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A person received a dinner invitation and immediately accepted gratefully and most excitedly once she checked her calendar was free. The young lady looked forward to the time when she would attend, intending to bring along a nice bottle of wine to present to her hosts whom she greatly admired. However the next week saw another invitation arrive in the mail, this time for a different event which coincided with the original invitation. What to do? As the evening approached the woman decided to cancel at the last minute as the second invitation was more to her liking and then say she didn't feel well or mention "something came up" to randomly explain their non-attendance. With that sorted in her mind she felt a bit better by soothing her conscience as the second option after all was not an outright lie. Just one day later a surprise phone call was taken from an old and dear friend, a past colleague who now lived interstate. This man was going to be traveling over for a weekend and wanted to go out for drinks on the very same night the previous two invitations had been scheduled.
Lucy was now not so sure what to do as she liked this man very much. On the grapevine at work people were talking about how his marriage had recently broken down and was heading for divorce. As her cognitive processes flipped and flopped back and forth thinking about every scenario, she suddenly realised that what she was doing was compromising and justifying her decision by playing situational ethics. She felt conflicted about everything thinking about what she should do as opposed to what she wanted to do. Her carnal human nature, the one which was her first choice or "spoke" the most loudly according to selfish wants and desires, was to go out for drinks and see if he was interested in her. She had always thought well of Peter who put everything into his work and climbed the corporate ladder no matter how shrewd he had to be to get the clients. As her thoughts drifted off into daydream land, Lucy imagined whether she would be happy living in a big capital city away from her friends and family — even better, perhaps she would get a nice promotion because of Peter's influence?
After much debate she talked to her girlfriends to see what they would do, however the only problem was they each chose different options. Lucy could talk herself into and out of each scenario and so her mental gymnastics turned into anguish as she had an internal wrestling match going on and it was only round two. She finally asked advice from her parents who she knew never steered her wrong. The answer Lucy received was the one she knew was exactly the right one all the time — to go to the first activity from the dinner invitation which had already been accepted. Her mother pointed out that she could always suggest to Peter that they meet up the following day seeing he was in town for the whole weekend. Brilliant thought Lucy so she rescheduled to fit a Sunday brunch in at a local café on the foreshore of the beach where they had both been before and enjoyed. Peter seemed very interested which pleased Lucy.
There was still one more thing to organise — a polite non-acceptance to the second invitation which had come in the mail. Lucy typed up her RSVP via email to ensure it was received without delay. She carefully chose her words so as not to offend and wisely stated the truth by saying she would love to go but the only thing holding her back was that she had already accepted a dinner invitation the week previously and thought she should be true to her word and honour those concerned. When the couple read the RSVP they were disappointed as they really wanted her to come to their Baby Shower but understood she was a person of integrity. Moreover it was the boss's daughter who always liked polite Lucy yet her estimation of her now went up another few notches. Unbeknownst to Lucy the expectant mother mentioned how highly she thought of Lucy over this scenario to her Dad, the CEO of the company where she had once worked closely with Lucy. Melanie was now on maternity leave and had been looking forward to seeing Lucy so she planned to catch up with her shortly before the baby arrived.
Even though Lucy was not yet a baptized member of God's church she understood what it meant to keep one's word and honour others by holding fast to a good reputation in order to build trust and respect among all she came into contact with due to her parent's teaching, guidance, and training as in Proverbs 22:6. Those who have God's Holy Spirit have the huge bonus of being led by His Spirit which means they would be at peace with their original invitation rather than trying to manipulate things to suit themselves by lying and hurting well-meaning people. Lucy's parents were well pleased with the outcome and showed her a few scriptures supporting keeping one's word such as Matthew 5:37, James 5:12, and Numbers 30. Her Dad explained when he first built his business up from ground level many years ago, a man's handshake was considered as good as his word and stood for integrity, honour, reliability, a good reputation, and word of mouth recommendations followed which brought further clients. Lucy told her Dad she wished things could be like this again to which her wise Father replied "all in good time Lucille, it will be brought back again when Jesus Christ rules in God's Kingdom" but for now your mother and I have made an agreement with God upon Baptism to always be true to our word as we are to God. This opened a door and gave Lucy a lot to think about.
At the end of this account Lucy found herself more interested in the Bible and started reading and studying God's Word. Within a year she became a baptized member of God's Church and met a dedicated young man the following year who asked her to marry him. Lucy of course said yes and the rest is history. What happened to Peter? They kept their Sunday café date but Lucy could see that Peter was very troubled. He eventually confided through the course of their conversation that he still loved his wife and wanted advice from Lucy as he knew her to be morally sound and kept herself "tidy". Lucy helped by encouraging him to fight for his marriage and not give up even if things looked dire. She tried not to overload him and reminded Peter that God is the One who ordains marriage between one man and one woman. He took away some valuable information he had let slide to the wayside and fully intended to have a weekly date night with his wife even though they were currently separated. Things did work out between Peter and Giselle thankfully because of Lucy's advice that marriage is a covenant and both parties need to be fully invested by working hard and not take anything for granted. Peter also stopped staying back so late each night at work and spent time at home.
One last thing, Lucy was called into the CEOs office shortly after attending the original dinner invitation to be promoted to Manager and overseer of floor staff. She would now be in a position of solving working conditions, staffing levels, guiding and directing staff, promoting good working relations and injecting her flair for doing the right thing even when one does not feel like it by setting a good example. Lucy steadily gained support from all the staff because she always kept her word, therefore she was treated with respect and trusted. She even brought back the old-fashioned handshake which meant a great deal to her Father and unexpectedly influenced the CEO to do the same. Eventually she became Employee of the Year and in her acceptance speech she gave all the credit to God and said she would do it all over again even if it meant no pay rise or award for now she knew about John 10:10. The following link provides numerous accounts of people throughout the Bible who rashly promised things to God, or lied to God by not keeping their word. Parables are included for learning from practical examples too, such as The Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-32 which begins with "But what do you think?" Let us always use our words wisely. https://www.ucg.org/sermons/how-valuable-is-your-word