Responsibility & Blame 

You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it. ~Ken Keyes, Jr.

Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else. ~Ivern Ball

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. ~Erica Jong

We have a tendency to blame others for our circumstances and often through our own choices in life we create the very circumstance that we want to blame on others.  I admit it is much easier to blame someone else than it is to take responsibility. 

We live in a society of blamers and responsibility dodgers.  There is a story of a man who was inebriated at 2:00am and decided to take his dog for a walk around the neighborhood without a leash.  When the dog ran off he decided to walk behind neighbor’s yards calling the dog at 2:00am.  One of the neighbors called the police because they heard someone in their backyard. As he is walking home the police stopped him.  He was eventually arrested because he became belligerent with the policeman.  He spent a night in jail. The next day he talked to his neighbor about the incident.  When his neighbor told him the police were doing their job, he became angry and stopped speaking to the neighbor. 

This story reminded me of Aaron in the Bible.  Moses had gone up on the mountain for a conference with God and Aaron was left to tend the Israelites.  We are an impatient people too, so when Moses took longer at his meeting than they thought it should, they came to Aaron and asked him to make gods that would go before them.

Aaron had a choice to make and he made the wrong one.  He told the people to bring their gold to him and he made an idol in the shape of a calf.  When Moses returned and was angry with Aaron this is what he said.  “Do not be angry, my lord, You know how prone these people are to evil.  They said to me, “Make us gods who will go before us….”Then they gave me the gold and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

This is a great example of dodging responsibility and blaming others.  Aaron acted like he didn’t have anything to do with making the golden calf. He made it sound like he threw the gold into the fire to get rid of it and a calf jumped out.  You see how we spin things to try to place the blame somewhere else. 

When we figure out that God knows where our heart is in everything, maybe we will begin to take responsibility for our own actions and stop blaming others. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of blaming others and not taking responsibility for my own actions.  Please help me to understand that I make choices every day that are wrong.  I ask you to remind me when I do this so that I can accept responsibility.  It is the only way I can become more like You.  I praise You for Your grace and mercy on me.   

Scripture:  (Aaron responsible for the Israelites) When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4

(Aaron blaming the Israelites) “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” Exodus 32:22-24