A Promise and A Ring ~ A Promise Ring

Just a few week ago this beautiful girl turned 14.  My goodness, my heart aches with how fast time is flying by!

She has known what she wanted for her birthday for over a  year.  This is a rare thing for her, she normally has no request and is happy with any and everything.  Yes, we know what a blessing that is.  This gift was different, from the time she heard of the idea of a promise ring she has wanted one.  We would be crazy not to want to give her one but we wanted to wait until the time was right for her, which means she did not (to her disappointment) get it for her birthday last year.  We needed her to be mature enough to understand the full meaning of this ring.  This ring was not a simply a gift but a symbol of a promise, first to God and herself and then to us.  This is a promise she has made and there did not have to be a ring to go with it but we are firm believers in visual aids and symbolic gifts so we wanted to give this gift.  Audrey and I have spent the past year studying the covenant promises of God and that when God makes a promise He never breaks a promise.  Going through this study has opened her eyes to the importance of God’s commandments for our lives and that they are for our protection and blessing.  We wanted her to understand that the God of this universe has a plan for her and the best way that she can fulfill it is to follow His commandments and live a life of faithfully following Him.  A valuable piece of that is to be a pure virgin on your wedding night.  It is our desire and expectation that she will not date for fun but date (when she is an at an age to consider marriage) prayerfully with a desire to meet the man God has planned for her.  Her dad wrote her a letter blessing her with beautiful words of how precious and valuable she is and encouraging her as she starts walking through this next phase of life and finally explaining what this covenant promise means between

her and God,

her and us,

and her and her future husband.

One day this ring will be replace by another, one purchased by a man who will make a promise to her for life.  My prayer for her and him is that she can take the ring we bought her off and with no shame give it to him on their wedding night.

Charity

PS.  The study we used was Covenant by Kay Arthur