Preacher's Slip...

You know how sometimes when you talk, you slip up and make a mistake? Sometimes you say the wrong day, month year. In some cases, you may forget the name of one of your best friends while she is sitting beside you. :) It takes a while to live that down. Well, this past Sunday I had one of those slips.

I was preaching for a small congregation who invited me to preach for them. I guess it is obvious they invited me, but I digress. This was the first time I had ever spoken in front of this congregation and as is my custom I like to give a little back ground about myself. It makes people more comfortable when they know something about you.

I start off with where I grew up, in a small town in Oklahoma. I was baptized at the age of 13 and preached my first full length gospel sermon at the age of 14. I mention what my formal education is and where I went to school and what my work experience is and what I do for a living. I spend about two minutes in a very short introduction. I never say the years that any of this occurs because one of two things happens. Either I say the wrong year or people try to figure out how old you are. This past Sunday, while I was giving my introduction I must have mentioned the year I was baptized along with my age. Well, let me say I mentioned a year. I didn't even realize I had given a year, but I had some confused people come up to me after the service. Some of them were very impressed with my accomplishments and experience at my age.

On Sunday I mentioned that I was baptized at the age of 13 in 2001. The I went on to college for a bachelors, Masters and currently on my Doctorate. On top of my education I mention that I have spent the last 10 years working in health care.

Have you done the math? If I have been working in health care for 10 years, that means I started in 2000. According to the year I was baptized I would have been 12. Prior to that, I completed my bachelor's degree, so I would have had to start college at the age of 8.

People always tell me I am smart. I didn't realize I was a child prodigy. For the record, I was not baptized in 2001. The year was actually much earlier than that, but that is what can happen with a single preacher's slip.