I grew up going to church every Sunday, and that's where my spiritual journey started. From a very young age, I had an interest in God, even though I didn't truly understand who He was or what it meant to know Him.
My childhood was also very unstable in terms of where I lived. My father worked as an over-the-road truck driver for different periods throughout my childhood, which meant there were times when he would only be home for a couple of days to a week or two at a time before getting back on the road for months. I hated that so much because I was very close to my father. There were also multiple times throughout my childhood when he had local jobs and was home more consistently. Because his work situation changed at different points, I moved around a lot growing up and lived with multiple different family members. In total, I lived in about seven different states.
I remember wanting to receive my first water baptism when I was about eight years old. I was extremely excited because, in my young mind, I thought that once I was baptized, I would become completely sinless. I genuinely believed that I could go into the water as one person and come out never sinning again. Of course, I understand now that baptism doesn't work that way, but at the time, that was how I understood it.
After being baptized, I really did try my best to never sin again.
That most definitely didn't go well.
