so heavy on my heart that it seemed the mattress was on top of me instead of me on the mattress.  I knew I was on the road to hell.  Finally, toward morning, I told the Lord that if He would spare my life until I heard the alarm go off in my parent’s room that I would get up and go ask my father to pray for me to get saved and I would seek forgiveness for my sins from God.  This calmed me, and I lay there waiting.  When I heard the alarm, I ran to their room and knelt beside their bed.  I began to weep and beg Papa to pray for me to get saved.  He prayed for me and I prayed.  I asked the Lord to forgive me of my sin of stealing and lying and promised I would make it right.  I told the Lord I would tell the girl I had stolen the doll and pay her for it.  God took my word for the act and He forgave me and flooded my soul with peace.  Oh, I had found the key to peace for my inner longings!  The key was a desire to find peace and then obeying God’s Word which said, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:9.  That key opened the lock to my heart and let Jesus come in.  Jesus has said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”  John 6:63b.  Oh, the peace that filled me and I became a new creature in Christ Jesus!  I was happy again.

I had promised the Lord that I would make my sin right when school started.  So one day I was sitting behind this girl and I tapped her on the back.  I told her about my taking the doll and offered to pay her for it.  She said, “I often wondered where that doll went to, but I didn’t care anything about it anyway.”  I insisted on paying her but she said to forget it.  Oh, the relief that I then had because the devil fought my making it right by telling me that she would tell every one in school about my being a thief.  I never heard anything more about it.

Then I had to make the lie right, for I had told my mother and all of my brothers and sisters that old Tennessee had given it to me.  One time in family worship I started to tell it and broke down and wept, but kept on telling about it.  I asked forgiveness and my father said that they all forgave me.  I didn’t know until years later that none of them understood anything I said because I had cried so hard, but I thought they did and that was what counted.  I had obeyed the Lord who makes us know that we are to make our wrongs right.

When Jesus came to Zacchaeus’ house and he sought salvation from Him, Zacchaeus said, “If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.”  Luke 19:8.  We must make our wrongs right.  If we do, and have repented and confessed our sins, we can hear the same words that Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “This day is salvation come to this house, ...  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (verse 9, 10.)