want to say that from a child I loved the Lord and my parents taught me
what sin was and I didn't want to displease the Lord. But I was not
above temptations. So when I saw this little doll, I was tempted by the
devil. I had an overmastering desire to have that doll and I was enticed
by the hope of the reward of having it for my own and thought no one
would know about it. So quickly I picked it up and took it home. You
see, when I let lust, or that overmastering desire, become conceived, or
formed, in my mind, and I took the doll, I committed sin. Sin was
finished and I was cut off from God. Spiritual death took place in my
heart. No longer could I come to God and have communion with Him. Sin
had separated me from God. So as the Scripture says, "when it [sin] is
finished, it bringeth forth death."

I brought the doll home with me, but oh, I didn't feel good in my heart!
I knew I had sinned and I wished I had not taken the doll, but I had it
and was on my way home. I came into the house and my watchful mother saw
it. She asked, "Where did you get that doll?"

"Old Tennessee gave it to me," I quickly said, which was a lie. Another
sin was added to my first sin. The devil not only gets a person to sin
but he gets them to commit other sins to cover up the first sin. Thus,
he leads people on and on, and deeper into sin they fall. (Old Tennessee
was an elderly black man who drove a horse and wagon by our home, filled
with junk that he had collected. Sometimes, when he would stop and talk
to us children, he would give us some of his junk which we would value.)

I took the doll upstairs to my room and put it in my dresser drawer. I
didn't want to play with it. It didn't look so pretty anymore. My heart
was heavy. I didn't rest very well that night as I dreaded going back to
school. I just knew the teacher would guess that I had taken the doll.