This is my post for #memoirmonday week 13 hosted by @ericvancewalton. Prompt How would you describe your faith journey?
When I was 7 years old my parents divorced and Dad got custody of all 5 of Mom's children, and he would not let her take us away from our home so we did not get to go to Church with her.
So as a child, I never went to Church, not one day. That does not mean that I did not have to listen to Church preachings. My Dad preached every day to anyone who would listen and even to the ones who did not want to listen to him. I was one of them, I do not remember when I started doing it but I think it was around 10 years old, he would start preaching and I learned how to tune him out, he could talk on and on and I had no clue as to what he was saying, which today I regret doing. I do remember him saying the Bible has been changed too much to believe what you read as the truth, like it was not an apple that Eve ate, he said apples had nothing to do with it, but I quit listening.
One day I asked him what religion we were, were we Baptist? He told me NO, you are a true Christian and then started in on telling me what a True Christian was, I let my mind go to other places, so don't ask me what a true Christian is.
He owned a bar at his campground and one day when my husband and I were in the ocean with our net overboard, we were tied up to another fisherman's boat, he was an older fisherman who knew my Dad and used to go to his bar. He started telling a story about my dad, he said one day he walked into the bar and my dad had a Bible in one hand and a shotgun in the other, he said he asked my dad what he was doing, and my Dad said I am preaching and they are listening.
My Dad preached to all the people who came to his campground. One time a musician named Dallas Frazier came to camp, I had no clue who he was, but Dad and him talked for all the days he camped. Then one day I heard this song on the radio, the man had wrote and sang a song about my Dad's preachings, I do not know the meaning behind it because I knew if I asked my Dad, I would be subject to hours of being preached. Now I regret not asking. The record was in the top 10 on the radio, this was in the 1960s, I want to say somewhere between 63 to 66 but I am not positive about that.
My Mom was raised Catholic but later imbraced all religions, the first time I went to a church was with her, I was in my 20s. I had heard of people jumping around in the Church but had never witnessed it until that day. I would not say that I was amused, I was amazed, I was in a Pentecostal Church. I was sitting there watching people throwing their hands in the air, people rolling on the floor, people jumping up and down, people saying words that I did not know, and then my little sister started, Mom said they were talking in Tongues. I had never heard this before but knew what it was and I had no clue as to what she was saying. Later I asked what she was saying and she said she did not know, she said the Holy Spirit had a hold on her.
My Mom never preached at me like I felt my Dad was doing, she always spoke in a way of giving love and receiving love from others. She would tell me if something was bothering me to open the Bible and I would find the answer on the page I opened. I thought this worked on some things but not all or maybe it works on all and I do not understand what I read or I was reading the wrong thing. I have not opened the Bible since she died. It was such a big part of her life and when I even look at it all I want to do is cry for her to still be here.
Me not going to Church and not listening to my Dad preach does not say that I do not believe, I do believe there is a God, and a Heaven and Hell. Do we go to one or the other when we pass on or do we live in Hell and go to Heaven when we die, this I do not know.
