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STEPHEN ROBINSON: When I was coming home from school one day,

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I was sitting in the chair and reading the newspaper,

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and my daughter, Sarah,

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then seven years old,

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came in and said, "Dad, can I have a bike?

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I'm the only kid on the block who doesn't have a bike."

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I didn't have enough money to buy her a bike, so I stalled her.

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I said, "Sure, Sarah." She said, "How?

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When?" I said, "You save all your pennies,

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and pretty soon you'll have enough for a bike." She went away.

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A couple of weeks later, as I was sitting in the same chair,

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I was aware of Sarah doing

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something for her mother and getting paid. She went in the other room.

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I heard clink, clink.

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I said, "Sarah, what are you doing?"

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She came out, she had a little jar,

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all cleaned up, with a slit cut in the lid,

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and a bunch of pennies in the bottom.

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She looked at me and she said, "You promised me that if I saved all my pennies,

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pretty soon, I'd have enough for a bike and,

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Daddy, I've saved every single one."

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My heart melted. Because I love her,

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I said, "Well, let's go downtown and look at bikes."

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We did. We went down.

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We went to every store in Williamsport,

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Pennsylvania, and finally,

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we found it, the perfect bicycle.

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She got up on that bike,

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and she was just thrilled, and she saw

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then the price tag, and she reached down and she turned it over and

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she saw how much it cost, and her face fell.

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She started to cry, and she said,

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"Dad, I'll never have enough for a bicycle."

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"How much do you have?" She said, "61 cents."

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[LAUGHTER] "I tell you what?

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You give me everything you've got—

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the whole 61 cents and a hug and kiss, and that bike is yours."

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She gave me a hug and a kiss.

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She gave me 61 cents,

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and then I had to drive home very slowly because she wouldn't get off the bike.

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[LAUGHTER] She rode home, and as I drove along slowly beside her,

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it occurred to me that that was a parable for the Atonement of Christ.

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We all want something desperately.

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It isn't a bicycle, we want the celestial kingdom.

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We want to be with our Father in Heaven, and no matter how hard we try,

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we come up short. It's that point.

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The sweetness of the gospel covenant comes to our taste,

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and the Savior proposes.

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I'll tell you what. You're not perfect. How much do you have?

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Give me all there is,

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and I'll pay the rest.

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Enter into a personal relationship with me,

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and I will do what remains undone.

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Many of us are trying to save

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ourselves and holding the Atonement of Christ at arm's distance and saying,

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"When I've done it, when I've perfected myself, when I've made myself more worthy,

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then I'll be worthy of the Atonement.

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Then I will allow Him in." And we cannot do it.

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We must do all that we can.

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But having done all, then we must trust in

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His redeeming blood and in His ability to do for us what we cannot yet accomplish.