Lose the Excuses....

....gain acceptance of responsibility.

We are now moving into the fourth of the seven keys to loosing burdens (Arterburn, 2007).

1. Surrender: We are not God.
2. Acceptance: The Lord examines our hearts and knows us inside and out....there is no hiding from Him nor is there any reason to fear the pain of reality.
3. Confession: It's good for the soul and it includes the realization that we are created to be in relationship with God. Sadly, we fill this need, so often, with things.
4. Responsibility....

Arterburn says:

All of us struggle with blind spots in our lives, and to some degree we all live in the company of denial and self-deception. But rather than confront our area(s) of struggle and pain, we often point to others and focus on them or find alternatives to distract and anesthetize ourselves from what really needs to be faced.

Making excuses is perhaps the most common way to justify a bad habit and deal with failure. With a good excuse, guilt and anxiety about a problem dissipate.

....or so we think, but, excuses are not the answer, responsibility is.

This takes much reflection. For me, excuses slowly and silently make their way inside and become the mainstay of certain areas of my life. They can be very subtle and when not dealt with, dangerous. No doubt, we all experience excuses differently. Today, let's move toward embracing responsibility and lay aside some excuses.