“The woman You gave me gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Genesis 3:12-13 CEV
“The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of character and maturity.”
My thoughts today are about being “without excuse.”
Excuses. Everybody, young and old, has a heart full of them. The youngest child somehow concludes that any excuse is better than none. Every spouse, parent, schoolteacher, marriage counselor, cop, and judge has heard every kind of excuse imaginable. With every wrong, there comes a story written with the author as the “good guy.”
A person can waste a lifetime blaming someone or something else, all the while excusing themselves. Never growing up. Never becoming responsible. Never getting anywhere with their life. Never getting right with God. Every mistake made, any explanation of failure, is because of what someone else did, or failed to do. Have you ever fallen into that trap?
The first evidence of sin might well be an excuse. At the origin of everything, sin came into a perfect place and immediately excuses were made and blame was assigned. Read Genesis 3. First, Adam and Eve covered and hid; then they pointed fingers and blamed.
Eve blamed the serpent for beguiling her. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit . . . then cautiously insinuated that God might also share the blame – for giving him the woman in the first place! And that same old, tired story is retold every day since; just the cast of characters is changed. After all, if not yourself then someone has to be guilty, don’t they?
Everyone in Eden offered an excuse attempting to exonerate themselves, except the devil. The devil knew what he had done, and why he had done so. Ever wonder why it seems that God ultimately gets blamed for so much that goes on? Excuses always carry a high price, for yourself and others. The sin of Eden could have been settled immediately with confession and repentance, releasing forgiveness and freedom.
Blame is a foolish and rarely successful way to turn the spotlight away from your failure by assigning the cause to someone or something else. An excuse is an inadequate attempt to avoid responsibility but impairs your ability to grow and learn.
Do you think that integrity can be developed when you excuse yourself and blame others, or does character and maturity grow by accepting personal responsibility? The answer is obvious, I hope. When God asks of you as He did of Adam, “What have you done?” It’s best to think carefully and answer honestly. The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of your character and maturity. It is so very true that “confession is good for the soul.”
Accepting personal responsibility for who you are and what you do is the first step to growing personally and spiritually. The Bible says plainly, before God, “man is without excuse.” Romans 1:20. Refusing to make excuse for yourself is the first step into wonderful freedom. Proverbs 28:13.
My prayer for you today is that you live so as to need neither excuse nor to offer blame.