I read an email from “Dayspring” as I started this thought. It said:
“…With every New Year comes new promises we make to ourselves.
…Instead of self-promises, let’s make some promises to God…”
This got me thinking about WHO we make promises to. Which led me to looking at our promises to each other and ourselves and promises to God.
Do you make promises quickly or easily? Do you keep them? How do you feel about you when your don’t follow through? Do others make promises to you? Do they keep them? How does it make you feel when they don’t keep them? What about your promises to yourself? Do they take on a paint brush dimension? This is defined as: to be ‘better’, to exercise or eat more nutritiously, to act ‘kinder’ – all of these paint brush promises unless there are concrete, ‘measurable’, accountable and attainable objectives they will always remain pie in the sky.
Though we may view or ‘handle’ promises lightly, they are no little thing. If made in haste or unthinking, you can find yourself in an uncomfortable position when you discover you may even had made contradictory promises that collide. There is also the issue that though you may have considered your promise lightly, the other person doesn’t. What may have started out as a placating gesture is now a matter of principle. Now what?
When you consider your promises made to God – do you follow through? Do you ever view promises in the same way God does? I believe that a promise is a vow. I would suspect that most people would not want to view their promises as vows because that only enhances the seriousness. Even Webster uses strong words to define vow: “… a serious promise to do something or to behave in a certain way… a solemn promise or assertion – specifically: one by which a person is bound to an act, service, or condition.” (underlining mine). The synonyms are just as powerful: “oath, pledge, troth, promise, word“.
Whether or not you make promises quickly, consider them unbinding, or the opposite – they are important and serious. However, I would quickly suggest that it is the promises, vows we make to ourselves that get short shrift. If they are broken – no big thing, yes? Absolutely not! Our opinion of the promises or vows we make to ourselves should be considered as serious as any we make. It is these that form our refining of who we are and wish to become. It speaks more loudly of our attitude, our standards, and our character.
In this discussion I haven’t focused on answers but on the ramification that occur when you make promises. I did suggest how you need to think in responding to promises. However, how you respond is an individual determination but should never be considered as… no little thing.
