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You know, it just seems to me that some are more ready to embrace the freedom Christ brings than other are.

To be total off topic, did you guys accept Him while in the military, or afterward? I had to go through some difficult times of my own making before I was ready for Him. I accepted about 7 years after I got out.

It was twice for me. Both times were on active duty but not because of my service. The first time I accepted Christ it was in conjunction with becoming a member of the denomination that "saved me". The second time, the only time that matters to me, I accepted Christ on my own and without the restrictions imposed by others.

This is off topic but something you might find interesting. It's an incident I think back on often.

I was on a flight once where I sat next to an engineer from JPL. I couldn't help but notice he was reading a report of a Mars lander project. I commented that his work must be interesting. He replied by telling me about his career and the many leading edge projects he had been involved with.

I was impressed and told him so. He took out his wallet and handed me a plastic laminate card; inside of it was a simple blade of grass. That was his anchor to reality. No matter how much he had accomplished, no matter what gains he had made, none of it compared to that blade of grass and the One who had made it. (

I carry my own blade of grass around with me today.

I excepted Christ about age 14 & fell away during my military time somewhat and a while after that. I didn't never believe I just didn't think on it and was busy being a typical stupid youth. There's an old saying if you want a mules attention you gotta smack them with a 2X4.

Some tragic and then life altering events brought me back. Not to a perfect walk by any means but neither would have I survived of my own strength and mind. I learned a couple of decades ago how GOD deals with us one on one. I was taught what adversity is, what tempering meant, and what faith can do to get you through it.

I know from experience if GOD had wanted me to produce a child it would have been so despite precautions taken not to especially in my second marriage. Now however I see he knew what awaited ahead for me and my wife. I helped her finish raising her two kids and fathered no kids myself.