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Faithfulness

             Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:3-4)

Our culture doesn’t think highly of love or faithfulness. Oh, we may be comfortable with demanding love and faithfulness from others, but giving it is another matter. Some grant full access relationships to others without consideration of the consequences. Some promise “until death do us part” and six months later declare that the one to whom they made that promise is “dead to them” or that they have died to the person they were when they made the vow, and move on to another unfaithful relationship.

Some may object that they are faithful for as long as they are in the relationship, but if they were faithful, they wouldn’t get out of the relationship without legally actionable reasons. We’re the same way with jobs, churches, social organizations, and even TV shows. And granted, some of the things we’re unfaithful to aren’t significant (like TV shows.) The point isn’t that the thing to which we’re unfaithful isn’t worthy. The point is that we are unworthy of faithfulness because we are unfaithful. And it’s not really a new problem. Divorce was an issue in Moses’ day. Treason has been around since Adam and Eve committed it. But there have been times when our culture has been less rewarding of unfaithfulness.

We’re no better when it comes to being faithful to ourselves. We can know that something isn’t good for us. We can decide to give it up, but the moment weakness or craving hits, our vows to ourselves go out the window. And given our unfaithfulness to the people and things in our lives, and to ourselves, it goes without saying that we’re not faithful to God. According to studies, we can’t even be faithful to something we’re watching for long – our attention spans have shortened to the point of being almost nonexistent (except when binge-watching something designed to catch our attention again ever minute or so.)

A challenge for today. Be consciously faithful at least once. Choose to stick to or with something you’re doing or someone you’re with, even for a few minutes.

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