When I was young my parents made sure I knew the Gospel. I remember when I was six or seven walking after the milk cows (when they had good pasture they wouldn't come when you called them), I would talk to God about my every need or want. I wish I could have kept that child-like faith.

I was saved when I was nine years old while at a church camp. My Mom and Dad followed suit and was baptized when I was. I believe this was a genuine conversion, however, as I grew older I let sin and guilt separate me from the love and counsel of Christ's Word and His Spirit.

By young adult hood, I was a totally backslidden, self-serving man and completely separated from the love of Christ by my own wrong choices.

When I was twenty-one years old I met my life-long soul-mate and wife, Dorothy. By law, I was a man, and with the work ethics learned at an early age I was able and willing to make a good living. Dorothy had a pretty rough up-bringing and had made some bad choices, but at the time we met she was ready to settle down and wanted stability and a family. I believe she was as crazy about me as I was about her.

However, I continued to drink and even though I was prideful about never letting the drinking interfere with my work, it cause many problems in our marriage. In retrospect, if I had been half the man I should have been I would have been prideful and working harder at building a Godly marriage. It would have saved us a lot of heartache and sorrow.

Dorothy was saved and baptized when she was 29 years old. She had been through a lot of personal trauma from losing in her mother in a tragic way (Dorothy's testimony is on her site). I was so far removed from the Truth I was resentful and jealous that she needed anything I was not able to provide. Regrettably, I never set foot in the church where she was baptized. Her conversion was complete and I began to notice she was more patient with me in controlling her temper (not throwing things at me) and a whole lot smarter than I ever gave her credit for being. Her Bible, though only a few months old, looked like it was a hundred, and with very little formal education she could explain passages of Scripture I never understood.

About this time God's Spirit really began to work on me. I remember clearly one day driving along in my old pick-up truck, drinking a beer and cursing about something that had or hadn't happened, when out of the blue a strong inner voice stated that He had given me a Christian wife and what more did I want. Well, I sailed that brew right out of the pick-up window and shortly afterwards I was on my knees and on my way back to Jesus.

Thank God for His amazing grace and that His faithfulness is so much greater than ours... Amen.