'Bond'age

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1 NIV

What's in a name? Not a lot you may say, but what if it is a good name? And I don't mean a fine posh society name, I mean a name of a good family or pedigree? In royal or high society circles it means a lot. It tells character, and shows integrity. Well it is supposed to, except we have seen that some of the people we once associated with integrity, have abused the name. You only have to look at the reputation of politicians for example to see where a good name can be easily lost, and tarnished. A name that may have taken generations to make good, can be lost in minutes. The Christian family name is not immune. I happens to us too.

I was told by my dad that “a man's word is his bond”, and the description has stuck with me. When all else has been taken away from a person, he or she can still be left with a good name. We can all relate to good people who are not rich in financial wealth, but have integrity. It is their character, and probably has taken many years for them to get to the place where others grant them the honour of being someone who keeps their word. Sadly, I have also seen that same good reputation be lost in a short time. My concern is that there may never be enough time on this earth to regain that good reputation.  

Since a man's word is his bond, it follows that when we give our word, we are 'bonded' to the promise. That means many things, but primarily that you stake your own reputation on keeping your word. You are in 'bond'age to your word. What a thought. We give our word to our children, our friends, and our marriage partner. We do it voluntarily, and in good faith, and we give those people our assurance that we will follow through on our word, because we are 'bond'ed to it. Our integrity is wedded to our word, and we are obliged to keep faith with our promise, at all and any cost.

However, I have to confess, from personal experience, not all promises can be kept. Some promises are taken out of our hands by circumstance, and that is understandable. Children know when a well meant promise just cannot be kept,  but I think as we get older, the significance of the word we give can get weakened. We go from understanding the reasons when some promises cannot be kept, to making excuses for not making our word our bond. Can I be so bold to suggest that sometimes we don't really want to be in bondage to our word?

A man or woman of integrity is still a special and wonderful person, and you are blessed if you have such a person in your life. Of course, we can't confer 'integrity' on ourselves. It has to be given to us by others, and when it is, guard it well, because these are the same people who will also decide that you don't deserve the honour of the name any longer. We all know it is easier to lose integrity, than it is to achieve it, so why do we sail so close to the wind and jeopardise it?