"Keep Your Word"

One late afternoon I was alone at home and somebody knocked at the door. It was a young boy that offered to rake our yard from the many leaves that had fallen to the ground. I thought this was an absolute fantastic idea, since I had already thought about the idea that I would have had to rake it :-) Unfortunately I did not have any money nor was my husband at home. So I told him to come back the next day and he said he would.

Sure enough, next day arrived and he was standing at the door. I was impressed about this boy. He kept his word. It told me so much about his character and how he'd been raised. I knew that this boy had received some valuable instruction from his parents and that he would get far in life just because of his attitude. Raking the leaves was not the issue, but keeping his word and being faithful in little.

I have had so many promises made to me and so many of them failed, like "I will call you back. I will send you this. I will do this for you", and so forth. It is as if the mouth talks, but the heart is disconnected. I used to get very disappointed and discouraged because I could not rely any longer on what was said to me. When asking the Lord about it He said to me "Those that respond will give you hope. Focus on them because I will talk to you and share my plans with you through them".

In this day and age faithfulness and keeping your word is taken very lightly. People have become irresponsible and undependable but I know that good character traits are very important to the Lord and the success factor in life.

It is my prayer that we become sensitive again to what we say and what we do.

With much love,

-Suzanne Tanner

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ (Matthew 25:23 NKJV).

"But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one" (Matthew 5:37 NKJV).