July 9: The Power of the Promise

When I was a little kid, I was walking along a sidewalk just outside of my house when I came across the two kids that lived next door. A brother and a sister, they were both in their back yard and I stopped to talk to them over the fence. I must have been four or five-years-old because this conversation took place with the neighbors of a house I lived in until just before I turned six. Forgive me for not being able to recall more of the memory, but it's been a while.

Anyway, I remember walking on this sidewalk and then stopping to have a chat. I don't remember what the chat was about or why I was walking down this street by myself at such a young age, but I just remember the girl telling me how important it was for me to keep my word whenever I made a promise. I'm paraphrasing here but she said something along the lines of, "You have to do it because you promised."

If only life were that simple. A promise in the eyes of a child means everything. A promise in the adult world means nothing. People make promises all the time only to abandon them. To us, the word promise is just a word that we throw into an intention to add effect and hope. "I will take out the trash tomorrow." "I promise to take out the trash tomorrow." I don't know about you, but I would naturally rather put my faith in the garbage being taken out tomorrow on the second guy.

Unfortunately, life isn't that easy. Unless you really know the person, a promise doesn't have any power at all. I usually try to give the benefit of the doubt to a person making his or her first promise to me but am, more times than not, disappointed. Take my recent run-in with a fellow employee. A week ago, he promised me that he would do everything in his power to adjust the schedule to my benefit. When approached about the subject three days ago, he acted as though he had been spending every waking minute on the task at hand. Tonight the results of his efforts will be revealed. My prediction: he didn't try at all and he just threw in the P-Word to avoid any further confrontation with me.

Promise a child you will be there for his baseball game and you better have some explaining to do if you miss it. Promise a fellow employee that you'll cover his shift next Friday and they're just words. I promise to do my chores right after this TV show. I promise to take out the trash. I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; and I promise to be faithful to you until death do us part.