The Blame Game
The other night I was sitting at the table with my Mom and the boys and we had out the game Aggravation. As usual this game is a lot of fun but can be quite, well, aggravating. I don’t know if any of you have ever played that game but it has marbles and a dice and you move your colored marble around the board.
The boys each had insisted on bringing a stuffed animal to the table so Furry and Puppy Bear were also joining us for this event. Ethan has now reached an age where he can actually play this game. So we started a game and were letting Micah “play”. I told Micah “do not move the marbles around just roll the dice.”
For the first few rounds he very intently rolled the dice and was doing just right but then he started messing around with his own marbles and then moved on to the marbles which were actually being used in the game. My mom looked right at him and said “Micah, no-no, don’t mess up the marbles.” Without missing a beat Micah replied “Puppy Bear did it.”
We dealt with the situation and told him not to blame “Puppy Bear” but it brought to mind Adam and Eve. Their first sin was pride and disobedience to God. Then when they are confronted with their sin they start the blame game. Just like I did not teach Micah to place blame on someone else for his disobedience, no one taught Adam and Eve to blame each other for what they had done wrong. It is sometimes the natural reaction when we are faced with our own shortcomings.
I think as adults we often think we are more sophisticated than Micah or Adam and Eve. It is easy to tell ourselves that we aren’t blaming anyone for our shortcomings when we actually are.
Have you ever been sitting in your office at work and there has been some type of malfunction and the boss comes in angry wondering what went wrong? Isn’t one of the first things to go through the mind “who’s fault is this?” In our pride we want to blame someone else even if we are responsible. Our hearts might even deceive us into believing it is someone else’s fault.
All too often instead of asking the Lord and our brothers and sister’s in Christ to forgive our wrong doing we think of someone else to blame.
The Lord took the blame for us. If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. So don’t play the blame game. Repent and be grateful for what the Lord has done.
Search me O God and see if there be any wicked way in me.
Ben and April
868 days ago
Thanks for sharing this, Keri! This is def. an area I struggle in…
LAQ
862 days ago
Thanks for your comment!!! As for the "restaurant tour" – you know I'm good for it! Hope you guys are up this way again soon. I have some reading to do here on GFW – you've posted some new stuff since I last visited!
LAQ
862 days ago
This post reminded me of a day here at work-I was sitting at my desk and suddenly heard this strange beeping noise. I waited – thinking perhaps a coworker's cell phone was going off. The beeping didn't stop. I came flyin' out of my chair and stormed down the hallway – "WHAT IS THAT NOISE? Whose office is that coming from??" Someone said, "It sounds like it's coming from over here." (Near my desk.) "It sounds like someone's phone is off the hook."Um yeah. It was *my* phone making the noise. I was mortified. Lesson learned – but it was a needed reminder of how quick I am to assume that if something is wrong, it's someone else's fault. Amazing that the blame game is something we never stop playing – no matter what age we are.