The Blame Game

This afternoon I watched most of the Cowboys game (I dozed off a few times since it was such an exciting game), and was very disappointed in how they played, for obvious reasons.  I started thinking about who the blame game will revolve around, whether it's Romo, or Roy Williams, or the penalties, or the injuries, or bad coaching, or just being plain outplayed.  It amazes me how people these days rarely ever own up to their own mistakes and just say "it's my fault", or "I played like crap today".  It seems like everywhere we turn, someone is blaming someone else for their mistakes.  Why do we do this?  Why is it so hard for us to admit failure, poor effort, irresponsibility, etc. etc...  Are we that afraid of what the outcome of us admitting we messed up will be?  I do realize that professional athletes are always under the microscope and someone admitting they played poorly might affect their job, it just would be nice to hear one say it every once in a while.  Unfortunately we live in a society that admitting our mistakes is a sign of weakness.  I once read an article about mistakes made in the workplace, and a survey of managers said they would rather the employee own up to his mistake rather than some lame excuse be made, or the blame be passed on to someone else.  They were more likely to fire the one that passed the buck than the one that fessed up. (besides, everyone knows who screwed up anyway)

This morning at Lifestone Church we started a new series called Parenting, and while the message didn't address this particular issue, I started to think how as parents we often blame society or other children for influencing our own kids, or blaming teachers for this or blaming coaches for that.  I heard a parent say one time that her kids teacher just had it out for her kid and that is why he was always getting in trouble, ('cause he's a good kid;) and the parent refused to recognize the kid was a little brat!  As parents we should defend our kids, but we must also realize that our kids aren't perfect either and there is a good chance that our kids are the ones messing up.  We should also admit that as parents, we aren't perfect either.  We aren't teaching them Godly principles all the time, we aren't consistent with our discipline, we don't spend enough quality time with our kids, the time we do spend with them our mind is elsewhere, we're running them from one event to another and running them ragged, and the list goes on.  I'm also not saying that we should just come to terms with this and embrace the fact that since we aren't perfect parents, we shouldn't do anything about it either.  I guess what I'm getting at is that we need to take responsibility for our actions, and teach our kids to do the same.  The best way our kids are going to learn is by us leading by example.  If our kids hear us passing the buck all the time, what do you think they're going to do?  The exact same thing.  It comes naturally by the way!

Lets be the best parents we can be.  It's not accomplished by making our children our number one priority, it is by placing God in the center of our life, and leading our children by His example. I read a quote today that brings this all home:

I want to live my life as a fully devoted follower of Christ, and allow this to influence me as a Christ-centered husband and father, to become more like Jesus in my actions, thoughts and dealings.

Lets make that commitment today.

*disclaimer: I wrote this without watching any of the post-game interviews.