High School, oh my....

I don't know if it's the will of God or not, but, it seems that the more men I engage with deeply as Believers, the wheels began to come off of their lives in High School or College.

I fell off of the rails in my Junior year of High School.
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Romans 3:10-12 English Standard Version (ESV)
as it is written:  “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

I had been a pretty good student and a not-s0-good athlete at Waltham High School in 1968. My family was very solid with the guidance of my Mom and Dad. Through Mom we had solid guidance for our lives as citizens with statements like; "Make sure your underwear is clean. You might have an accident and we don't want to be embarrassed." or words to that effect, and the ever so present, "Just wait until your Dad gets home." I'd have to wait numerous times until Dad got home and it usually wasn't very pleasant upon his arrival. Dad was quite the disciplinarian. You didn't want to have to wait until he got home, trust me. He had a very good focus on life; "Do unto others as you want them to do unto you." Solid stuff, right, but, it was normally followed by a "swift kick in the pants" or a number of "swats on the bottom" with an open hand that followed not paying attention to the first command. I received innumerable of those swats due to my combative nature.

Again, my real combativeness began my Junior year of High School. Early in that year, my friend, Mega and I decided we were going to raid the liquor cabinet in my home which was normally quite full. We chose a fancy looking bottle that was quite full, yet opened and proceeded to drink much of the bottle of Vermouth and, of course, became incredibly "loaded" that Friday afternoon.  I thought I could conceal it by adding water to the bottle, but, when the family got home and I was curled up in the corner of the kitchen surrounded by my own vomit, my Dad saw the real truth.  Let it be known that a "swift kick" would have been welcomed at that juncture, but several "swats" were the order of the day for that little indiscretion. Unfortunately, that foray led to a penchant for becoming inebriated on a regular basis each Friday afternoon. In fact as I look back on those times now, I believe i was an alcoholic from 1968 - 2009, but, the Lord protected me so much so that the regular intake of alcohol never became such a problem that my life was completely wrecked by it, but, surely it was impacted and I'm so thankful that He saw fit to free me from that, an d many other things, in July of 2009.

There were so many other instances in High School that were out of line for a Believer, but, what I've discovered was somewhat in line for the regular Joe in America going through High School. Was anyone righteous? "no one does good, not even one."

This behavior continued and, even, got worse as I'll confess in other chapters, but, God protected me for so long and I am so very grateful.

How about you?

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