weak but he is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me

For the Bible tells me so.”

How simple of a song, but so powerful the message the words will be later on in my life.  I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior at the age of six.  I fully understood at that age that Jesus died on the cross and then rose again so that I might be saved.  Salvation to me at this age was Jesus lived within my heart and would never leave me.  He loved me no matter what.  Someday, Jesus would come back and take me and others to heaven where we would live forever. 

King James Version (KJV) John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I believed that then, and I believe that now.  God does love us that much.  He never forsakes us but lives within our hearts from the time we asked him in.

       

From that time, I continued to grow in my understanding of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as any child of that age could.  I read my bible and learned my memory versus for the next time we went to Sunday school and church.  Even though I was a very quiet child, I would say my memory versus and would sing loudly on the songs.  I saw the world and its people as good, respectable, and with honor. 

As I got older, I graduated from Children’s Church and begin to sit in the main Sunday services.  It’s there that I learned more songs and scriptures from the Bible.  I could follow along in the hymnals even if I couldn’t sing the notes.  I couldn’t comprehend everything the pastor would preach and teach, but yet I still knew that Jesus lives within me. Life as a child was good. 

I enjoyed being alive.  I had an older brother, a sister, and a younger brother.  I had many neighborhood friends.  I could be happy playing with my siblings and other kids, or just as happy playing by myself.  I didn’t have fear of being child.  

I remember my Mother telling others of how I could play all day outside.  Yet, when it was time to come in for dinner, my clothes were still clean.  Unlike my older brother who was dirty from head to toe.  Mom use to say, “Kevin could play in the same dirt pile as Keith, but Kevin’s clothes looked like he just put them on”.   We as siblings still laugh about that today.  I’m thankful for growing up with brothers and a sister.  We all had the same teaching, values, and beliefs as taught by our Mother and Father.  Mom and Dad disciplined us when we needed it, but always told us how much they loved us. 

Also at this age, music, especially gospel music, was a big part of our family.  Dad played steel guitar and played on weekends for a southern gospel group.  We spent many weekends traveling to various churches and auditoriums where southern gospel groups would be in concert.  It became a staple part of my Christian walk.  I enjoy all types of music.  Though I now favor more of the modern gospel songs, I will forever love and remember the old hymns and southern gospel music.  Some of the most sacred words ever written to music are well over a hundred years old.  

From the age of four until ten years of age, these were the fun years.  I was a child who loved life and everything it was offering.  I remember riding my bike and singing the songs I learned in Children’s Church.  Life was fun and I wasn’t missing any of it.  Praying to God to help me be the very best kid I could be.  Help me with my homework.   Help me get a hit in my little league baseball game.  Help me mind and do what Mom and Dad tell me to do.  

It wasn’t a church that made me who I was.  Instead it was my own relationship that I formed with God through Jesus dying on the cross and his resurrection three days later for my salvation.  Not only did Jesus die on the cross and his blood covered my sins, but in doing so it opened the direct communication I can have with God himself.  As a child I learned who Jesus is.  I was taught through my parents and church, my relationship with my Heavenly Father started for me at a very young age. 

Dad had taken a new job position within the company he was working for and we moved to Iowa. 
The first Sunday after moving there, Mom and Dad set out to find the church that they wanted us as a family to attend.  We were blessed to find that church and attended the Sunday evening service.  Within moments of entering the building, we as a family were genuinely greeted with a heartfelt welcome by several of the ushers at the door.  We found a church pew about midway back from the pulpit.  Just like starting at a new school, so was starting a new church.  I was quiet and looking around as the church auditorium begun to fill up with people. 

The worship leader started the service with a hearty welcome.  He then lead the congregation in the opening of the worship service with an up tempo hymnal song.  The church people sang the songs that I was familiar with, but I chose at this time to just open the hymnal book at watch the people around me.  Being the kid I was, I also looked around to find other kids that were the same or about the same age as I.  What was very pleasing to the “new kid on the block” was that everyone in the service were really enjoying the worship time.  You could tell that they sang from the heart regardless of how they sounded.  They clapped their hands and raised their arms to praise our Heavenly father.

  

When I couldn’t think of words to say or some other means to convey what was on my heart and mind, a song would come to me.  After all, a song is a message, a form of communication, a feeling within me that needed or wanted to be expressed.  Worship service is vital to setting our spirits into the framework to receive God’s word.  One’s spirit has to be open and willing to receive the message that God wants us to hear.  In his word, it talks about “I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart and into his court with praise”.   

As time went on during this period I met new friends at school and church.  I was totally involved in our church and the activities for junior high age kids.  I was playing little league baseball during the summer, football in the fall, and basketball in the winter.  Even recently moving to a different state, life was good for me.  My conception of being a Christian and what that means I was living it at this age.    

To those of you who teach young children in our churches, Sunday Schools, and teenage ministries.  The times you think you are not making a difference.  I’m here today because of giving people and their love for children, teenagers and of God.  Those times you think what you are doing is a waste of time and effort.  It was people like you who planted those seeds that later kept me grounded in my beliefs.  Your ministry is what can start the change of one’s life even at a very early age.  Sometimes you may never see the fruits of your labor.  However, God knows and that is what his design was when he ask us to spread his word.   Don’t ever give up.