Keep Your Promises

Bone healing is a great metaphor: If you take good care of a fracture, the bone becomes stronger than it was before. If you take good care of your promises, the relationship becomes stronger than it was before. It is impossible to follow through on every promise you make in life, but how many you break and how you handle that break, is so very important.

I hear it in the stores all the time, "not today honey, I promise you can get a toy the next time"... "I promise, we'll get a treat next time"...   waiting on a promise takes patience and builds character but the broken promise no matter how small, hurts.  A broken promise relays a feeling of lesser value to the person we have disappointed and people start to tag us as someone they cannot count on. "I will, I promise" has led to many a difficult moment along with the phrase, "I said I promise, but I didn't say when".

Using the word "promise" can become a habit, and it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Are you just throwing out the word promise, to get out of a situation at the time?  Be conscious of how many times you use it in a week, and how many times you actually mean it. Do not promise what you can't deliver...it solves a problem in the moment, mends a fence perhaps, but with no follow through there is no build up of trust and the let down starts immediately with a breakdown of trust, no matter how minuscule the content. 

If God has promised, the promise is true, and God will not change His mind. You can depend on the promise.

Romans 4:20

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

The key was Abraham's confidence that

 "God had power to Do what He had promised" 

We sing of His promises

"God's Promises are true, the sun's gonna shine, in God's own good time, and He will see you through"

"Standing on the Promises of Christ my King.  Through eternal praises let His praises ring"

Use this character building word with caution. Promise only what you can deliver.

Joshua 23:14, 
.....You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for the power of your promises, and for giving me the faith to wait with anticipation and patience.  Amen.