I was never raised to believe in God. Then again, I wasn't raised to not to believe in Him either. In my house God was just not talked about. We weren't necessarily avoiding the subject; it just never occurred to anyone to bring it up, sort of like a relative you've always known you had but never met. But, like that mystery relative, I always knew He was there. I just hadn't figured out a way to get in touch with Him. In fact, I never even realized I could get in touch with him.

I was born in January 1965, in Highland Park, Michigan, just outside Detroit. I am the oldest of four boys, which is great except for the fact that being the first one out of the womb, I was named after my father. Want to know what he named me?

Elmer.

Yep. My full, given birth name is Elmer Earl Hartman ... the fourth. It's a family name that was handed down for three generations before I got stuck with it. But even though my parents stuck me with that name, they bailed me out by giving me the nickname Butch, which isn't much better but it sure generates fewer jokes on the first day of school. I've gone by the name Butch ever since I can remember.

"You should be proud of the name Elmer, son," my dad would say. "Don't be embarrassed by it." Of course, my dad, also named Elmer, goes by his middle name of Earl, so I guess he's not as eager to shout it from the rooftops as he says he is. But, hey, mine is not to reason why.

I was born when my parents were still very young. My father was twenty and my mother was eighteen. Even in those days, having a child that early was not necessarily the norm. As a father myself, I have two beautiful daughters, ages eight and six. I find that, even though I'm thirty-nine and think of myself as pretty mature, being a parent is a major challenge. I can only imagine the difficulties I would have encountered had I been twenty years old. At that age, you're still a kid yourself. Forget about raising kids! Yet, there my parents were, young, poor, immature and having kids. By the time my father was twenty-six and my mother was twenty-four, they had four boys on their hands and some major difficulties ahead, not to mention the difficulties my brothers and I would face.

What I remember most about growing up is that my house was full of turmoil and anger - not enough money, not enough trust, and especially, not enough love. There was so much anger, in fact, that my parents divorced by the time I was nine. Four young boys, divorced parents, no money and a broken home. Not the ideal environment, to say the least.

Usually in a divorce the mother raises the children. Not in my case. My mother wasn't ready to take on the responsibility of raising four kids on her own, so my father was entrusted with our care. He was, and still is, a very loving guy, but his anger and frustration at my mother, his situation and the world dominated every aspect of our upbringing. No one was to be trusted. Everyone else was wrong. Someone else was to blame. This is what I observed every day. And, because my mother had not been able to care for us, or "hold up her end of the bargain," my father's anger toward her increased even more. This anger eventually trickled down to us kids. We not only had to avoid my father’s anger, but we would take our own anger out on each other. As a result, we all grew rather distant from each other.

Don't get me wrong; my father is a very hard-working guy. He always put food on the table, and a roof over our heads. But because he was so angry, things seemed to be a lot more difficult than they had to be. Because of what I was to witness in my home, anger and mistrust became the dominant emotions in my life. And, because of the unstable home life, I also became burdened with a giant amount of insecurity. I was never sure if things were going to get better or worse from one day to the next.

Fortunately, even though I still hadn't allowed God into my life at this point, He had already blessed me with a very special gift - the gift of artistic ability. I have been an artist all my life, a cartoonist, specifically. As far back as I can remember I've been drawing cartoons. As a child, it was my way of getting attention from adults and other kids. As an adult, it’s how I've made my living for the past twenty years. Cartoons, comic strips, comic books and movies have been my major passions. They were my way of escaping the angry environment in which I lived. I always knew that I would spend my life pursuing one or all of these interests.

When I was eighteen, I moved to California and enrolled in the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia to study character animation. Going to Cal Arts, which was founded by Walt Disney, seemed to be my best opportunity to land a job in the animation business, especially a job at Walt Disney Studios. Moving to the West Coast was quite a big move for me, but I wanted to pursue my art and get as far away as possible from the angry environment in which I had been raised. Though I didn't know it at the time, I was not only leaving to go to school, I was also searching for a sense of peace.

The odd thing is, even though I was raised around anger, I never considered myself an angry person. In fact, I was told over and over how funny, nice and kind I was. But that wasn’t the real me. That was just the front I had put up all those years. Inside, I was extremely angry, angry at my parents, angry at the environment in which I grew up, angry at how all the grown-ups in my life seemed to behave more like children than adults. My “front" - the overly nice facade that everyone saw - was the emotional crutch I clung to in order to keep myself from exploding.

I wouldn’t express how angry I was. I didn't want to be like the people who raised me, emotionally anyway. Sure, I had outbursts (bad ones), but nothing I thought was too serious. So, rather than get rid of the anger altogether, I held it down. But, still, the sense of peace wasn't coming.

Holding down anger isn't easy. Imagine holding a beach ball at the bottom of a pool. The second you let it go, it shoots out of the water. That's how it was for me. I did everything I could to hold the anger down, but nothing seemed to work. In my younger days I used alcohol and drugs to suppress it. I thought I was just partying with my pals, but in reality, I was running from a major emotional problem I needed to deal with.

My life was far from peaceful.

I also started pursuing a career in acting. Being in L.A., it seemed to be a natural thing to do. But, I was so dishonest in dealing with my own emotions on a daily basis, that it was nearly impossible for me to access a true emotion for an audition.

Needless to say, the acting jobs came few and far between.

After getting married in 1992, my wife started suggesting we go to church. I had never gone to church and had no interest in starting. I had been out of school for a few years and had been working pretty steadily in the animation business. I had an acting agent and was auditioning, so to me things seemed to be going pretty well. I didn't think I needed church. To me, church was a place you went to show your respect for a specific religion, kind of like a big club. I mean, each church has a different name, a different denomination, and different rules, just like a club. And that always made me feel uncomfortable. If I didn't know the rules of the club, I didn't want to play.

Also, going to church forces you to be honest with yourself and with God, and I wasn't anywhere near ready to do that. But to keep the peace and be a good husband, I went with her from church to church to church.

Searching.

Through all this searching, all I found out was this: in the wrong hands, church can be really boring. No matter where we went, the pastors either loved to hear themselves talk (mostly about themselves) or every Sunday was "band day," where the church band would play songs for most of the service, leaving very little if any time for the Word. Though I didn't know it at the time, this was the devil trying to discourage me. He knew I was headed straight for Jesus. I just didn't know it yet.

And how could I know it at that point? In all my visits to churches, it had never been explained to me that church was actually supposed to help you in life. It was never explained to me that church was God's way of getting his message to His people. I was never taught that I was God's child and that God wants the best for His children. I was never taught that, through His Son, Jesus Christ, I could ultimately achieve that sense of peace for which I had been searching.

This made me even angrier!

How could all these people sit through this boring, boring, boring stuff?

But, my wife kept dragging me, so I kept going and kept my mouth shut, suppressing the anger.

Work, however, was going well, mostly because I had very strong faith, not in God but in myself. That’s the way I was used to working. I was a very world-oriented person. I believed what I saw and nothing more. I took what the world handed me and dealt with it in a worldly way, just as I had been trained to do. God had no place in my life.

It wasn’t until I first went to Crenshaw Christian Center in August of 1999 and heard the teaching of Dr. Frederick K.C. Price that I realized how wrong I was. He didn’t just talk about the Bible and read a few passages from it. He didn't let the band play for two hours then bless us all and tell us to be on our way. He actually taught the Bible, how to study it, how to read it for ourselves, how to take the living Word of God and apply it to our lives on a daily basis. And, most importantly, he showed us how Jesus Christ was revealed on every page. And how, through Jesus Christ and His teachings, I didn’t have to be angry anymore.

I didn’t have to be doubtful anymore.

I didn’t have to be fearful anymore.

And, most importantly, I could finally have the peace I was so desperately seeking.

These are the greatest things anyone has ever taught me.

I had always believed in Jesus, but never really understood Him - the walking on water, the healings, the last supper, the cross, etc. All these things I had heard about but never really gave much thought to. I had always looked at these Bible stories as quaint old legends that, if need be, could give people a quick pick-me-up and perhaps offer them a guideline on how to be a better person, but nothing more. I guess I looked at the Bible as just another self-help book. How wrong I was!

Jesus died for me so that I might live.

He came so that I could have life and have it more abundantly.

He came so I could have joy.

Jesus did all these things for me, but I never understood.

But Dr. Price made me understand.

It was Dr. Price who ignited in me a thirst for knowledge - biblical knowledge. I had already had enough of the world’s knowledge. Every single person I knew was in the same boat as I was - angry, worried, fearful, scared of their own shadow, but trying to put on a brave face. They couldn’t help me.

But Jesus could.

He said, “which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:27). The Bible says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). “… if you have faith do not doubt…” (Matthew 21:21). There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…, etc. (1 John 4:18). The list goes on and on.

Dr. Price taught me what Jesus wanted for my life. He taught me that Jesus loves me. He taught me what Jesus’ message is.

His message is love and not fear.

His message is love and not doubt.

His message is love and not anger.

His message is peace.

1 Peter 5:7 says, Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

That's the first thing I did! Every care in the world went onto Jesus - doubt, insecurity, fear, anger - all on Him. He said it, so I did it.

And you know what? It worked.

Every time any one of these emotions tries to rear its ugly head, onto Jesus it goes. I find myself much happier and much more patient with people.

And anger-free.

Oh, sure, there are moments when anger comes up. I’m human. How could it not? But I give it to Jesus now, and He takes care of it. He's much better at dealing with it than I am.

My wife and I quickly made Crenshaw Christian Center our spiritual home. I didn't even own a Bible when I first walked in the door. Now I have about five of them, all marked up with notes. We have seen to it that nearly everyone we care about has been exposed to Dr. Price and the spiritual family at Crenshaw. We have been attending and tithing for nearly five years now and do not ever intend to stop. My wife has taught Tae Bo classes there with Billy Blanks. I attended this year's Men’s Advance in Palm Springs and plan on going again. When we can't see Dr. Price in person we listen to his tapes during the week. It was through Dr. Price and Crenshaw Christian Center that I realized I could have a relationship with God. It was there that I realized God's glory and the fact that I am not only the physical child of my parents, but I am the spiritual child of God.

He is my Father.

And, like any father, He wants only the best for His children.

Just the other day I told my oldest daughter, “Don’t worry. It’s all going to be okay.” I realized that that’s the way God is with us. He doesn’t want us to worry. He wants us happy. He wants us content and at peace. And if we ever have a problem, we can always take it to Him. If we do our part by praying in faith and being obedient to His Word, He’ll do His part and take care of the problem each and every time.

Walk by faith and not by sight.

Believe in Him and He will never let you down.

I am living proof of this holy truth.

It was at Crenshaw Christian Center, in February 2000, that I became born again. It was in March of 2001 that my television show, The Fairly Oddparents, premiered on Nickelodeon. The ratings were higher than anyone expected and the show has been doing great ever since. It is currently tied for the number one show on Nickelodeon and is constantly ranked in Cable Television's Top Ten shows of the week. I have been blessed with an amazing crew of co-workers that constantly help make the show a lot of fun.

Nickelodeon likes the show so much that they keep picking up extra episodes, so it looks like we'll be making the show for a long time to come. I've even sold a second show to the network called Danny Phantom. It's about a teenage boy who fights ghosts. It's an action-adventure show that is also doing very well in the ratings.

Is this all my doing?

Hardly. I’ve been doing the physical work, yes, but, through faith in God and in His Word, I believe I have received all that I have prayed for (Mark 11:24). I put my faith into action and God supplied the rest.

God has been so good to me.

I have two shows on a major network where most people would do anything just to have one. God has given me the strength, patience, and wisdom to handle it all.

I have a beautiful wife and two gorgeous daughters who are all happy and healthy.

My career is going wonderfully and I plan to have it keep going wonderfully for the rest of my life.

My relationship with God is strong and getting stronger every day.

And best of all?

I'm finally at peace.

And that’s a good thing.