Excuses, Excuses

I'm finding out that I am good at making excuses. Instead of just owning what was or wasn't done, I have become excellent at making excuses. Mostly because I feel guilty that I did or didn't do something and I want to explain myself. Explaining myself just leads to trouble because you end up making an excuse. I was talking to someone the other day and realized that I was making an excuse for why I hadn't done something. I felt like I was lying to the person as I was talking and had to finally stop and just ask for forgiveness for not doing what I should have done. As I pondered this situation the rest of the night and into the morning, I felt terrible. I couldn't own up to the fact that I had made a mistake so I had to sugar coat it a little so that it didn't look so bad. How terrible is that?

In my desire to grow as a "man after God's own heart" I want to correct myself in these areas. Thank the Lord for His grace and mercy that He pours out upon me giving me another chance. And my prayer is that I will be able to own the fact that I made a mistake, ask for forgiveness, and do better at not making the same mistake the next time. The world doesn't need any more excuses.

This is all part of the growth process. May we all have patience with one another in this process. We have not been perfected yet, at least I haven't been. And we need these growth opportunities to mature us. I read a great devotion last night with Bethany that said how God answeres our prayers the way we prayed them, though we don't always see it like that. Like when we pray for patience and then we find ourselves in stressful situations where patience can grow. Or we pray for strength and find ourselves in places where we are weak where strength can grow. And so on and so on.

I guess I say this all to say, let's stop making excuses, own our mistakes, and do better to serve Jesus. The world, not to mention the church, will be a better place because of it.