I Promise

Tonight our church youth groups had a special mother/daughter banquet and father/son grill (in separate areas of the church!). They’ve been talking about guys and girls and purity stuff since the winter retreats in February, and tonight was a “grand finale” of sorts. We each had a speaker and the kids worked with their parents on purity commitments. Then each parent prayed out loud for their kids’ future spouses. It was very cool. The last thing of my evening with the girls was a song I sang for them. It’s from the first CD by Jaci Velasquez:

Lord You know my heart, and all my desires
And the secret things I'll never tell
Lord, You know them well

Though I may be young, I see and understand
That at times like sheep we go astray
And things get out of hand

So I promise to be true to You
To live my life in purity
As unto You
Waiting for the day
When I hear You say
Here is the one I have created
Just for you

Until then, O Lord, I will be content
Knowing that true love will come someday
It will only come from You

‘Cause I have seen the suffering that loneliness can cause
When we choose to give our love away
Without a righteous cause

So I promise to be true to You
To live my life in purity
As unto You
Waiting for the day
When I hear You say
Here is the one I have created
Just for you

The girls all had some sort of visual item showing their commitment, most were rings, necklaces, or bracelets. As I watched them sign their papers and put on their jewelry, my heart just went out to them. The majority of them are in 7th or 8th grade, and I know they are going to face some tough temptations when they get into high school and college. I can only pray that they will remember this night and the promises they made…

I looked up the word “promise” on dictionary.com and it said a promise is “a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc., by one.” I think about the world we live in… and how often promises get broken… and how a lot of people don’t even seem to care. It saddens me so much. How are these girls possibly going to stay strong when the world tells them to take the easy way out?

I do find comfort when I think of “promise” and how it relates to the character of God. I searched on BibleGateway for the word, and it appears 221 times in the NIV. Almost all of them talk about the promises God has made!

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” –Numbers 23:19

So when it later says… “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13) – it must be true!!

God is faithful… He will watch over these girls.