"Say what you mean and mean what you say!" - says Horton the Elephant.
When my son Jordan was very young, one of the things that he enjoyed was mommy reading to him. His all-time favorite book was a book about Horton the Elephant and a bird named Maizie. (Dr. Seuss "Horton hatches the egg") In fact, he would want me to read it so much that I finally tape recorded myself reading the book so when I was busy doing other things around the house, he could pop in the cassette tape and follow along with the book on his own.
And more importantly, I wonder if Jordan ever considers what that means for christians today?
"Say what you mean and mean what you say?" God intends for His children to be men and women of their word. Integrity...this is what Horton the elephant was suggesting. And it is also what God expects.
JAMES 5:12 "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your 'Yes' be "Yes' and your 'No' be 'No', lest you fall into judgement."
There is nothing more that will hurt our testimony than if we are children of God who cannot keep our word. It doesn't take too many times before our integrity and our trust will be broken when we do not keep our word or fullfill promises that we make to others.
It is my prayer that when I say I will do something ... I will do it! And when I make a promise...I will do my best to fullfill it! And when I say yes ... I mean yes and when I say no...I mean no!
God is looking for some "Horton-like" Christians!
and that is a piece of my heart today;
How funny that you should post this today as I was just reading that scripture last night. And! I was particularily dwelling on that scripture. I can remember once when my middle son was in high school and he had a paper to write and as usual he waited until the last minute to do it. I had told him from the beginning of that assignment that he was going to do this one differently and have it all done 3 days before he had to. He had 3 weeks to get it done. I told him if he didn't he wouldn't be allowed to attend the big basketball game against the rival school coming up. I really thought that would be the extra incentive he had to get it done. Well of course he didn't. He got it done ON TIME but not by what WE had agreed too. It was very well written and after all wasn't technically late. He begged to go to that game. I was sooo tempted to let him go. But I stuck to it and actually quoted that scripture to him. Let my yes mean yes, and my no mean no....He was NOT a happy camper I will tell you. But do you know he talks about that to this day (he is 33) and how many times that was something he thought about when he really needed to get something done. Funny how that it is that so many of life's every day lessons can be taken right out of that wonderful book. I never read that scripture without thinking of this story. Thanks for sharing this. Have a wonderful day Laurie. Debbie
ReplyDeleteHey, Laurie!
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God bless!
This is so good, Laurie! Thanks for sharing it!
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