Promises or Preparation
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.
Every single Saturday couples take vows to get married that they can’t keep even though they mean well. They overlooked a principle that all of us understand in every other realm of life, but when it comes to relationships we don’t think it is true. Promises are no substitute for preparation. If you’ve ever entered a long distance race you know all about this. It’s one thing to sign up for a race, but it’s another thing to prepare for it. If you are not prepared, then it’s a waste of time to promise that you will finish. What determines whether or not you finish a long distance race is not the promise, but it’s whether or not you are prepared. Everybody understands that, but when it comes to relationships people think, “I can promise my way past my lack of preparation.” Just because you say “I do,” doesn’t make you able or capable, but it only makes you accountable. When you are accountable for something that you are not capable of doing, you become miserable. A lack of preparation cannot be trumped by a promise.
I want you to prepare to commit so that when you make a commitment, you will be highly unlikely to marry someone that has also not prepared to commit themselves. Your life will be moving in such a specific direction that anyone whose life is not moving in that same direction will be in such conflict with your values and way of life that you won’t be interested. Perhaps they won’t be interested in you either.
A prudent person is a person that understands that all of life is connected. What happened yesterday impacts tomorrow. What I am doing today will eventually become my past, and it will show up in my future. The wisest man that ever lived, Solomon, says in Proverbs 14:8 that the wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways. Ways are behaviors, patterns, habits, and trends, and they are what makes us predictable. The wise person gives thought to how they do and manage things. The prudent person knows that the best indicator of my future behavior is my past behavior. If I want to know where I’m actually going to be all I have to do is look back at where I have been and see what direction I’m headed in. The prudent person pays attention not to commitments and promises, but they pay attention to their past.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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