“Amy, I’m going to take some of these blueberry muffins next door to Mrs. Peters while they’re still hot. I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”
Amy was playing with her doll and would rather go on playing than stop to go see Mrs. Peters. She was the old lady who lived next door and was nearly blind.
After her mother left, Amy put her doll in the doll stroller and pushed her all around the house, pretending she was on a shopping trip. She decided to stop at the grocery store (which happened to be her parents’ bedroom). Looking around at all the “groceries,” Amy saw her mother’s wristwatch on the dresser. “She must have forgotten to put it on because she wears it every day,” Amy thought to herself.
Amy had been told she was not to touch anything on her mother’s dresser. She had accidently broken a little cut-glass bottle one time when she had picked it up to look at it. But all Amy was thinking about now was how much she wanted a gold wristwatch just like her mother’s. She decided just to try it on to see how it would look on her wrist.
She nearly dropped it several times while trying to fasten the little catch, but at last she got it on.
“Oh, it looks so pretty,” she said to herself, smiling. “I wish it were mine... I wonder how it winds up?” She found the little gold wheel on the side of the watch and began to turn it as she had seen her mother do. She turned and turned the little gold wheel, until it seemed to be stuck. No matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t turn any more.
Just then she heard her mother unlocking the back door. Amy very quickly opened the catch on the watch band and carefully set the watch back on her mother’s dresser where she had found it. Then she pushed her doll stroller out into the hall so her mother wouldn’t even know she had been in her bedroom.
Amy knew she had done something wrong, but she thought maybe her mother would never find out, especially if she didn’t know Amy had been in her bedroom. But Amy must have forgotten that the Lord Jesus loved her so much that He couldn’t let her get away with that sin. That would only make her think she could get away with it again. One sin often leads to another, then another, and still another, as we shall see.
“Amy, I’m home,” called her mother.
Amy pushed her stroller into the kitchen where her mother was.
Looking at the clock, her mother said, “Oh dear, I hope you weren’t worried because I was gone a little longer than I expected. I forgot to put my watch on this morning and didn’t realize how long I had been talking to Mrs. Peters.”
Amy’s mother went right to her bedroom to get her wristwatch. As she put it on she noticed it had stopped running. That was unusual, so she decided to wind it so it would start again. Then she discovered her watch had already been wound. In fact, it had been wound so tightly that it had stopped working.
Amy’s mother knew she hadn’t wound the watch too tightly, so there was only one other person at home who could have.
“Amy, did you take my watch off the dresser?”
Amy didn’t want to look at her mother, so she turned her back, pushing the stroller away, and then quickly said, “No.”
“When I just now put it on I discovered it has stopped,” her mother said. “And when I tried to wind it I found it’s wound too tightly. Amy, are you sure you didn’t touch it while I was taking the muffins to Mrs. Peters?”
Amy kept fixing her doll in the stroller, never looking at her mother, and answered, “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Amy,” her mother continued, “I’m very sorry, but I don’t think you’re telling me the truth. Maybe you had better go to your room to think it over.”
A little later her mother went into Amy’s room to find a very unhappy little girl. When she asked Amy if she had thought over what she had told her, Amy burst into tears. Then the whole story of the watch came out.
Her mother reminded her of the verse in the Bible that says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:2323But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23). Then she explained that it is always best to tell the truth right away. “If you tell one lie, often you tell another one to cover up the first one, and then the problem grows bigger and bigger, and you become very unhappy. Telling the truth not only keeps you happy, but it is doing the right thing and it pleases the Lord Jesus.”
Amy had to be punished for what she had done. By suppertime she was again a happy little girl and could join the family at the dinner table. Have you ever told the Lord Jesus the truth about yourself, that you are a sinner and need His forgiveness? He loves you very much and He’s just waiting for you to come to Him.
ML-08/10/1986