My husband and I have the tremendous opportunity to raise two precious children. I know I’m not the only one that has said or thought this, but being a parent is one of the most rewarding and challenging things on the planet. Recently an opportunity arose to talk about telling the truth and keeping your word. My husband ended the discussion by saying, “You need to keep your word, because your word is your bond.” That sounded so familiar to me, I could almost hear that same sentence coming out of my father’s mouth when I was our kids’ age.
I wonder what would happen if everyone one in the world kept their promises? Or what if everyone were honest with their limitations and decided to simply say “no” to something instead of hastily saying “yes”, only to end up not keeping their word? I bet we’d have some pretty nifty politicians in office, less divorce, happier kids and parents, and we’d pretty much have a heavenly earth.
Unfortunately this fallen world doesn’t operate on promise keeping. So we have jails, and prisons, and divorce courts, and other things in place to try to keep the order. I’m bringing this up not to be your mama or your judge. I’m bringing this up because being a promise keeper, and woman or man of your word should still be a part of the life of the believer. Yes things come up that can keep us from following through, but more often than not, let’s be honest with ourselves and others, they’re just excuses.
In a world of broken promises I’d like to challenge you today to rethink the promises you make, the little and the big. If you’re not going to make that salad for the potluck next Thursday, don’t say you will. If you have no intentions of meeting up with that person for coffee next week, don’t say it. If you say “I do” or “yes” to the one you love, then mean it. Others may not keep their word, but you can. You can bring healing to this broken world, one kept promise at a time.
“ But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” ~Jesus
(Matt 5:37 NKJV)
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