Blame

Blame.  It's a nasty word.

We have all done it.  But why?  Why can't we just own up to our mistakes?  ALL of our mistakes!

I found part of the reason this morning as I was reading The Story. (more on that later)

Blame started way back with Adam.  In Genesis 3:12, it is reported that:
"The man replied, 'It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it."
I italicized the blame just in case you didn't hear it.

Are you kidding me?  Adam is seriously blaming GOD for ruining the perfect life he had!  Can you believe that?  Yes.  He does say "I ate it" so he is kind of taking responsibility but not wholeheartedly.  Just like many of us do.

So as I was considering this, I started to ponder where I place blame for things in my life.  Here are my two biggest "challenges" that I am facing right now:

• I am never caught up because people expect so much from me.  I have so much to do!
• I don't read the Bible like I should because it is written in a way that is so hard to understand.

It would be so easy to blame these two challenges away.  If I blame others, then there is nothing that "I" have to do to fix the problems.  However, that is definitely not the case.

I am so thankful for the Wednesday night teaching at our church the past three weeks.  It has been on "redeeming your time".    (It can be found here under the title "LifeTime".)   

So think about this.  What does the word redeem mean?  Think about redeeming a coupon or redeeming a voucher of some sort.  Redeem means to cash in.  We are given a set amount of time.  How we choose to redeem it or cash it in is up to us.  

I have to say that I redeem much of my time on useless and wasteful things.  Things which I am now conscious of.  It is my goal to log each of my tasks for the day in my planner to ensure that I am redeeming my time the best way possible.  Prioritizing, if you will.  It is not easy, but I am working on it.

Now for my other challenge-that of reading the Bible.  I know I need to read the Bible to have a closer relationship with God.  To draw nearer to him.  But, good grief, that darn book is just not easy to understand.  I really have been struggling with this issue for the past few weeks especially.  I would do some devotional but I still didn't feel like I was getting what I needed.

Then, this past Sunday, Paul had to be at the church way early.  The kids and I had about 45 minutes to waste before everyone else would get there.  As we wondered, I came by the bookstore section of the lobby.  Most of the books were behind the secured gate, but one display was out in the open.  This display was of The Story.  Now, I am really not a reader, but there was nothing else to do so I picked it up and read the back.  This was evidently the story of the Bible but written in an easier to read novel format.  "Oh.  That's cool."  I put it back down and went on our way.  It stayed on the top of my mind while I wandered the halls.  It stayed on my mind to the point where I started asking my friends, "Hey, did you see that book they had in the bookstore?"  One of my friends encouraged me to buy it.  I did.  (Hey it was on sale too--had to be a sign!)

I figured it would just be added to my bookshelf with all the other books I thought would change my life.  Not true.  I am loving it.  Now, I will admit that I have not read a ton of it.  There is alot of info to just breeze through it.  I did however, gain more out of my reading time this morning than I have EVER gained out of a session with a devotional or just reading the Ole King James.

So, long story short, if you have difficulty reading the Bible, look at getting this book.  I really think you will like it!

Back to the Blame game: I had been blaming the Bible for being hard to understand when all I needed to do was take the time to find an aide to help me understand.