Parents

As I was typing my last post (the one about influences) I thought to myself, "I should honor my parents by expanding my mention of their positive influence on my life."

So here I go:

I guess I will begin generally. I have never been arrested, I have never caused anyone to become pregnant, I am not addicted to smoking, drugs, excessige food or alchohol, pornography, masturbating, or anything else that I can think of, nor am I in great financial debt (i.e. I owe them some). So for starters, let me just say that my parents have not caused me to fall into many of the foolish habits that many parents introduce to their children.

I will continue discussing the negative side: As the movie Polyanna points out so explicitly, a person's bad points are easy to find. In a way I have often been unhappy with my homeschool pre-college education. When I become unhappy about this I remind myself that even though I had never had a day of formal high school instruction, I tested into college classes as a result of all three my community college's pre college tests: reading, writing, and mathematics. This is more than half the people taking the same tests can do. This was a direct result of my parents teaching.

It is quite possible that my dad had a strong influence on my decision to become an engineer. He became a mechanical engineer after attending a community college and the University of Washington. I am about to become a civil engineer after attending Everett Community College and Washington State University.

I just realized that my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Bible Quizzing program was a result of my mother's influence. When I was entering the eighth grade my mother told me that I should begin Bible Quizzing. I did not want to begin Bible Quizzing and my dad said that I was learning enough Bible from Awana, but it was decided that I had to try it for a year. After attending my first quiz meet, I determined to continue Bible Quizzing until I had to stop at the end of high school.

It is because of my father's instruction that I received real teaching from real teachers at a community college before spending loads of money at a four year university. My father received the same instruction from his step dad and I have seen second hand the discouraging consequences of attending a four year university engineering department straight out of high school.

Come to think of it, my mother's father is indirectly responsible for my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses because he led my mother in Bible Quizzing when they were both younger than they are now.

I don't really know how to end this. Perhaps by saying that instruction has saved me a lot of trouble.

Proverbs 4:13
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

NIV