My first experience of Christianity was at the Church of England primary school I attended in West Cumbria. Bible stories were occasionally taught at school, and we would go to the local Anglican church for certain events. I don't have much memory of them and still had never truly heard or understood the gospel – the essential message of the Bible which shows us how to be forgiven for our sins and granted eternal life by God.
However, I do distinctly remember a lesson at school where our task was to learn and write down the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6. It became something I would recite most nights for the rest of my life, but I was kidding myself that I was already accepted and reconciled to God. He was certainly not my own 'Father who art in heaven' at this point.
