Broken Promises

by Lillian Humphries

Have you ever broken a promise? Most of us have, intentionally or not we have fallen down on our word. It isn’t nice and normally guilt follows.

Of course the worst promises we can break are the promises we make to God. But today I want to focus on what a broken promise to yourself does to you.

When we make a deal with our self, a promise, we are making a commitment, putting our word on the line. I know when I make a promise to myself I mean every word of it. Down to my toes, I am gung-ho about the project. Doesn’t matter what the project is, when I say it I mean it.

• Starting January 1st, I will read my Bible 15 minutes every day. 
• Come Monday I am going to start my diet.
• After the Halloween candy is gone I am going to cut out all sugars.
• No more diet sodas for me.
• This year I’m going to mail more cards of encouragement.

I will . . . . fill in the blanks.

Then something happens and we break our promise. Normally it is just life gets in the way. A party comes up and we go off our diet. We skip a day reading our Bible because we got up late. We run out of cards and forget to buy some the next time we are at the store. Pretty soon it has been a couple of days, then a week, then two weeks and we haven’t gotten back to our promise.
It's done, we have broken the promise.

What happens when we break these promises? We feel bad about ourselves. Sometimes they can really depress us and they carry negative emotions with them. There are enough negative messages coming at us; we don’t have to add more with our own inner voice attacking ourselves.

 
 When the promise is broken we need to take a positive action.

• Apologize to yourself. Literally tell yourself you are sorry and you will try again. That is what you would do to a friend.
• Forgive yourself. You forgive others, why not yourself.
• Start over. It isn’t the end of the world, you stumbled, and you didn’t jump off a cliff.

 I have been promising myself and others to write a book that is on my heart. I keep going back to it and then life gets in the way. Today I am starting again, not at the beginning but right in the middle where I left off.

 What promise did you break to yourself? Share with me and let’s see how many of us can pick that project (whatever it is) back up and start again

I am a Christian! I am an American!

by Lillian Humphries

My Christian title comes first because I carry that wherever I go. No matter where I am or what condition my life is in, this is who I am. Yes, I have many more titles that I can carry, American, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Daughter, Sister, and Woman, however the most important title to me is Christian.

My Christian walk has been a long hard road at times, but God was always there to help me through those tough times. He was always there for all the good times too and I remember to thank Him for that when they happen. Isn’t it funny that we run to God when things are bad, when we have insurmountable problems that we feel we cannot handle? That is where America is today.

For years many have forsaken our Father because we were in good times. Our economy felt like it was up; we were all making more money than we ever had before. Things seemed easier ten years ago. We went out to dinner more, had more vacations that were more exquisite than we had ever taken before, and became accustomed to our five dollar cups of coffee, our cell phones that could do just about everything for us, along with getting our manicures and pedicures on a weekly basis. Yes, life was easy then.

What happened? Well it is not unlike what happened to the Romans. They partied; they spent above their means, and ate themselves to ruins. Very much like Americans are doing to themselves now. We have more danger of defeating ourselves than danger from any other enemy. I know we need to be watchful of our enemies, but we are not watching and monitoring ourselves. We have become a lazy, overweight and whining country.

But we are Americans! We have it in us to come back and rebuild before it goes too far. I see it every day in my life. People are becoming more aware of their surroundings, how they spend their time and how they spend their money. I see healthy, sensitive and caring Americans helping each other daily. We seem to have a better concept of paying it forward than we did ten years ago. More people are stepping up and helping their neighbors with whatever needs to be done. We are making better choices in exercise, eating correctly and becoming a healthy nation once again. As individuals I believe we have curbed our spending, coming back to family dinners and moral family discussions. We do have hope again!!

I beseech you Americans, turn off the TV, take a walk with your family, and discuss the world around you with your children and friends. Take on some family projects of volunteering or changing your world around you in just your neighborhood. If you try, then the next will try and the next will try and so on….. We know how it works America, we can do this.

Turn back to our Heavenly Father and trust in Him. Pray to Him daily asking for blessings and direction, He will guide us.