The Promise…..
My daughter, Madison, recently received a “Promise Ring” from her Ladder dad….a ring which originally belonged to his mother and given to Madison …..in response to her promise.
Promise defined is “a declaration that something will or will not be done, an express assurance on which expectation is based, indication of a future truth which will be carried out.”
A Promise is a serious thing.
A Promise is the living out of your heart’s commitment in the living of your life (QTMH).
Madison’s role models for making promises have been weak as is evidenced through the lives of the two most significant people in her life – her mother and her father.
For that, I have had great anguish.
However, God is a God of promises and while I may fall short, HE does not.
Thank God.
God gives us many promises…to unconditionally love us, to protect us, to teach us, to enable us, to discipline us, to seek out us, to never leave us, to never forsake us, to hear our prayers, to hear our pleas for help, to guide us, to cover us, to empower us, to enrich us, to humble us…
To LOVE us.
He is the great “Promise Keeper” and while we may fail at perfectly keeping our promises to him and to one another,
He does not.
Thank God.
For it is in HIS ability to keep HIS promises to us that WE find hope when we are not able to keep our promises to Him or to one another.
Promises give birth to commitment, compassion and hope.
As in my daughter’s life.
Madison asked me to “blog” about her promise ring and her promise…so, she will bless what I share herein…
When Madison was a young girl, the concept of making and keeping promises was never really discussed. Our family was so wrapped up in other things, many of them very good, some not so much, that we failed to discuss “promises” covenants….commitments until it was too late.
We did not recognize, in our parenting immaturity, the need for laying the foundation of what it means to make a Promise…and, even more importantly, what it takes to keep it.
But, as is always true with God,
It is never too late….
To learn, to change, to commit,
To Promise.
Because of our failure to teach our daughter the “value of the gift” of making a Promise and keeping it, she made some poor decisions early in her life. Some were poor and immature with little consequence. Some were poor and immature with grave and dire consequence.
Some make us look back and laugh at her silliness.
But, some make us look back and weep for innocence lost.
For that, both Madison, her Dad and I weep and have wept.
But, as with God, the maker of Rainbows of Promises, there is great Hope.
God who can make “all things as new”
Does.
If we but ask.
And, My daughter, precious that she is,
Has asked.
Asked us to stand beside her as she renews her promise to God to strive to live daily for Him in her life.
And, so we do.
To commemorate that renewed promise, Ian has given Madison a ring which was his Mother, Dorothy’s. Dorothy was a very lovely, Godly woman with a long history of being bold, brave, committed and most definitely a major
“God’s Girl”
Dorothy was no quiet wallflower of a woman. She was a pioneer in the workforce, being one of the top women employees at Fort Knox at a time where women were not fully respected for their knowledge and ability.
But, Dorothy was.
She was strong, vibrant and verbose. She was strong-willed, strong natured and of good courage.
She had to be.
Hers was a world where women were best seen and not heard, where the value of their ability and presence was just beginning to be seen as worthy.
And so, Dorothy was a pioneer woman of sorts…breaking the glass ceiling for young women like Madison who would come along fifty years later and have a place in the work environment which better recognized the value of her knowledge, strength and insight.
But, as Dorothy armored herself for the workplace
She lived it as one who lives first for the Lord.
She was a woman who sought God after her own heart as evidenced by how she loved her husband, married some 52 years and raised her only son, Ian. A loving wife and precious mother who set her standards by God’s laws and not her own.
And it shows
As I go through journals, photo albums, photo graphs and the many hand written things of Dorothy’s, I am touched by her love of God…her pointing constantly toward God, His word, His heart and her desire to follow Him in all things at all times in all ways.
I think she would enjoy my daughter, the recipient of her diamond ring.
I think she would have been a good mentor to my daughter were she able.
I also think that Madison is blessed now to have two other strong and Godly women in her life – her Grammy Shirle Millstead and her Mamaw Betty McKenzie.
Both women seek God first in their lives. Both gave over their hearts to God very early in their lives.
Both are warriors…
Warriors for the love of their husbands and the hearts of their children.
Both are mighty in the battle for the souls and spirits of those whom they love.
Prayer warriors….joy seekers…
So, Madison’s promise to live first for God, renewed that it is, comes with the back up and support of a strong heritage of women…
And, then there is you.
Many of you reading this have prayed for, stood beside and loved my daughter, and for that I am eternally grateful. Some of you have never met my daughter, but have prayed for her just the same. Some of you continually reach out to her via e-mail, voice mail, facebook. And, not all of you are women (Thanks Bobby).
But, you have done what God requires.
Loved her. Love her.
And, it makes a difference.
A promise is a hard thing to keep by oneself.
While promises are generally made by one, the support of many makes it simpler to honor.
The holding accountable makes us accountable.
The gently reminding and even the boldly reminding…perhaps even tenaciously reminding one of one’s promise.
It is a good thing.
It is a Godly thing to do.
So, as Madison re-commits herself to her Promise
To God, to herself and to her family and friends
Please keep on keeping on as you have
Pray for her, pray with her, pray despite her.
By doing so, you are supporting just one young woman who wants to be different. Who wants to be Godly. Who wants to live fully and purposefully?
She will stumble, she will fall and she will make mistakes.
That is what humanity does.
But, she will have something tangible to remind her of “her Promise”
A ring…
And your prayers.
Blessings,
Lesa
