What was Bill Johnson like as a kid? Bill shares about his dreams and interests as a child, and what is possible with God when we steward a heart of tenderness towards Him.

as a child

what did you read uh what did you you

know what were you exposed to

uh that has been formative for you

uh maybe your you know childhood maybe

your adolescent years that you would

feel like

all right these should be good things to

expose your kids to or i hated to read

yeah don’t tell that that’s just

internet we’re sorry

that’s horrible i read what books have

you written i read

i read one book

until i was probably 18. yeah one book

in the eighth grade is a book about a

hot rod

can’t can’t brag much on that one no he

shouldn’t yeah

it was it was horrible i hated to read

it i hated to read i had to write i

wasn’t good and so the moral is if you

want to turn out like bill johnson

do not yeah yeah don’t read don’t write

don’t run

i’m i’m not a good example to follow

yeah

grace it’s the grace of the lord that’s

the truth that’s totally the truth

but it’s yeah you know i just didn’t i

didn’t read i didn’t i didn’t enjoy that

i

i uh i liked sports i played baseball

that’s what i did yeah

played baseball but raising the church i

mean any anybody raised in us

in a somewhat healthy church is

surrounded by

adults who are of course are fun to be

with who they have an interaction with

each other you see

very real quality of relationship yeah

yeah you see real people that pay a real

price to love god and you always have

that example and

you know being loved while at home you

know parents that believe in you that

you can do anything

i i wasn’t you know i i wasn’t good at

the at the school stuff the book stuff i

mean my grades were fine i got good

grades but

but i i would never say i was a great

student just by the the way that i

i did things you know i could cram

before a test and do well but

i wouldn’t remember the next day you

know just long enough to take the test

but um uh so i i wasn’t good in that

sense but i i did have it i always had a

tender heart

you know always had a tender and i think

it was just let’s just be raised in that

environment you know you

you want to go to heaven period that’s

what it comes down to

and i always had this this tender heart

and even in days where i wasn’t doing

real well

there was i would just i would never

miss church i’d weep at this

and pray at that and it was it was just

i didn’t i didn’t know how to do life

you know

you know at the age of 19 i just didn’t

know how to do life i didn’t know what i

was going to do with my life and

you know i just wanted to play

professional ball or coach you know

that’s all i wanted to do

and uh and so i didn’t want to talk in

front of people that’s for sure

and i didn’t want to do anything that

required writing or reading or any of

that stuff and i mean this is pitiful

but

that’s my life right now is all the

stuff i don’t have to do

it’s divine humor but but in

at least in my heart i know i know what

i’m capable of and i know what i’m not

capable of

and so i i live with the realization

this one’s grace

wow yeah there’s a story just about

talking in front of people that you

you took an f on a oral

report yeah you were spontaneous

speaking or something like that or yeah

i said i didn’t have much college i did

go to college some i have i think 30

units or something like that

but it was in some sort of a i figured

it was i think a history class

here at shasta college and uh they were

doing an exam oral question and they

asked me the question and i just

i passed i thought i knew the answer but

i thought i’d rather take an f

so i did i didn’t want to answer from my

maybe be wrong or speak

yeah i didn’t want to speak out loud in

front of the class it wasn’t going in

front of the class giving a speech

no it was just giving a one sentence

answer but i just i didn’t want to do

that so

yeah i’ll take the f

if i remember right i think i have it

right if i remember right

what i thought was the answer was the

answer too but i yeah

i just i didn’t care he didn’t care i

just i just didn’t want to speak i

didn’t want to talk in front of anyone

yeah so the home body who doesn’t like

to speak publicly is going around the

world

yeah yeah yeah three times yeah rub it

in would you no no it’s the lord’s

memories

it is it totally is i mean uh i’m aware

of that one

yeah yeah so i i didn’t i didn’t read

much my activity was

was just mostly with sports with friends

and

you know things like that things with

the family

my parents were you know my dad would

play

catch with me and yeah yeah things like

that it was pretty simple