Flip-flopping. It's what they call broken promises in the political world. Candidates tell their audience what they want to hear and what they will do for them as their constituents. But then for political expediency, the candidates change their position to suit the next recipients. The cost is a loss of integrity. Their word is not kept. Out of perceived necessity, they break their promises. We've seen it in the past, we'll continue to see it in the future. I heard the other day that examples of flip-flopping can be found in the records of every one of the '08 presidential candidates.

Recently, I went to the girls' home where I teach a Bible study for troubled girls. I saw through the hardness in one of the girl's demeanor and the anger in her words to the sadness in her eyes. She spouted off a string of profanities then said, "Promises are made to be broken."

I know many of the stories of the girls there. Kept promises have been a rarity for most of them. People they should have been able to trust have let them down and duped them them into believing that a lie was actually the truth. Hurt, betrayal, and disappointment have resulted from their attempts at trust.

I can't begin to understand the experiences of this particular girl that drove her to her conclusion. I know that I folded up the nice little lesson I'd prepared for the girls, and we just talked, prayed, and cried together. I felt like apologizing to this generation for the collective mistakes of my generation. Somehow through the years, we've lost much of the integrity of our word. How can we tell our children to say what they mean and mean what they say when we haven't? How can we teach them about honesty when even our politicians don't know the meaning of the word?

The only way we can bring back the integrity of our word is to base it on the integrity of God's Word. He promises He will never leave or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). He promises that while heaven and earth will pass away, His word will never pass away (Mt. 24:35). He promises that we can never lose or escape or misplace or squander away His presence (Ps. 139:7-10). And I especially love His promise that He will keep His promises: "I have sworn by my own name, and I will never go back on My word" (Is. 45:23).

God's promises can never be broken. Neither should ours. Children, family members, neighbors, co-workers--they all should know us by our kept promises. When my children were young, I deliberately called attention to the integrity of my word. I told them countless times that they would always ALWAYS count on me keeping my promises to them, even if the fulfillment was sometimes delayed. All of us need to be able to depend on the word of those we trust. Even our dog, Murphy. When I promise him a "biscuit," he waits at my feet until he gets what I promised.

Promises are made to be kept, not broken. Perhaps the pundits are right, and in the end, every politician is guilty of some degree of flip-flopping. Perhaps the girl at the home was right, too, that at some point every single person in her life would break his or her promise.

But we need to make sure that one of those people breaking his or her promise is not you or me. Our word is our bond. If we say it, that's the way it will be today and tomorrow. We can do that for them because God did that for us:>"I have sworn by my own name, and I will never go back on My word" (Is. 45:23).

He left us His example. Let's follow that example with all that we say and do. That way, we can teach the next generation that truly, a promise made is a promise kept.