{"id":3819,"date":"2017-01-08T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T15:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3819"},"modified":"2017-01-10T22:46:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T04:46:06","slug":"choose-not-to-play-the-blame-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3819","title":{"rendered":"Choose Not to Play the Blame Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

One More Year of Choices…<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TheWe live in a society where people do not want to accept responsibility for their actions. If people spill hot coffee on themselves, it\u2019s the restaurant\u2019s fault for making the coffee too hot. If a person shoots someone, it\u2019s the gun manufacturer\u2019s fault. If a person drives drunk, it\u2019s the bartender\u2019s fault. If a child misbehaves, it\u2019s the music industry\u2019s fault. If a smoker dies from lung cancer, it\u2019s the tobacco industry\u2019s fault. Should gun manufacturers, restaurants, bartenders, the music industry, cigarette makers, and others act more responsibly? Yes! Are they to blame for the choices we make? No!<\/p>\n

To go a step further, our culture places blame on circumstances, parents, the media, our plight, or anything else that will minimize our own faults. While it\u2019s true our lives are heavily influenced by environment and heredity, there comes a time when we need to shape the clay of our lives into what we want and stop blaming our parents, our lack of luck, or the times we live in for who we are. Who we are today does not have to be who we are tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Human beings are experts at making excuses. They \u201cwah, wah, wah, wah\u201d their way through life saying things like: “I wasn\u2019t told. I never had an opportunity. Everybody is doing it. They owe it to me. They don\u2019t treat me right. They don\u2019t like me. It\u2019s not my fault.”<\/p>\n

\"Dilbert<\/p>\n

This proclivity to blame others for our circumstances and poor choices is not new. It\u2019s been going on since the time of Adam and Eve. If you read Genesis 3, you\u2019ll see that when God asked Adam why he disobeyed by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam blamed Eve. Then Eve blamed the serpent. Adam went so far as to say to God, \u201cIt\u2019s the woman, YOU gave me!\u201d Now it was God\u2019s fault. Everyone wanted to blame somebody else. And so the pattern was set, and we\u2019ve been blaming someone else for what we do ever since.<\/p>\n

Even though a pattern was set doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t be altered. It can begin with us. We can make an effort to change our circumstances. We can also say, \u201cI made a mistake. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d We need to be accountable in school, with parents, with kids, in marriage, to employers, to employees, with the government, with our neighbors, with our friends, and with God. If we start to accept responsibility for some of our lesser poor choices, we might learn something. Maybe we\u2019ll learn to make better and wiser choices in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Blame<\/p>\n

Suggestions for practicing this choice\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n