"Stumped!"

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 5
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"Bet you can’t jump the creek!" Will challenged Paul.
The boys were on their way home from school, and were enjoying a lively game of ‘Stump the Leader.’
"Just watch me and see!" Paul took a short run—then a flying leap—and SPLASH! The boys shouted with laughter to see their leader ‘stumped,’ and a very wet Paul climbed out over the slippery rocks.
Paul laughed too, for he was a good sport. But his face grew sober as he wondered what Mother would say! Then he remembered something he had forgotten in the fun of the game they had been playing—Mother had asked him to hurry straight home that night to help her. He was the oldest of five children, and Mother often needed his help. Now today he not only would be late, but soaking wet.
So it was that a sheepish Paul slipped quickly into the kitchen and up the back stairs to his room while his mother was in another room.
"What makes you so late, Paul?" she asked a few moments later when he appeared in the kitchen again, wearing dry overalls, but with suspiciously damp hair.
"Oh, the teacher asked me to stay and wash blackboards," Paul lied.
"Why didn’t you explain that your Mother needed you tonight? I’m sure someone else could have helped."
At the supper table Paul could not look at his father. Somehow whenever Father’s eyes were upon him he felt just miserable—it seemed as though he surely must know about the lie he had told!
"Why aren’t you eating, Paul?"
"I feel sort of sick," Paul answered. It was true, too, for his guilty conscience had taken away his appetite. Excusing himself, he went upstairs and crawled into bed.
Lying in bed the words on a motto upon the wall faced him, "THOU GOD SEEST ME"!
The motto had been a gift from his father a short time ago, and Paul had proudly hung it over the foot of his bed. But now the words seemed dreadful, and climbing out of bed he turned it to the wall so he could not read it!
But it did not help, for now the words were written upon his mind, "THOU GOD SEEST ME"! Pulling the covers over his head wouldn’t shut them out either!
Finally he could stand it no longer. Slipping out of bed he knelt and told the Lord all about the sin in his heart that he knew He had already seen. As Paul prayed, the Lord reminded him that it was for his sin He had died upon the cross, and, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out"! (John 6:37).
Paul was not ashamed of his happy tears, as believing God’s Word, he received the Lord Jesus as his Savior! After a few moments he hurried down stairs to confess his lie to his mother and father, and to tell them how the Lord Jesus had saved him.
That night a happy family rejoiced together because of the words of the motto, "THOU GOD SEEST ME"!