In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Next on In Touch, our God of Promise.

We all make promises in life.

Some of them we keep, some of them we don't keep. We may

intend to keep every one of them, but we don't for some circumstance, some reason or the

other. And I think about parents, for example, who make promises to their children, and

they don't keep them, and they think, well, you know, that's just a child. But remember this. When you make

a promise to a little child, that child values that promise on the basis of who said it. So

if Daddy makes a promise and tells that son of that daughter, well, when I come home this afternoon,

I'm going to take you to the ball game, I'm going to bring you this or whatever it might be, and you show up and you say,

well, I was just tired. I just worked too long. I didn't have time. Just sorry. What that says

is not that you didn't keep a promise, you rejected me.

A promise is a powerful thing.

And for little children especially, when their parents do not keep their word, here's what

happens.

A little boy thinks his dad's next thing to God.

The little girl thinks her mom, she's it.

When the two most important people in their life

do not keep their promises, here's what happens.

It doesn't mean that that child just doubts their parents

once in a while, but they'll grow up doubting the word of adults.

So when you and I make promises, we should think first before we make them.

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