“My favorite bible story is the one about Elisha”, I smirked. “Elisha was God’s prophet and wandered in the wilderness preaching the Holy Word. He was a mean old cuss and bald headed. As he neared a town some of the children began following him and taunting him. ‘Baldy! Baldy’ they cried in mockery.
In his righteous anger and indignation he cursed them in the name of the Lord and a she bear came out of the woods and tore over forty of the scamps apart. It’s not nice to make fun of bald headed people.”
I was twelve years old and bored. Confirmation Class was a drag. None of the other kids seemed to know any bible stories at all and I had grown up with so many of them they didn’t mean much to me. I continued munching on some licorice. I had stolen the money from the offering box to buy the candy and was eating it in class. Obviously my conscience hadn’t kicked in yet. Nothing was bothering me.
If I was being kind of two faced, I felt the minister was as well. We weren’t getting the entire stories. He didn’t mention the first thing Noah’s daughters did after the flood was to get the old man drunk and have sex with him so they could replenish the human race.
In Sodom and Gomorah Lot offered his daughter to the mob if they would leave his paying visitors alone.
Did Jesus really claim that he was the reincarnation of Elijah? Did he really say, “Ye are all sons and daughters of God”?
I might not have had my conscience at age twelve but by age fourteen it caught up to me in spades. I had become so rotten that I could not stand myself or who I had become. What does it matter if God forgives when you can’t forgive yourself?
I lay in the dark crying and praying to God that I would never lie or steal again in my life. I vowed that I would live in a way that did not go against my conscience. To this day I have remained true to that vow. I may have followed many twisted paths but I’ve always believed in the still small voice of my conscience as the final judge. I’ve always remembered that I have to be able to live with myself or it means nothing.
For the following twenty years my nightly prayer would be,” Dear God, please guide me and strengthen me. Help me to understand the truth. If I am going in the wrong direction please forgive me and let me know so I can make things right.”






