AN EXCUSE

AN EXCUSE
I hear people blame other people for their own failures all of the time. Today's society has made it their mantra, even among Christians. Some political leaders and their followers, instead of owning up to their own failures and problems, always want to blame others. One of the signs of maturity is facing up and fessing up to one's own failures and faults.

Years ago our church was going through a great many changes, because I was leading our church into alignment with God's word in a changing world, rather than follow the crowd blindly into modernized/westernized Christianity. As a result, there were mistakes and failures in our performance along the way. When I would ask what happened, people often said something like, "It broke," "It did not get done," "It was finished late," when they should have said, "I broke it," "I did not get it done," "I was late." I started to repeat their answers to them, and then, when he/she saw how foolish the answer sounded, the person would answer correctly. I held myself to the same standard as I held others. If we don't face our responsibility and acknowledge our failure, we are more likely to repeat it. I don't think enough young people take responsibilities for their actions or inaction. It is not a lesson that can be learned by one generation and then ignored by the succeeding generation. As the old saying goes, "Each tub must stand on its own bottom." Someone has said that an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

This is basically the lesson that Dr. Ben Carson's mom drove home to him. I encourage everyone to at least read something about his background and his accomplishments. (By the way, for those of you, who have had it too hard to succeed, you might not want to read about men and women who overcame great odds. It probably won't do you any good any way.) One of the thing his mom did to motivate him was quote the poem by Mayme White Miller,

You Have Yourself To Blame.
If things go bad for you
And make you a bit ashamed
Often you will find out that
You have yourself to blame

Swiftly we ran to mischief
And then the bad luck came
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame

Whatever happens to us,
Here is what we say
“Had it not been for so-and-so
Things wouldn’t have gone that way.”

And if you are short of friends,
I’ll tell you what to do
Make an examination,
You’ll find the faults in you…

Your the captain of your ship,
So agree with the same
If you travel downward
You have yourself to blame