Billy Graham

In my family we got up in the mornings around three o’clock and went out to the barns to bring the cows in and milk. In high school I milked about twenty cows every morning and about twenty in the afternoon when I got home. I have wonderful memories from those early days when my parent’s influence was so strong.

The thing that I remember the most in my childhood was the love of family and the discipline in the family. My father and mother both were disciplinarians, and they didn’t mind using the rod. Maybe because I was the oldest child I always felt I got much more of it than anybody else.

I’d grown up in a Presbyterian church, but I really didn’t know Christ personally in my heart. I knew him, but I didn’t know him. And there’s a difference between an intellectual faith and a personal, heart faith in which I opened my heart to him and let him rule my life.

I’m not a righteous man. People put me up on a pedestal that I don’t belong in my personal life. And they think that I’m better than I am. I’m not the good man that people think I am. Newspapers and magazines and television have made me out to be a saint. I’m not. I’m not a Mother Teresa. And I feel that very much.

The farther we get from God, the more the world spirals out of control. My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the lone world superpower-wealthy, unconcerned, and self-centered. When the Prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, people heard and repented. I believe the same thing can happen once again, this time in our nation. It’s something I long for.

After I graduated from high school, one of the former workers on our farm asked if I would be willing to join him in selling Fuller brushes through the summer. It seemed like a perfect way to make some money for college. And being away from my parents and learning to make my own way gave me self confidence.