Stephen Richards once said, “Promises are only as strong as the person who gives them.” By this, he didn’t mean physical strength. After all, a promise isn’t a dumbbell. A promise is, in its simplest term, a commitment. It is a person committing themselves to do something for someone or even to do something for themselves.
We have to understand what a promise is. It is you giving your word to a person that you will do something, or a particular thing will happen. But it is so much more than that. They are actions that affirm our love and connection with others. That connection may be through friends, family, or even strangers. A promise affirms that we want to pass our compassion to others. It lets the other person know that we will do whatever it takes to get that one thing done. To say you will do it is one thing but to promise that you will get it done is another. It is thus quite sad that the world we live in has forgotten what giving your word and making a promise is really about; we have forgotten the meaning behind it all.
A person can be the strongest in the world or the weakest, but that does not matter when it comes to keeping a promise. You see, when Mr Richards spoke about strength, he was speaking about inner strength. He was speaking about a person with strong integrity and unfortunately, such people are rare to find these days.
Read – Where Do Broken Promises Go? – An Article by Solomon A. Mutagaya, Uganda
Back in the past, it didn’t matter what a person was. Whether poor or rich, good or bad, once they made a promise or gave their word, it was kept. Nowadays it seems promises are just made for lip service. Just for show, or to put someone at ease. A promise is hardly taken seriously anymore these days. In the past, it was. A person who could keep his word was seen as one society could trust, a person of honour, and integrity. If we look around today it is evident that trust, honour, and integrity lie in but a few honourable people.
We make promises every single day. Some are major and others minor. The latter are the ones we tell people every day. Something like promising to buy bread or do the dishes or wash the clothes. These promises are easy to keep because they require little to no effort. At the same time, these little promises we make build trust amongst people. For example, maybe you promised your mother countless times that you would do the dishes, but you never did. After all those broken promises, what are the chances that she’ll trust you to keep a major promise? It is very unlikely. She knows that if you cannot keep a minor promise, she will not be able to trust you to keep a major promise. That is life, that is how promises work. It builds trust between two people if it is kept and equally builds distrust if it is not.
We often make promises we know we can’t keep. We make them simply because we feel we can always bring up an excuse later on to explain why we couldn’t keep our promise. We believe that the other party will happily take that excuse because they would feel we tried our best. That is our hope. Although we should remember that the more important the promise is to a person, the more devastated they will feel when it is broken regardless of the fake excuses we may give them. We may choose to break a promise, but it would be wise to remember that a broken promise leaves a hurtful memory for those we love. Memories are all they will have of us at some point in time, and it will be unfortunate if memories of broken promises are the only memories that linger in their mind long after we are gone.
Read – Destination Charti – An Article by Mawuli Fianyo, Ghana
In the end, the saying is right. It is easy for any man to make a promise, only those with character can keep a promise. Before we start making promises to others, we need to make sure we can keep the promises we make to ourselves. The little ones and big ones. We need to start with ourselves. That is the first step.
Here is one thing you should remember about making promises; never make a promise when you are excited, angry, or emotional. Let your emotions subside before making any utterances, for promises made during these moments are often those that lead to heartbreak.
