My Story (part 1)

I thought it appropriate to tell a bit about how God has brought me to where I am. This was going to be my first post but I didn't finish my "story" and have dropped off from blog land for a year+. I will post my story in parts.

Part 1:

I grew up in a home with two parents who are believers and who failed to talk about the faith very much with me but did seek to live it out in the whole of life, though with many failures (much as I am struggling to model the whole-love in all-of-life faith to my children). I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, in Indianola, home of BB King, cotton, and catfish. This is an area steeped in tradition, known for its hospitality and hypocrisy. Most people that I knew growing up went to church but very few lived much different than if they would have never stepped in the doors of a church. Most people would avoid the biggie sins, at least in public, or at least outside certain parties, but almost no one lived as if their primary mission was to know God deeply and live for Him wholly. By the time I reached 7th grade, I gladly had become trained as a Pharisaical hypocrite, going to church and doing all the right things when others who would look down on me were watching, but with a hardening heart and one that longed more than anything else to be accepted by my peers and to indulge in anything that would bring me pleasure.