I was watching the kids' group once at church. As we were walking back from the playground the kids went past the restrooms, and most of them went inside. I proceeded to the classroom to wait for them.
From the hall I heard a collective scream as a boy named Dominic came into the room with me, grinning a little.
"Quentin just went in the girls' bathroom," he informed me.
A moment later, Quentin came in, looking harassed. "Dominic pushed me into the girls' bathroom!" he complained.
I'm sharing this story because it was funny. Also because it's slightly relevant to the topic I wanted to write about:
In the beginning there was blame.
As soon as sin entered the world, invited and aided by Eve and Adam, so did blaming others.
Adam: Uh.. It's Eve's fault!
Eve: Uh... It's the snake's fault!
Snake: Who, me?!
We as humans love to shift the blame for any and everything onto someone else.
And truthfully, you CAN often find someone at the bottom of it all who was To Blame. (Snake, this means YOU!) But is it productive to blame others all the time instead of taking responsibility for our own actions?
Whenever Jesus was approached by someone trying to push blame on another person, (Matthew 15:1-6, Luke 12:13-15, etc.) He always shifted the person's focus back to themselves. "What does the law say?" He would ask. "What does the Lord tell YOU to do?"
Matthew 7: 3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Lord, help me to remember not to blame others for what happens, but to look to my own responsibilities. After all, I am the only person whose actions I can control.
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