I think it would be safe to say that we have all had the experience of lying awake wondering how we are going to cover next month's bills.  Few things are more unsettling and worrisome than pondering about our debts.

In a marriage there is generally one of the partners--either the husband or the wife--who takes charge of the family finances.  Often the other spouse doesn't know much--and perhaps doesn't want to know much--about the family's financial situation.

One woman confided to me that her husband paid the bills, but that she once insisted on knowing how bad things really were.  He told her, "and it put me in the hospital," she said.  "We decided that it was best for him to just take care of things, and to leave me being blissfully unaware."

While in the midst of your worries about debts to be paid, how would it feel if someone was to step forward and pay them?

On one occasion my wife was in the hospital with a brand new baby--our seventh.  We had promised the other children that if they came home with good report cards, we would celebrate by going to a restaurant.  Going out to eat at a restaurant is not something that large families do.  It's too expensive.

Our six children had not yet met their new baby brother.  This seemed like a good time to fulfill our promise, and to visit their mother and the baby.  Everyone put on their best clothes, and we trooped into a restaurant.  I suppose we were a curious sight:  one father, six children, and no mother.

The children were being exceptionally good--unusually good.  They talked so quietly that I had to have them repeat what they'd said so that I could hear them.  They looked nice, acted nice, and I was proud of them.

Midway through our meal, the waitress came to our table and asked, "Did you know the couple that just left the restaurant?"

"No."

"Well, they just paid your bill."

I was dumbfounded, flabbergasted, and astonished.  Why would anyone do such a thing?

There is a big secret in the world today of which everyone needs to be made aware.  That is that because of His love for us, our Savior has already stepped forward and paid for our sins.  He has canceled our debts.  They're off the books.  They're forgotten and forgiven, on condition of our making and keeping covenants to follow Him and to keep His commandments.

We should be dumbfounded, flabbergasted, and astonished.

The price our Redeemer paid to redeem us is way beyond our comprehension.  Suffering is the price that must be paid when a sin is committed.  The law of justice demands it.  There is no getting around it.  The bill will become due.  Bills always come due.  Creditors and the law of justice always demand payment.

But we have a Savior.  We have a Redeemer.  He has canceled our debts.  He has said, "Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.

     "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

     "But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

     "Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men."  (Doctrine and Covenants 19:15-19).

I am astonished at what He has done for me.  I am humbled, and grateful beyond words.  I want to be His disciple.  I want to show my gratitude by being like Him.  I love Him beyond anything or anyone else in the world.  I have repented, and must keep repenting to show my gratitude and to keep things current.