I was saved (accepted Jesus as my personal savior) as a child after my grandmother passed away. I have always believed in the consequences of sin. As a child, I went to church and Sunday school on my own as my folks didn't have time for it. They didn't mind me going either, got them off the hook for teaching morals, I think. 

In high school, I became associated with drugs, alcohol, and sex (usually together) and any way to obtain drugs, alcohol, and sex. I like to say that at age 13  I snuck into the liquor cabinet and didn't come out until I was 34. Although I did relatively well in high school, I spent a lot of my time working to get money to fill my desires of sex, drugs, and alcohol. 

I bought my first motorcycle when I was 14 because:

 1. I liked to live dangerously (I thought I was invincible)

2. Chicks liked bikes (or guys with bikes)

3. Easier to get away to acquire or use drugs/alcohol. 

I enlisted in the Air Force not long after graduation to escape the mess I had been making throughout high school due to drugs, alcohol, and sex (generally partying when not working). Then the real debauchery began. Booze was cheap and legal and women were just as eager for sex, especially if you had a job, a car, and a motorcycle! *****Okay - time to stop glamorizing . . . because every time I got loaded I didn't end up in the emergency room or police station but every time I ended up in an emergency room or police station I was loaded.***** 

After four years of partying while "serving my country", I was discharged from the Air Force and went to college to major in advanced partying . . . I was usually loaded in class as well as out of class but not at work (yes, I worked because the crime didn't suit me . . . still believed in consequences for sinning but didn't consider womanizing and partying a sin, yet). I got a job, got married, had kids. But partying was beginning to wear on my conscience. 

At about age 30 this conscience thing really began to bother me so, like any self-absorbed pseudo-intellectual, I set out to disprove God's existence to ease my conscience and justify my desire to use drugs and alcohol. Here I must add that I knew wanton sex was morally wrong but alcohol blocked all my inhibitions (wink, wink). So I started researching literature on all the world's wisdom, religions (ancient and new age), philosophies, atheism, you name it . . . but when I came to the same conclusion over and over that some "grand designer" existed, God said, "Bob, check this out." It was as if God Himself was leading me through the process of elimination of escaping His truth and existence! 

I stepped into the halls of AA in 1988, made a conscious decision (commitment) to turn my life and will over to the care of God as I understood Him - believe me, by now I was really beginning to understand Him, His love, and His plan for me and His children - and my life has been one exhilarating experience ever since. After I quit drinking I had one "slip" at nine and a half years of sobriety, but that is a story in itself.  After this one drink (I chugged a fifth of Stoly) is when I finally got real with my Savior, Jesus Christ! Since then I have suited up in the full armor of God and associated with like-minded men ready for the real battle. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that longs for You.