Up until I was seven years old, I had spent little time in church. My mother was Baptist, but inactive, and my father was not saved.
We moved into a neighborhood with a Southern Baptist church two blocks away, and my mother sent me there. It was easy because a lot of my schoolmates were there.
Two years later, the Lord saved me. On the day I was baptized, my mother renewed her commitment to the Lord, joined the church and became active.
The Lord saved my father a year or so later. He bought the whole package, so to speak. Wound up as my Sunday School teacher, later was elected deacon.
So, I was a Baptist because my mother was a Baptist. A few years later, after much study of Baptist doctrine and practice, I became a Baptist by conviction. I compared us to other faith groups, and concluded that the Baptist claim to be the closest to apostolic doctrine and practice was a valid claim.