Did your parent's teach you about God?

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Fenner

Fenner

Senior Member
#1
Jan 26, 2013
7,507
111
0
#1
I'm sure this has been asked before but I'm curious.

My parent's belived in God, my Dad was Catholic and my Mom Baptist. Odd combination in most world's but it wasn't an issue in our house because we didn't discuss religion or God much. We did attend Catholic Mass and all of us were baptized and had 1st holy communion.

It's kind of odd when you don't discuss church much and you go to church and your expected to know things. I was always afraid of God when I was a child, I guess he.was like the big unknown to me and he spoke a lot of Latin. Then my Dad died and my Mom took me to a Baptist church. I then learned that I was a heathen and I was going to hell, at least that's how I felt while I was there.

I got married to a man whose parents never talked about God or went to.church or anything, so we started going to the Presbyterian church. We've been Presbyterian for 18 year's. Our kids have only known one church and I'm their Sunday school teacher.

I 've always felt that those with a religious upbringing were lucky, for.the most part.

How did your parent's teach you about God?

By the way I love my parent's and they are/were good people. I'm also.on my phone sorry for any typos.
 
jsr1221

jsr1221

Senior Member
#2
Jul 7, 2013
4,265
77
48
#2
Fenner said:
I'm sure this has been asked before but I'm curious.

My parent's belived in God, my Dad was Catholic and my Mom Baptist. Odd combination in most world's but it wasn't an issue in our house because we didn't discuss religion or God much. We did attend Catholic Mass and all of us were baptized and had 1st holy communion.

It's kind of odd when you don't discuss church much and you go to church and your expected to know things. I was always afraid of God when I was a child, I guess he.was like the big unknown to me and he spoke a lot of Latin. Then my Dad died and my Mom took me to a Baptist church. I then learned that I was a heathen and I was going to hell, at least that's how I felt while I was there.

I got married to a man whose parents never talked about God or went to.church or anything, so we started going to the Presbyterian church. We've been Presbyterian for 18 year's. Our kids have only known one church and I'm their Sunday school teacher.

I 've always felt that those with a religious upbringing were lucky, for.the most part.

How did your parent's teach you about God?

By the way I love my parent's and they are/were good people. I'm also.on my phone sorry for any typos.
Click to expand...
My mom and step dad hated each other. They spent more time fighting than they did paying any attention to me, my step sister, and step brother. And even my sister, to a degree, even though they met when my sister was a teenager. It probably isn't healthy, but I've had to block a lot of my childhood out. Any learning about God had to come through my own doing.
 
Fenner

Fenner

Senior Member
#3
Jan 26, 2013
7,507
111
0
#3
jsr1221 said:
My mom and step dad hated each other. They spent more time fighting than they did paying any attention to me, my step sister, and step brother. And even my sister, to a degree, even though they met when my sister was a teenager. It probably isn't healthy, but I've had to block a lot of my childhood out. Any learning about God had to come through my own doing.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry Jer.
 
melita916

melita916

Senior Member
#4
Aug 12, 2011
10,418
2,660
113
#4
i had the blessing of growing up in a christian home. and i'm very grateful for it. we were one of those families who were in church all.the.time! lol there was no skipping any service unless we were sick. even on vacation (out of town), we would find a church to go to on sundays :)

my parents read the bible to me. told me the stories. had me memorize bible verses. prayed with me. i took all of this for granted until i was an adult. i thank God for my parents being faithful to Him and showing that faithfulness to us. :)
 
blue_ladybug

blue_ladybug

Senior Member
#5
Feb 21, 2014
70,869
9,601
113
#5
from the time I was very little, I went to Sunday school/ church with my parents each week. I've always believed in God. I went to a christian high school, where we had chapel once a week. One of the teachers there was/ still is a pastor. I have to credit my mom for always encouraging me to look to Jesus in hard times, and she also instilled her belief of angels in me also. They are all around us, and I'm sure if the veil was taken off our eyes, we would see angels (and probably demons) all around us. :) My dad also still encourages me to look to Jesus. Back in 2010, when I first found out I had uterine cancer, I didn't know how to tell my family. I was going shopping with my mom that day, and I was waiting for her to come get me. The doctor called me just before she arrived, and bluntly told me on the phone, "you have cancer." I hung up the phone and started bawling. Then my mom came and I got in the car and she asked me how I was and I started bawling again and told her I had cancer. I told her not to tell my dad because I wanted to tell him myself..anyways he brought me back home from shopping because he had met us at the store.

When we got back to my house, I told him I had cancer. I have a picture of Jesus on my fridge and my dad looked at it and said, "do you believe in him"? I said yes, and he said, "then trust him to get you through this." :) So my parents are a big part of why my faith is so strong today. :)
 
jsr1221

jsr1221

Senior Member
#6
Jul 7, 2013
4,265
77
48
#6
Fenner said:
I'm sorry Jer.
Click to expand...
It's okay. Nothing to be sorry about. God uses situations and people differently. He decided to use me for that experience. A lot of people have it rougher than that.
 
Grace-Like-Rain

Grace-Like-Rain

Senior Member
#7
Sep 6, 2013
4,430
117
63
#7
I was raised in church, and my parents did talk about God with me in casual conversation, and we prayed at meals together. I feel like my mother especially taught me what it was to love God, but we did not do family devotions or Bible reading together, nor did we pray together as a family outside of mealtimes. I wish we had done those things, so that now it would be a little easier for me to continue the example for my kids, but I definitely feel that I was raised in a Christian home regardless.
 
jsr1221

jsr1221

Senior Member
#8
Jul 7, 2013
4,265
77
48
#8
blue_ladybug said:
from the time I was very little, I went to Sunday school/ church with my parents each week. I've always believed in God. I went to a christian high school, where we had chapel once a week. One of the teachers there was/ still is a pastor. I have to credit my mom for always encouraging me to look to Jesus in hard times, and she also instilled her belief of angels in me also. They are all around us, and I'm sure if the veil was taken off our eyes, we would see angels (and probably demons) all around us. :) My dad also still encourages me to look to Jesus. Back in 2010, when I first found out I had uterine cancer, I didn't know how to tell my family. I was going shopping with my mom that day, and I was waiting for her to come get me. The doctor called me just before she arrived, and bluntly told me on the phone, "you have cancer." I hung up the phone and started bawling. Then my mom came and I got in the car and she asked me how I was and I started bawling again and told her I had cancer. I told her not to tell my dad because I wanted to tell him myself..anyways he brought me back home from shopping because he had met us at the store.

When we got back to my house, I told him I had cancer. I have a picture of Jesus on my fridge and my dad looked at it and said, "do you believe in him"? I said yes, and he said, "then trust him to get you through this." :) So my parents are a big part of why my faith is so strong today. :)
Click to expand...
I went to a Christian college and we had chapel once a week. Students were fighting (not physically punching. More like nudging to get in seats) because they would wait til the end of the semesters to get all their credits. It was more about getting that chapel credit for them than it was hearing the sermons. It was disappointing to see, really.
 
melita916

melita916

Senior Member
#9
Aug 12, 2011
10,418
2,660
113
#9
thanks to my parents, i was the kid who answered ALL the questions in sunday school class. you know which one i'm talking about... the one who... could be annoying. lol :)
 
p_rehbein

p_rehbein

Senior Member
#10
Sep 4, 2013
30,193
6,536
113
#10
Did your parent's teach you about God?

Yes...........
 
S

Siberian_Khatru

Guest
#11
#11
A bit. They didn't know a whole lot until I was much older, by which point I was on my own path. They certainly introduced me to God, at least.
 
C

cmarieh

Guest
#12
#12
I am very blessed because both my parents raised my sister and I in the admonition of the Lord. My grandma founded and ran a Christian organization that blessed many families that struggled putting food on their table and so we volunteered and learned God's love and how to show it from an early age. Because of this we saw many receive Christ through this organization. My mom taught in Sunday School and every morning while we were eating our breakfast before the school bus came she would read us the bible. My desire is to one day to have that same opportunity when I have kids.:)
 
M

MissCris

Guest
#13
#13
Growing up, I think we heard far more about conservative values and politics than we did about God, but my mom did make sure we all went to Sunday school from an early age (even though she didn't take us or attend church herself, but sent us with our grandparents).

Once in in a great while, though, she would have a reason to talk about God and faith and angels and the Bible with us...those times are some of my best childhood memories. I remember once hearing her talk about how very poor we were, and how she often prayed that us kids would somehow be taken care of...and how during the roughest times, she'd get an unexpected check in the mail, from her parents or else some job she'd had. Another time, shortly after she divorced my dad, she met a group of traveling hippies at the park we lived next to. She sat and talked with them all day, and later said she felt so at peace and refreshed (I don't think it was drugs...lol?) that she honestly believed they were angels, that God had known how badly she needed comfort and strength. I think it more likely that God was just working through some random, friendly nomads...but that story, that glimpse of my mother's faith...it's really stuck with me all these years.

So, yeah, we didn't sit and pray together or read the Bible, but we learned about God nonetheless :)
 
P

psychomom

Guest
#14
#14
my folks stopped attending church when i was about 7,
but my dad taught me a lot about God.
and he never said a word. he just lived it in front of me.

i miss that guy.
 
P

psychomom

Guest
#15
#15
Cris---'random, friendly nomads'--is awesome.
can i use that? :)
 
zeroturbulence

zeroturbulence

Senior Member
#17
Aug 2, 2009
24,580
4,268
113
#17
When I was little my parents took us to church every sunday and we had to be on time and well dressed. They also enrolled me in sunday school which I attended until I became a teen (if I remember correctly). Anyway, sunday school taught me that Jesus was a pretty cool guy and I wanted to be good like him.. but then came adulthood... I became agnostic and looked upon all religions as false man-made doctrines (including christianity). I kind of hit rock bottom around 2005 and that's when I remembered what I learned in sunday school and decided to give Jesus another try..
 
Lynx

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
#18
Aug 13, 2014
24,905
8,162
113
#18
Quote from a christian comedian named Broderick Rice: "We kids weren't psychic, but we knew were we were going to be on Sunday years in advance. Someone ask us "You wanna go to this concert?" Nope, can't go. "But it's three months away..." I know, but sorry, can't go. "Where you gonna be?" ALJC, TBL, New Life, whatever, we knew we were gonna be somewhere at church."

For myself my parents raised me in a pentecostal church. That stuff you hear about shouting, running the aisles, all that worship stuff that people think is crazy? That was our church. Still is my church, I'm a minor minister there. I sure am glad I was raised with something that worked instead of trying all the world's ways that don't work that a lot of people try first. I got saved a lot of grief by being brought up in church.
 
Willie-T

Willie-T

Banned
#19
Feb 7, 2015
22,418
413
0
#19
No, but my grandmother dragged me to Sunday School every week. Thankfully, I've just about finally "unlearned" most of the more damaging things, and have learned who Jesus is.
 
seoulsearch

seoulsearch

OutWrite Trouble
#20
May 23, 2009
14,943
4,584
113
#20
Hi Fenner, what an awesome question!

My parents had me in church the first Sunday after they adopted me and had me baptized not long after that (in my adult years, I chose to be baptized again at another church as my own decision.)

Like Melita, I was the kid who went to every Sunday School, Vacation Bible School... Sunday Vacation Bible School :D there was at our church, along with going to a Christian school from k-12th grades. Church was mandatory if you lived in my parent's house, and we went to the 8 AM service. My parents read devotions, regularly prayed with us... and as an adult my Dad became an ordained minister. I always thank him for waiting until I was grown up because I know I would have gone crazy as a pastor's kid under people's unrealistic expectations (which I saw being pushed on the teacher's and pastor's kids at my Christian school.)

Can I say it was all roses and sunshine? NO way. I've always described my faith as "messy"--meaning, it has a lot of ups and downs and back and forths. For a lot of people, it would have been overkill and driven them from the church (as I've seen it do for some, and did for me as well for a while. In college I stopped going to church for maybe a year.)

But I'm always grateful for that background because as I started to encounter some things in life, I know I would have gone off the deep end without it, or at least walked away without ever coming back.

Proverbs 22:6 has been pretty true for me: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," though of course, like most people, I've had a few detours.
 
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