To hear my class of kindergarteners tell it, absolute chaos reigned the week I was out of town.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were naughty for the substitute teacher,\u201d one innocent-sounding child told me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey broke all the chalk,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they used the special reward stickers for their art project,\u201d a third informed me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have just one question,\u201d I said in response to these tales of juvenile delinquency.\u00a0 \u201cWho are \u2018they?\u2019\u201d\u00a0The class was silent until Jacob raised his hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are everybody else, but not me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve thought of Jacob\u2019s definition more than once when the often-annoying and sometimes wicked \u201cthey\u201d come up in conversations.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u201d appear at work, at church and at club meetings.\u00a0 Wherever \u201cthey\u201d are, they make trouble.\u00a0 Whatever happens, they are at fault.\u00a0 Who are they? \u00a0 As Jacob so succinctly put it, they are everybody else, but not me.<\/p>\n
The All-Knowing God doesn\u2019t let us off that easily.\u00a0 When Adam and Eve sinned at the very start of our human history, they tried to pass the buck.\u00a0 But God asked,\u00a0 \u201cWhat did YOU do?\u201d(Genesis 3:11, 13)\u00a0 God knew it all already, but He wanted His children to admit their wrong.\u00a0 That\u2019s the start of fixing a problem — admitting your part of trouble.<\/p>\n
Often I\u2019ve been only 2% wrong and another person has really messed up the other 98%.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m not responsible for them, only for my 2%.\u00a0 When I realized that, it set me free from trying to straighten them out.\u00a0 No need for me to be angry and hold a grudge.\u00a0 Their wrong isn\u2019t my trouble.\u00a0 Only my own wrong actions and attitudes are my responsibility.<\/p>\n
And they are<\/em> my responsibility. God didn\u2019t accept Eve\u2019s, \u201cThe serpent talked me into it,\u201d or Adam\u2019s \u201cIt was HER idea.\u201d\u00a0 And He doesn\u2019t accept our, \u201cThey started it.\u201d<\/p>\n Our first parents had to face up to their wrong and take their own consequences.\u00a0 Although those consequences were painful, God gave Adam and Eve precious forgiveness. It was precious because it cost Him a painful price.\u00a0 He paid the penalty for sin, Himself.<\/p>\n We have the same precious forgiveness offered to us — but first comes the part where we admit our wrong to God.\u00a0 We have the assurance that He washes away the sins of those who come to Him in true repentance. (I John 1:9, Psalm 103:12)<\/p>\n Then comes the harder part of admitting our fault to the one we wronged.\u00a0 It\u2019s especially important to use the words, \u201cI was wrong\u201d and \u201cWill you forgive me?\u201d<\/p>\n Often the other person will say, \u201cI was wrong, too.\u201d\u00a0 Even more often I discover that pesky person who was 98% wrong had an entirely different view of the fractions and thought I<\/em> had the bigger percentage.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to humble yourself and say, \u201cI did it. I was wrong.\u201d But here\u2019s a paradox.\u00a0 Almost always the person who sincerely admits his wrong is honored, not reviled.\u00a0 Perhaps we all realize how much courage it takes to say, \u201cNot anyone else — me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To hear my class of kindergarteners tell it, absolute chaos reigned the week I was out of town. \u201cThey were naughty for the substitute teacher,\u201d one innocent-sounding child told me. \u201cThey broke all the chalk,\u201d another added. \u201cAnd they used the special reward stickers for their art project,\u201d a third informed me. \u201cI have just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[168,169,121,171,172,170],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-special-messages","tag-adam","tag-eve","tag-forgiveness","tag-grudge","tag-responsibility","tag-wrongs"],"yoast_head":"\n