As small kids my sisters and I felt like our family was the "worldly" family. We did not really fit in with most of the other members of the church, nor did we put much effort into it. There were about 3 other families that we felt were pretty normal. I think they all joined the church about a year or so before our family. We dressed in what we felt were normal clothes, we wore tank tops and shorts as weather approved, we acted like normal kids, and we had a happy family. I don't think that our family stood out as different from society, aside from the fact that our "Aunts" and "Cousins" lived with us. We were normal, but a bit sheltered from the world.
I am sure we labeled ourselves, but that's how we felt. Many of the other church members lived away from civilization out in the boonies in double wide trailers, without landscape, using a septic tank, and a one large water tank for all to share. A big dirty mess from my point of view. I am guessing their families were "called" to live out there. At least they had a very nice, hardly used, play set. God bless them for having faith and doing what they were told God wanted them to do (though a self appointed Profit of this church), while my dad's calling was to be a missionary for the church (I think). I was young and I know my dad worked, but it was never clear what he did. Either way, I was perfectly happy living within 10 minutes of a store and feeling normal, even though we all knew we had a little secret that others wouldn't understand.
As the worldly family, or worldly kids we were, I think some kids were told not to play with us, by all means we might rub off on them. I don't know what we did, but I wasn't really concerned about it either way. I liked my life just the way it was. We had a good family, that did a lot together, and we enjoyed being around each other which is more than a lot of families can say. Family reunions were, and still are fun with no drama. Worldly or not we are a good family.
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