Joshua 24:24-28: in context

The people have declared to Joshua, we will serve the LORD our God, and we will obey his voice. Joshua makes a covenant with them that day and records the words in the book of the law of God. Then he takes a great stone and sets it up under the oak by the sanctuary, and tells the people: this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us; it will be a witness, lest you deny your God. And he sends the people home.

Joshua does something wise with the people's commitment: he marks it. He writes it down, and he sets up a great stone as a standing witness, a physical reminder that they had made this vow before God. He knew how easily commitments fade from memory, how quickly a people can drift from what they solemnly promised; and so he set up something that would stand there, visible, silent, holding them to their word. Let this stone be a witness, he said, lest you deny your God. There is practical wisdom here for our own commitments to God. We make resolutions, promises, vows, in moments of clarity or conviction; and then time passes, the feeling cools, and we quietly drift from what we committed, sometimes without even noticing we have. Joshua's stone is a picture of a remedy: to mark our commitments in some concrete way, to set up a witness that will remind us of what we promised and hold us to it. A written vow, a recorded resolution, a marked day, some standing reminder, does for us what the stone did for Israel: it stands there when our memory fades and our resolve cools, testifying to what we said we would do. Commitments left unmarked are easily forgotten; commitments marked have a witness against our drifting. It is worth asking whether we let our promises to God evaporate for lack of any reminder, or whether we set up stones, concrete markers that hold us to what we vowed.

Do I let my commitments to God quietly fade as the feeling that prompted them cools, or do I mark them in some concrete way, setting up a witness that will hold me to what I promised when my memory dims and my resolve weakens, as Joshua set up the stone lest the people deny their God?