In Sunday School, several comments were made how the Easter story was so special at this time of year, how they loved the Easter season and what it meant to them.

Had I been thinking about it at all beyond inviting the family for dinner?

I felt an urgent need to focus on the season. An inspiration came. I would quit __?__ and use the time it opened up to remember what Jesus did for me. In my ponderings, I remembered my conversion experience.

When a young child tells their experience, it is usually so simple. I was no different. In a couple sentences, I had it all told. Yet conversion stories are interesting because, as time goes on, there’s usually a greater understanding of what happened. A fourteen-year-old telling her conversion for the first time and that same person recalling it years later are two different things. It meant a lot to me then and only gets more precious in memory.

There was no question I was a sinner. I remember fussing with my brother. He was standing in the pantry doorway and I slammed the door on him. The trap door was open and he fell down the steps. It seems unlikely my dad spanked me, but the idea of a spanking is caught up in this memory. I knew I deserved one.

I tried to clean up my life. I apologized a lot. I got rid of a new watch that I really loved. I went to convert meetings. I prayed often for forgiveness. I found it hard to go to sleep.

I didn’t really know what I was looking for.

On December 15, 1985, the morning after a convert meeting, I awoke especially happy. The thought of serving God the rest of my life was a delight. There was communion in church that evening and my friend and I were standing on the steps to the sanctuary. One of the visiting ministers told us we could accept God’s peace right there. We girls sat on the cross benches in the upper left corner during the service. The minister preached about the ones walking the Emmaus road. Jesus was explaining the scripture to me at the same time. At that moment, I knew exactly what it meant to have ‘hearts burn within us.” I believed God accepted me as His child.

Early in January I went to another convert meeting. I started wearing a head covering in February along with two of my girlfriends who were converted about the same time.

On April 2 I told my experience to our congregation. It was a Wednesday evening and there were five other converts speaking that evening. The next Sunday, April 6, I was baptised at an evening service. As we got home that evening, the frogs were croaking and the stars seemed unusually bright. I was at peace with God, others and myself and the world was more beautiful because of it.

I have heard how God worked with you at conversion is a pattern of how He will work with you throughout your life. My first impulse is still to try to ‘do all the right things’. My efforts have never been enough. It is because of Jesus’ sacrifice that I am accepted. The struggle to believe is easier most days because God has been faithful to me in so many trials that I have confidence that He will be there in the future.

I am so thankful. God has given me the opportunity to know and live for Him. I wish the same for you. You can surrender your will, leave your sins, and accept peace right here right now.

Old things are passed away, behold all things are new;
I started out with Jesus I intend to follow through,
A subject of the King, His will I now pursure
Old things are passed away, all things are new.
--Joe E. Parks

–Liz