How important is it to you to keep your word, to be trusted?
What if we choose to abandon or covenants?
To go and do means rising up above the things of the world.
Do we stand by our promises and commitments or are we only halfway committed?
The importance of making and keeping promises and covenants weighs heavy on my mind. How important is it to you to keep your word? to be trusted? to do what you say you will do? to strive to honor your sacred covenants? to have integrity? By living true to our promises to the Lord and to others, we walk the covenant path back to our Father in Heaven and we feel His love in our lives.
Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is our great Exemplar when it comes to making and keeping promises and covenants. He came to earth promising to do the will of the Father. He taught gospel principles in word and in deed. He atoned for our sins that we might live again. He has honored every one of His promises.
Can the same be said of each of us? What are the dangers if we cheat a little, slip a little, or do not quite follow through with our commitments? What if we walk away from our covenants? Will others come unto Christ in light of our example? Is your word your bond? Keeping promises is not a habit; it is a characteristic of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I’m not perfect in doing everything I say but I try to be careful in what I promise precisely because I want to avoid promising what I can’t deliver.
To “go and do” means rising above the ways of the world, receiving and acting on personal revelation, living righteously with hope and faith in the future, making and keeping covenants to follow Jesus Christ, and thereby increasing our love for Him, the Savior of the world.
This is what I want for Isaac (and the rest of the kids).
My question today is, do we stand by our promises and covenants, or are they sometimes half-hearted commitments, casually made and hence easily broken? When we say to someone, “I will pray for you,” do we? When we commit, “I will be there to help,” will we? When we obligate ourselves to pay a debt, do we? When we raise our hands to sustain a fellow member in a new calling, which means to give support, do we?
When we keep promises to one another, we are more likely to keep promises to the Lord. Remember the Lord’s words: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Making and keeping mortal promises prepares us for making and keeping eternal promises.
As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I conclude with an invitation and promise. First, the invitation: I invite you to consider the promises and covenants you make with the Lord, and with others, with great integrity, knowing that your word is your bond. Second, I promise you, as you do this, the Lord will establish your words and sanction your deeds as you strive with unwearied diligence to build up your lives, your families, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be with you, my dear brothers and sisters, and you can, with confidence, look forward to being “received into heaven, that thereby [you] may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness … for the Lord God hath spoken it.”
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