Lisa Barry: It never fails. Whenever I hear an old tune from the 1970's, I can always conjure up a memory of youth. One song reminds me of the time I sat at my bedroom window and etched a heart in the frost that lined the corners. Inside the heart, I put my initials and the initials of the boy I had a crush on that week. Now from that memory, I recall the design of my curtains, the Elmer's glue spill embedded in my shag carpeting, and all the posters on my walls. All this from hearing one old song.

Well, you're going to get a similar feeling as you hear Elisabeth Elliot read from the book STEPPING HEAVENWARD today. It's such fresh and innocent writing that it leads us all to think that we weren't so bad back then. Let's get another dose today as Elisabeth continues reading STEPPING HEAVENWARD. Here she is.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, reading again today from a book called STEPPING HEAVENWARD. Although it's supposed to be fiction, I think you'll agree that it's very likely autobiographical.

In fact, if we were all as fine of writers as Elizabeth Prentiss, the author of this book, and if we were as honest, we would probably tell a very similar story. Whether you're a home-schooled child or a public-schooled child, whether you're a man or a woman, if we had as good a memory of the years of our growing up, we would closely identify with the principles which this amazing book points out.

Katie's best friend has let her down. She is appalled and feels very sorry for herself. Her friend, Mrs. Cavett, points out that God notices everything.

"'My dear child,' says Mrs. Cavett, 'if there is any one truth I would gladly impress on the mind of a young Christian, it is just this: that God notices the most trivial act, accepts the poorest, most threadbare little service, and listens to the coldest, feeblest petition and gathers up with parental fondness all our fragmentary desires and attempts at good works. Oh, if we could only begin to conceive how He loves us, what different creatures we would be!'

I felt inspired by her enthusiasm," says the author, "though I don't think I quite understand what she means. I did not dare to stay any longer, for with her great host of children she must have her hands full." Now she's been having a long conversation with Mrs. Cavett about what she does and how she is trying to learn to be good.

"'I mean that I want to be very, very good. I should like next best to be learned and accomplished. Then I should want to be perfectly well and perfectly happy, and a pleasant home of course I must have, with friends to love me and like me, too. And I can't get along without some pretty, tasteful things about me.

But you are laughing at me! Have I said anything foolish?' Mrs. Cavett says, 'If I laughed, it was not at you, but at poor human nature that would feign grasp everything at once. Allowing that you should possess all you have just described, where is the heroism you so much admire to find room for exercise?'

'That's just what I was saying. That's just what troubles me.'

'To be sure, while perfectly well and happy in a pleasant home, with friends to love and admire you.'

'Oh, I did not say admire,' I interrupted. 'That was just what you meant, my dear.' 'I am afraid it was, now that I come to think it over.'

'Well, with plenty of friends, good in an uncommon way, accomplished, learned and surrounded with pretty and tasteful objects, your life will certainly be in danger of not proving very sublime.'

'It's a great pity,' I said musingly.

'Suppose then you content yourself in the present with doing in a faithful, quiet, persistent way all the little homely tasks that return with each returning day, each one as unto God. And perhaps, by and by, you will thus have gained strength for a more heroic life.'

'But I don't know how.'

'You have some little home duties, I suppose.'

'Yes. I have the care of my own room. And Mother wants me to have a general oversight of the parlor. You know we have but one parlor now.'

'Is that all you have to do?'

'Well, my music and drawing take up a good deal of my time, and I read and study more or less, and I go out some and we have a good many visitors.'

'I suppose then that you keep your room in nice, ladylike order and that the parlor is dusted every morning, loose music put out of the way, books restored to their proper places.'

'Now I know Mother has been telling you things.'

'Your mother has told me nothing at all.'

'Well, then,' I said laughing, but a little ashamed, 'I don't keep my room in nice order and Mother really sees to the parlor herself, though I pretend to do it.'

'And is she never annoyed by this neglect?'

'Oh, yes, very much annoyed.'

'Then dear Katie, suppose your first act of heroism tomorrow should be the gratifying your mother in these little things, little though they are. Surely your first duty, next to pleasing God, is to please your mother, and in every possible way to sweeten and beautify her life. You may depend on it that a life of real heroism and self-sacrifice must begin and lay its foundation in this little world, wherein it learns its first lesson and takes its first steps.'

'And do you really think that God notices such little things?'

'God notices the most trivial act.'"

A few weeks later, she writes, "I met Dr. Cavett today and could not help asking the question, 'Is it right for me to sing and play in company when all I do it for is to be admired?'

'Are you sure it is all you do it for?' he returned.

'Oh,' I said, 'I suppose there may be a sprinkling of desire to entertain and please, mixed with the love of display.'

'Do you suppose that your love of display, allowing you have it, would be forever slain by your merely refusing to sing in company?'

'I thought that might give it a pretty hard blow,' I said, 'if not its death blow.'

'Meanwhile, in punishing yourself, you punish your poor, innocent friends,' he said laughing. 'No, child. Go on singing. God has given you this power of entertaining and gratifying your friends. But pray without ceasing that you may sing from pure benevolence and not from pure self-love.'

'Why, do people pray about such things as that?' I cried.

'Of course they do. Why, I would pray about my little finger if my little finger went astray.' I looked at his little finger, but I saw no signs of it becoming schismatic."

Dr. Cavett has been giving her advice now that she's 20 years old. She is earnestly longing to be a true Christian, but she has all sorts of doubts. Am I speaking to somebody today, like Katie, who is tormented every once in a while with the thought that you're not really a Christian?

I think Dr. Cavett's letter to Katie will be greatly helpful. He seems to read her mind, and mine too, because I am at times assailed by doubts of all sorts. It's so calming to go back to the basics. Now here's Dr. Cavett's letter from STEPPING HEAVENWARD.

"God never leaves His work incomplete. He will gradually lead you into clear and open vision, if you will allow Him to do it. I say gradually, because I believe this to be His usual method, while I do not deny that there are cases where light suddenly bursts in like a flood.

Remember the blind man. When Jesus found that his cure was not complete, He put His hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. Now he was restored and saw every man clearly. Now this must be done for you. In order to have it done, you must go to Christ Himself, not to one of His servants. Make your complaint. Tell Him how obscure everything still looks to you and beg Him to complete your cure.

He may see fit to try your faith and patience by delaying this completion. But meanwhile, you are safe in His presence. And while led by His hand, He will excuse the mistakes you make and pity your falls.

But you will imagine that it is best that He should at once enable you to see clearly. If it is, you may be sure He will do it. He never makes mistakes. But He often deals far differently with His disciples. He lets them grope their way in the dark until they fully learn how blind they are, how helpless, how absolutely in need of Him.

What His methods will be with you, I cannot foretell. But you may be sure that He never works in an arbitrary way. He has a reason for everything He does. You may not understand why He leads you now in this way and now in that, but you may-yes, you must-believe that perfection is stamped on His every act.

I'm afraid you're in danger of falling into an error only too common among young Christians. You acknowledge that there has been enmity towards God in your secret soul and that one of the first steps toward peace is to become reconciled to Him and to have your sins forgiven for Christ's sake. This done, you settle down with the feeling that the great work of life is done and that your salvation is sure. Or if not sure, that your whole business is to study your own case to see whether you are really in a state of grace.

Many persons never get beyond that point. They spend their whole time asking the question, 'Do I love the Lord or not? Am I His or am I not?' I beg you, my dear child, if you are doing this aimless, useless work, stop short at once. Life is too precious to spend in a treadmill. Having been pardoned by your God and Savior, the next thing you have to do is to show your gratitude for this infinite favor by consecrating yourself entirely to Him, body, soul and spirit. This is the least you can do. He has bought you with a price and you are no longer your own.

'But,' you may reply, 'this is contrary to my nature. I love my own way. I desire ease and pleasure. I desire to go to heaven, but I want to be carried there on a bed of flowers. Can I not give myself so far to God as to feel a sweet sense of peace?'"

Well, we'll carry on with this diary of a young girl entitled STEPPING HEAVENWARD.

Lisa Barry: If you're having doubts about your own faith, then you might want to hear that letter from Dr. Cavett again. The easiest way is to purchase a copy of this weekly series. The title is ON STEPPING HEAVENWARD. You'll enjoy it for a variety of reasons, on many occasions. You might also want to purchase the book Elisabeth is reading. The title of that is STEPPING HEAVENWARD.

Here's the number to call for purchasing information: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or you can write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow our friend Katie learns that all is fair in love and war. Find out more next time on Gateway To Joy.