[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Tuesday, July 30 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all once again.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that your day is going well or went well.

At the time of this writing, Elaine Leavitt was living in Arizona, and she comes to grace our Braille displays and screen readers with her short but insightful article entitled "The Promise," rendered as follows:

I have a completely restored '57 Chevy.  It has taken me years and more money than I care to admit to completely bring my Chevy to my level of satisfaction.  One day, my son approached me and requested that I loan him the car for a while.  He promised he would take care of it, since it was my pride and joy.

After six months, my son returned.  As he drove into the driveway, I noticed he hadn't kept his promise:  my restored Chevy had a dent in the side, the bumper was falling off, the front window was cracked, and paint was chipping off all over the car.  I immediately began shaking with anger and disappointment.  He promised to care for my prized possession and failed to keep his word.

As he opened the door to the car, he cast his eyes downward and began to approach me.  I saw that he realized that he had failed to keep his promise.

As I stood there watching my son walk towards me, I began to think back to a promise I had made to my Father in heaven.  The day I asked Him to enter my heart, I promised to love and help my fellow man.  I promised to make the world a better place.  I promised to tell others of the love my Father had for me and how it was available to anyone who asked God to enter their heart.

As I thought of my promise to my Father, I realized I had let my Father down in the same fashion as my son had let me down.  It wasn't the same promise, but a promise is a promise.

How would my father react the day I stood before him with my broken promise? Would he chastise me? Would he forgive me? Could I possibly ask him to forgive me?

When my son finally stood in front of me, with a broken heart of regret, I put my arm around his shoulder and said, "Let's start fixing the car together, son."

And there you have it.  Now I'm sure we've made promises that were broken.  This reminds me of the line in an old Gospel song which goes:

I'll go where You want me to go, Dear Lord;
I'll do what you want me to do."

How many people have sung that song and not kept their word to Him? I'm sure many.  However God, knowing human frailties and the fact that many didn't or couldn't keep their promises to Him, forgave them.  I don't know about you, but I'm glad that He forgave me all the childish and childhood promises I made to Him, and I hope you asked Him to do likewise for you.

And now until tomorrow when, Lord willing another daily thought message will be presented, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul