Did this prayer save me?  I don’t believe that it is the prayer that saves you.  In reality, my belief in Christ before that prayer might have already saved me, or it could have come later in the story.  It was at that time, however, that I decided that I would live a life for Christ.

In 7th grade my parents believed that it would be in my best educational interest to go to the local public school.  My talents in computer science were not growing in the private school, and they believed that a public school would afford more opportunities.

It was there that I encountered the first taste of what life in the blogosphere would be like.  My years in public school started out with mocking and ridicule– not as much for what I believed, but because I was different.  Different in dress, different in what I brought my lunch to school in, and yes, different because of what I believed.

I had lunchtime discussions with Catholics and Jehovah Witnesses where we talked the differences of the Apocrypha and the JW Bible.  I debated in an open forum whether or not homosexuality was something right or wrong.  I ran for student government– and lost (even though I wrote and ran the voting system!).  I took a stand for student’s rights that was mocked because the students didn’t know the law.

However, by the end of my high school years there was a change– a respect.  People understood that I was one of the few that would say what he believed, unashamed, and that there was something different about a kid that wouldn’t bow to peer pressure.