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Topic: Promises (02/09/04)
TITLE: Promises Are Meant To Be Kept By Charlotte Schafer 02/15/04 |
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Promises kept must be based on something far richer and deeper than the fading of romantic love. Promises based on commitment to another, must also be based on one’s own integrity. Isn’t that just like God and His love for us? He puts no conditions upon us to receive His love, yet because He is a holy God, he does not renege on his promises. In His Word He promises,
“To never leave nor forsake us, so that we can boldly say the Lord is our helper.” (Hebrews 13:5 NAS my emphasis.)
With over fifty percent of marriages in America ending in divorce today, we need to go back to promises kept. Because of what our Lord has done for us it is always possible for us to keep our promises of enduring love to others. His love, grace and mercy are instilled in us through His Holy Spirit that has come to dwell in us. Lets make a promise to keep our promises to one another just like Christ kept His promise as the Savior of the World and lover of our souls.
I promise that it is possible to keep love alive and even romance’s fires burning. My husband and I have been married for over thirty-three years and nothing delights us more than to spend time together. He is my best friend, my confidant, and my hero.
We made a promise to love each other through thick and thin and we meant to keep it, not knowing how each might change or any of the bumps in the road that we were to face. Now, looking back over those bumps and struggles it is quite amazing to me that the commitment we made as teenagers has become a lifestyle of integrity and good works.
I am not saying that it was always easy or that we were always in love. It has taken work; it has taken keeping our focus on the goal of keeping our commitment to each other. It has always been about making the choice to give the other the benefit of the doubt or to hash it out until we saw the light. It meant caring enough to hear out the others deepest concerns.
It was never spoken of by either of us, it was just an internal determination to keep love alive, and to re-gain love’s focus when love seemed to be lost in the midst of disturbances and long days of hard work. Sometimes there were temptations and major mistakes made on both sides, and sometimes only one of us seemed to be trying, but even when it seemed like one of us had numbed out to the other, that was when the other one seemed to sense it, and championed loves most precious delights.
Yes, without even realizing it, we had decided long ago to forgive even before anything had happened to be forgiven, thus no matter the personal pain we felt we chose kindness and looked within ourselves for what may have caused the other to fall out of love rather than to blame them solely for the numbness of the soul. I am looking forward to the next 30 plus years of loving him and knowing his loving kindness toward me. Now that is a promise kept.