Did you resent or enjoy church and/or Sunday school as a child?

[heartofmine]

I absolutely loved church and still do and attend every chance I can which is every Sunday morning and Sunday night with other services throughot the month. I can remember my very first Sunday School teacher Melvin. I was just little then at about 4. He was such a good teacher and was so good to us kids. A few years later we moved to another church and again I loved my teacher. Her name was Arzella. She was such a kind woman and answered all our inquisitive questions as best she could. My father was and is a Baptist minister and we moved every few years to a new church and I had a new teacher each time. There was a red headed guy named Robby and another lady but for the life of me her name escapes me. She had the most beautiful long brown hair.

I guess everyone has a different experience. I'm sorry to see so many didn't have a good one. I'm truly blessed with a wonderful church family. We've only ever had one bad experience in any church and that was years ago when I was a teen.

[pollypurebred39]

I totally LOVED IT! Went on the Sunday School bus. The college kids sang songs and got us kids all filled with the spirit before we hit the doors. Also went to church with my grandmother. Her service was far more subdued but I still got into it. Loved the singing, the pews, LOVED sitting next to my Grandmother smelling her Roses, Roses perfume and listening to her sing off key*GIGGLES* It's all a joyous noise to the Lord! Loved Christmas Eve candle light service. Even as a young child I knew there was something totally Holy about the whole thing even though I didn't understand what sacrifice the cross was.

Loved vacation Bible School under the big Willow tree in the meadow. Also lead by those college kids.

Loved that I grew up where what was preached was lived. Everyday! without fail. I pray that my husband and I live half as well as my example for our children.

I still love church to this day. But it is so much bigger to me now. The fellowship, the following of Christ, the laying my life down, it's so much bigger now.

[frugalnana]

I loved church and bible school and summer vacation bible school. I had allot of friends in the same church and we all usually were signed up for summer camp.

[Momof3girls]

I hated it!

[Telephus44]

Kind of ambivalent. I went through 8th grade, it was ok. Not great, but I didn't hate it. I went through and atheist period in high school afterwards and now I consider myself Wiccan, although DH, DS and I go as a family to a "post-denominational" church.

[rachelMcK]

My mom sent me to a "church group" when I was about 12 or 13. I didn't like it. The kids around me were fun, I went to school with most of them, their parents forced them to join too. I remember the leader was the pastor's wife (it was a "united church"). She was the most mean-spirited woman I've ever met. Everything to her was evil. (ever seen The Waterboy with Adam Sandler...think his mother...lol). I was playing magic cards oneday while we waited for the group to start (outside in the parking lot) and she saw them and flipped!! I needed holy water and some sort of prayer. She spent the rest of the 2 hours talking about how everything was evil. It was ridiculous. I ended up getting kicked out because I questioned everything she taught and made her cry out of frustration because she couldn't answer most of the questions. Needless to say, that was not the best time. I don't go to church now.

Sometimes though, I wish I had a more positive experience. I think I lack something spiritually, but I'm not sure.

[FrugalWitch]

I loved it. As a kid I had to go, no choice. By the time I was 13 and allowed a say-so in the matter I was hooked. Heck I was there every time the doors were open. Sunday School, Youth choir and GAs (Girls in Action) on Wednesday night. By 15 I was a Summer Camp counselor and also helping in the nursery on Sundays.

I stayed on some people's bad side for asking so many questions, but kept going anyway.

I changed to Methodist (had been a Baptist) when I was 18. Taught 4-5 year old Sunday School. (it was a very small church and they didn't care that I was rather young for the job)

By 22 I was out of church altogether and I'm now a Pagan.

The way I look at it, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit never once saved me when I was being molested by my step-father from ages 8-18. God didn't help when I got raped at gunpoint by a stranger when I was barely 16. Don't tell me "God works in mysterious ways" or "There's a reason for everything that happens" There is no reason for children to be sexually abused.

As for the sexual abuse, through the years I told 2 Sunday School teachers, the Youth Director, the Assistant Pastor and the Youth Choir Director. That was in addition to 3 different teachers at school and 4 relatives. Nobody would listen! Only when my step-father went from molestation to full-penetration rape did anyone listen. Having the police show up sure gets adult attention.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured someone would ask why I became a Pagan, so there you go.

[cab54]

FrugalWitch-----I had the same kind of stepdad from age 14-19. I had moved out on my own and then moved back in with my mom (and him) so I could afford college. Found out he'd made it all the way through 5 of us (including my brother!) and had progressed with my youngest sis. Not penetration, but progressed.....

I got into it with him (My mother had never HEARD such language coming out of my mouth) and told him to get the he!! out of what was our mother's home, and she had to divorce him after that. I had my bf (now dh) come over and stay for awhile, so he wouldn't try to get back in.

I am up in the air about Spiritual things. Don't know where I stand. That used to bother me (not having a mindset about God, church, religion...whatev) but it doesn't now. I have gone to the Cath. church up until about 8 years ago. Just too much my mind says or about.

So, in short, I can so understand your feelings.